CONTEST: And lo, there was a winner!

CONTEST: And lo, there was a winner!

Oh yeah, that's right, I had a contest! Blame post-camping weekend daze for the delay in announcing the winners of my Super Soundtrack CD Giveaway. As you might recall, I asked you to e-mail me your favorite use of music in a movie, and as a prize, you'd get a free soundtrack CD from my mammoth CD collection I'm desperately trying to reduce. My thanks to all who entered.

So I picked a runner-up, and that had to be my man and fellow blogger Greg Burgas, who overwhelmed with sheer volume of responses - he sent FIVE answers in an attempt to utterly unman me, and I had to give a shout-out to his top pick:

"Eurotrip. What's that, you say? Okay, maybe others have used music better, but I just love how the song "Scottie Doesn't Know" is used in this movie. If you haven't seen it (and you really should, because it's very funny), the lead (a low-rent Freddie Prinze Jr.) is dating the obligatory hot chick, and when he goes to a high school graduation party, the band starts playing this song, which is all about the lead singer boning the girl behind the lead's (Scott) back. She gets up on stage and does some dirty dancing with the singer, effectively ending the relationship. He goes off to Europe to find his hot pen pal, and the song is playing EVERYWHERE. It's an international sensation! We get a punk version, a disco version, people humming it on the street - it's very clever. It's a catchy song, too, and I just love how the film makers kept bringing it back. Excellent. I know I win. Come on, it's EUROTRIP!"

I did see "Eurotrip" and got many guilty laffs out of it, and I have to admire Greg's low-culture mojo here for going for the sex-comedy romp. So Greg gets his choice of either the soundtrack to the movie "Dead Man Walking," which includes great rootsy stuff by Johnny Cash, Eddie Vedder, Steve Earle and more, or the soundtrack to the movie "Kids" by Folk Implosion, which includes one of my personal favorite singles of the '90s, "Natural One." Take your pick, Greg, and let me know!

But when it came to the winner, there wasn't much choice for me. The first prize winner came from my old pal Rob Rogers:

"My vote is this: The scene in "Almost Famous" where the band, Patrick Fugit and everyone else is on the tour bus. It's after the big fight and one by one, everyone starts singing Elton John's "Tiny Dancer." To me, it captured the emotional center of the film better than any line of dialogue or action from any character. It made me a little emotional. And it made me like an Elton John song. Don't get me wrong, I respect him as a songwriter, but I just don't get into his music that much. But the scene played everything perfectly because of the right choice of song."

Rob knows I'm a huge Cameron Crowe fan (and in fact spent an entire post blogging about "Almost Famous" a while back), so he gets points for sucking up, but also I'd have to put that particular scene high in any list of my own favorite movie music moments. That scene, like much of "Almost Famous," could so easily have tipped over into sappy melodrama, yet Crowe keeps it honest and true. It's suffused with a fan's love for music and Rob's astute picking of it ensures he gets this fabulous Ennio Morricone soundtrack CD! Now don't say I never gave you anything.

Honorable mentions as well to Richie, Jim, Logan and Gary, who all came oh-so-close. Thanks dudes!