A few weeks ago,Guardians of the Galaxy 2directorJames Gunnrevealed that the highly-anticipated soundtrackAwesome Mix Vol. 2will be released in the U.S. on April 28. As it turns out, fans in the U.K. will be able to purchase this soundtrack a full week earlier, and with just two days to the U.K. release, Marvel has finally unveiled the official track list. There will be 14 songs featured on this soundtrack, some of which we’ve already heard on the previously-released trailers thus far.
The Marvel U.K. & Ireland Twitter account unveiled the track list today through a poster featuring Baby Groot (Vin Diesel) holding up a cassette tape, with the “set list” taped above him. This image confirms that songs from the previousGuardians 2 trailers, “The Chain” byFleetwood Macand “Fox on the Run” bySweetare on the soundtrack, but other songs used in trailers and TV spots, such asDavid Bowie’s “Suffragette City,” isn’t on the list.James Gunnhas in fact said in the past that certain songs featured in trailers won’t necessarily make it on the Awesome Mix this time around.
The full track list for thisGuardians 2 soundtrackalso includes “Mr. Blue Sky” byElectric Light Orchestra, “Lake Shore Drive” byAliotta Haynes Jeremiah, “Bring It On Home to Me” bySam Cooke, “Southern Nights” byGlenn Campbell, “My Sweet Lord” byGeorge Harrison, “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” byLooking Glass, “Come a Little Bit Closer” by Jay and the Americans, “Wham Bam Shang-a-Lang” bySilver, “Surrender” byCheap Trick, “Father and Son” byCat Stevens, “Flash Light” byParliamentwith the final song, entitled “Guardians Inferno” byThe Sneepers, featuringDavid Hasselhoff.Rolling Stonecaught up withJames Gunn, who revealed this song is a “comedic original” that he co-wrote with composerTyler Bates.
The director describes this final song as a, “sort of Guardians take on Meco’s discoStar Warstheme.” The filmmaker also said thatDavid Hasselhoffwas recruited to provide the vocals, since the actor is said to be a “childhood hero” ofChris Pratt’s character Peter Quill. It’s also worth noting that the fictional band is calledThe Sneepers, a group of characters that the director previously revealed wouldn’t be cleared by the Marvel legal team, since the word “sneeper” means “clitoris” in the Icelandic language. However, the director revealed a few weeks later that, after all of the news articles posted about this “ban,” Marvel changed their minds and allowed him to use The Sneepers after all. Here’s what the director had to say about what he believes are the two most important songs in the film, “The Chain” and “Brandy.”
“There are two songs that are the most deeply embedded into the fibers of the film. ‘The Chain’ is one because it is about the Guardians, at least in the way we use it, and we use it a couple of times in the movie. And the other one is ‘Brandy,’ which is an incredibly important song in the movie. Both happen to be two of my favorite songs from the Seventies.”
The filmmaker also teased that they had to “fight really hard” to get the rights to the soundtrack’s first song, ELO’s “Mr. Blue Sky.” The director initially had planned on using the song in the firstGuardians movie, where he even had to personally appeal to Electric Light Orchestra lead singerJeff Lynneto approve the song. After the song was approved for the first movie, it ended up being cut, which made the process even more difficult this time around, butJames Gunnteased that they made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. The director also revealed thatGeorge Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” has to do with Ego the Living Planet’s origins. Here’s what he had to say about that song below.
“It was one of the first songs that I picked out to try to use in the movie and it has to do a little bit with the origin of Ego. And there’s this big creation myth about how he came about and it was kind of lined up with that. I’ve always been into Hindu creation myths and there’s some similarities there.”
As for the rest of the songs,James Gunnalso confirmed that Sweet’s “Fox on the Run” is only in the trailers and is not featured in the movie itself, similar to “Spirit in the Sky” from the first movie. The filmmaker also teased that “Lake Shore Drive” is a “regional hit” that he grew up with in the Midwest, while “Bring It On Home to Me” is used during scenes with Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and Gamora (Zoe Saldana). “Brandy” is a childhood favorite of the director, who confirmed that it plays a “key emotional role” in the movie, appearing in the very first scene. “Come a Little Bit Closer” is played during an action scene where the Guardians, “enjoy a little bit of ultra-violence,” while the obscure “Wham Bang-a-Lang” by Silver was sent to him by a fan, although the director had never heard of the song before.James Gunnwas inspired to add “Father and Son” after hearingHoward Sternattempt an acoustic version on his radio show, with the song likely dealing with Ego and Star-Lord’s relationship. The director wouldn’t reveal how Parliament’s “Flash Light” comes into play, though, but he did state that he addedCheap Trick’s “Surrender” as a favor to the band, after they let him use another song, “If You Want My Love” for his indie filmSuper, for practically nothing. Take a look at this new image below with the full track list for theGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2soundtrack.
