Amazing original motion picture soundtracks, wherefore art thou? When was the last time we heard a great motion picture soundtrack that Quentin Tarantino or Cameron Crowe or Wes Anderson (and perhaps a small handful of others) weren’t involved with?

In the mid-‘90s, a great soundtrack wasn’t such a rare thing. Since at least the Fast Times at Ridgemont High soundtrack, an original motion picture soundtrack has been used as two things a) an advertisement for the movie, and b) an advertisement for some new bands the label is pimping. Fortunately for music fans in the ‘90s, the major labels had swallowed up all the best (and worst) indie bands, in hopes that maybe one or two might be the next Nirvana. And though we all know how that turned out, we still have the artifacts of the time; the soundtracks full of b-side material from some of the best bands of the time period.

Let’s take the Clueless soundtrack: possibly the best soundtrack of the ‘90s. Before you get angry and start shouting Pulp Fiction let me clarify what “best” means in this case: it features some of the best material from the time it was produced. Pulp Fiction is surely a great soundtrack, but it’s timeless; it could have been compiled in any decade. Clueless, on the other hand, is a product of the ‘90s. Hell, it’s literally a product. Some executive may have just thrown some songs they needed to promote on a CD soundtrack but my god, whether it was serendipity or not, they created something very listenable. Honestly, where else are you going to find an official compilation that pairs Radiohead and Coolio side-by-side? Here are the top three songs from this compilation of ‘90s greatness:

World Party – All the Young Dudes

Perhaps the number one teen anthem of all time updated for Generation X? Somehow, World Party does a ridiculously good job here. Where Mott the Hopple didn’t stray from Bowie’s original demo recording, World Party may stray even less with their cover. Nonetheless, Karl Wallinger’s band updates it to post-punk standards, giving it a looser, livelier production than Bowie’s with loud drums, fuzzy, thrashing guitar and of course, an energetic chorus of singers on the coda.

Supergrass – Alright

Keeping in line with “teen anthem,” Supergrass’ “Alright” uses a glam-pop sound that’s equal parts Blur and Bolan, making for one of the catchiest things the band ever wrote. A simple piano riff propels the song, while jangly guitars ring out happily in the background. The chorus tries to encapsulate that feeling of just hanging out with your friends, “But we are young, we run green / Keep our teeth, nice and clean / See our friends, see the sights, feel alright” and the line “Are we like you? / I can’t be sure” implies that this generation of teens probably isn’t like any one that came before it, but they don’t really care.

Cracker – Shake Some Action

Though Cracker’s version of the Flamin’ Groovies power-pop classic doesn’t veer too far away from the original, it’s the small changes that make the difference. Where the original version has a quiet, lone guitar intro, the cover literally “busts out at full speed” with the chorus’s catchy, crunching riff starting things off. It sounds so perfect one wonders why the original band didn’t think of it. Lead singer and Cracker mastermind David Lowery’s voice is a big harsher than usual—it’s almost Jagger-like in tone, without all of the dreaded Jaggerisms—adding an immediacy to the track that makes it sound like the arena anthem it was always meant to be. Honestly, at the time this came out, I had no clue that this was a cover, and at the risk of having the power-pop mafia come after me, I’d say this version is probably superior to the original.

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