Whatever happened to the blockbuster movie soundtrack?

For decades, movies were accompanied by a soundtrack album that often yielded big hit singles. What happened to that?

When talking pictures arrived in the late 1920s, songs from movies became big business. Al Jolson, who starred in The Jazz Singer, the first blockbuster talkie, sold millions of 78 RPM records.

Fifteen years later, Irving Berlin sat next to a swimming pool in Hollywood and wrote White Christmas for the film Holiday Inn. The Bing Crosby version, released on July 30, 1942, is still the biggest-selling single of all time with lifetime sales somewhere in excess of $50 million.

When Columbia Records unveiled the long-playing vinyl album at a big ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York in June 1948, Hollywood was very interested. Since almost the beginning of recorded music, songs from Broadway musicals and films had been a major source of hits. Movie producers saw the LP as another way to promote their movies and the songs they contained.

It didn’t take long for soundtrack albums — along with original cast recordings from Broadway productions — to become wildly popular.

Rock ‘n’ roll got into the act. Rock Around the Clock, the classic Bill Haley & His Comets recording, played under the opening credits of the 1954 film, Blackboard Jungle, causing kids worldwide to jump into the aisles and dance. Fast-forward to the 60s and movie soundtracks got even bigger, thanks to The Beatles (A Hard Day’s Night and Help!) and, most importantly, The Sound of Music from 1965, which for years was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the best-selling record (not just soundtrack) of all time. The latest guess is that it has sold more than 20 million copies.

But it was Saturday Night Fever in 1977 that really broke things open. The Bee Gees-heavy record was the source of eight hit singles on the radio, four of which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, propelling the double album to sales of $40 million, give or take. It was followed a year later by Grease, which has sold 28 million copies.

There was big, big money to be made in soundtracks, and both the recorded music industry and Hollywood knew it. It also helped that studios and labels began to consolidate, making it easier to create synergies when it came to promotion, marketing, acquiring talent, and licensing songs. A movie had to be accompanied by a soundtrack album. And even if the movie tanked, the soundtrack could backstop things a little. Car Wash from 1976 and FM from 1977 are good examples.

It worked, and everyone was happy: Urban Cowboy (1980), The Big Chill (1983), Flashdance (1983), Purple Rain (1984), Footloose (1984), Top Gun (1986), Dirty Dancing (1987), Cocktail (1998), and every single John Hughes film. And that’s just a tiny sample of gold- and platinum-selling movie soundtracks from the decade.