Novel Soundtracks

It doesn't always happen for me as a reader, but as a writer I always have a "soundtrack" for my novels. Occasionally the songs are related to the subject matter, sometimes they evoke a feeling I want to put into words, other times they connect me with a character's voice. Often, if I feel disconnected from the writing and it's meandering off in an unproductive direction, or if a scene doesn't have the power or zing it should, I fix the problem by finding the song that will put me in the proper frame of mind and playing that song over and over until I get the scene right.

In his witty and entertaining introduction for his novel, Bombardiers, Po Bronson describes writing the novel while sitting in a closet and listening to R.E.M.'s It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) for four straight months. I didn't get the idea from Mr. Bronson, but at least I know I'm not the only one. Although I can't honestly say I wrote any of WRONG NUMBER while sitting in a closet (I did, however, for one brief, unfettered moment consider a phone booth). And, for me, it's usually more than one song. Indeed, as I've said, I generally have an entire soundtrack per novel.

So, just in case you think this is an interesting phenomenon, or if you want to get a feel for what inspired WRONG NUMBER, here's the soundtrack. One of the threads in the book is people who only listen to music that was popular while they were growing up, and several of the people in the book grew up in the Eighties, so most of the soundtrack comes from that era. I also tried in the novel to include references to the songs that most inspired me at particular points in the story (which I have denoted here with asterisks).

• Every Breath You Take* -- The Police


• The Breakup Song-- The Greg Kihn Band


• One Thing Leads to Another -- The Fixx


• Nothing -- David Kedson/Mike Levinson (yeah, it's kind of cool when you can slide a song of your own composition into a discussion like this)


• Let's Go to Bed -- The Cure


• Rock the Casbah -- The Clash


• Jerkin' Back 'n' Forth -- Devo


• The Itsy Bitsy Spider* -- Little Richard


• Another Nail in My Heart -- Squeeze


• Sedated* -- The Ramones


• Shake it Up -- The Cars


• Turning Japanese* -- The Vapors


• Suzi Found a Weapon -- Randy Vanwarmer


• Lies -- Thompson Twins


• Walk Like an Egyptian* -- The Bangles


• Der Kommissar -- After The Fire


• White Wedding* -- Billy Idol


• Blinded Me with Science -- Thomas Dolby


• Super Freak** -- Rick James (I didn't actually include a reference to it in the book, but this song totally and unexpectedly transformed an important scene and I'm very grateful to Mr. James)


• It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) -- R.E.M. (Hey, it worked for Po Bronson, why not me?)


• Ashes to Ashes -- David Bowie