The Great Gatsby (Music From Baz Luhrmann's Film)

Editors’ Notes

This 2013 soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann’s silver-screen adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s most notable novel is deliberately anachronistic. Although the story takes place during America’s Jazz Age in the summer of 1922, it’s Jay-Z and not Louis Armstrong who opens this compilation. “100$ Bill” is a hip-hop hit that’s just as lavish as Jay Gatsby himself. Beyoncé and André 3000 turn Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black” into a chilling duet. Played to the rhythm of a slowed heartbeat, the song includes an eerie, Ennio Morricone–styled spaghetti western guitar lead, helping make for a song that’s almost as haunting as Winehouse’s life story. Similarly, Lana Del Rey’s torchy “Young and Beautiful” casts an icy coat of soul-tortured vocals over a lush and symphonic soundscape. For "Bang Bang," will.i.am cleverly embeds the instantly recognizable melody of "The Charleston,” Jimmy Johnson’s 1923 soundtrack to the Roaring Twenties. And it’s not until this brilliant moment that we’re reminded of Luhrmann’s talent for swirling the past with the present, as he did with 1996’s Romeo + Juliet.