Back to the Future: Music From the Motion Picture Soundtrack

Back to the Future: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album to the film of the same name. It was released on July 8, 1985 by MCA Records. The album included two tracks culled from Alan Silvestri's compositions for the film, two tracks from Huey Lewis and the News, two songs played by the fictional band Marvin Berry and The Starlighters, one played by Marty McFly and The Starlighters, and two pop songs that are only very briefly heard in the background of the film.
"The Power of Love" was the first number-one single on the US Billboard Hot 100 for Huey Lewis and the News, certified Gold and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. The album spent 19 weeks on the Billboard 200, peaking at number 12 in October 1985.
The Outatime Orchestra is named after the license plate of the DeLorean.
Songs not included on the soundtrack album:
"The Washington Post" - Composed by John Philip Sousa
"Mr. Sandman" - Performed by The Four Aces
"The Ballad of Davy Crockett" - Performed by Fess Parker
"Pledging My Love" - Performed by Johnny Ace
To put the tracks in the chronological order they first appear in the film, the listing would be as such: 1, 2, 7, the first 90 seconds of 6, 8, 9, 10, the remainder of 6, 4, 5 and 3. The "Back to the Future Overture" on the original album is made up of the following cues as released on the subsequent score album:
Marty's Letter
Clocktower (:50 - 5:35)
'85 Lone Pine Mall (1:41 - end)
A 1999 CD release entitled The Back to the Future Trilogy featured additional compositions by Silvestri from the first film. However, these were re-recordings by the Scottish National Orchestra and not Silvestri's original recordings.
"Johnny B. Goode"
The musical material ostensibly performed by the characters Marty McFly, Marvin Berry and the Starlighters in the film, was recorded by Harry Waters, Jr. as Marvin Berry and Mark Campbell as Marty McFly, and the guitar solo by Tim May. (Campbell and May received a "Special Thanks" acknowledgment in the film's end credits, with the recording credit going to the fictional characters.) Berry's group also plays the song "Night Train", first recorded by Jimmy Forrest in 1951.
Miscellaneous
The film's musical score was composed and conducted by Alan Silvestri, who later wrote music for Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump and numerous other films, many of them directed by Robert Zemeckis. The memorable themes in his "Back to the Future Overture" have since been heard in the film's sequels (also scored by Silvestri), in Back to the Future: The Ride, and as ambient music at the Universal Studios theme parks. A remix of the main theme was heard in the opening sequence for MCA-Universal Home Video from 1990 to 1997. The upbeat soundtrack, featuring two new songs by Huey Lewis and the News, also contributed to the film's popularity. "The Power of Love" became the band's first song to hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for an Academy Award. Huey Lewis portrayed the high-school band audition judge who rejects Marty McFly's band, the Pinheads, as they perform the short instrumental hard-rock version of "The Power of Love".
There is also another album version of the soundtrack, with only the original score by Silvestri. The only legitimate release was by independent label Intrada, but another so-called "DeLorean" version released in the 1990s was an unauthorized bootleg.