I was in my second year of architecture school when the movie Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure hit theaters. It was (and still is) a significantly absurd movie, but it was absurd in all the right places and had a most excellent soundtrack. Something that would appeal to a kid in his early 20s pulling all-nighters making drawings and architectural models.
At some point I discovered the soundtrack to the movie on cassette tape and I listened to it religiously until I knew the songs by heart and the order in which they played – the way that anybody raised during the era of the album would do.
And then life got busy. Work, girls, new movies to see and soundtracks to hear.
For the longest time I lived in a bubble, believing that I was alone in my love of Bill & Ted’s excellent movie.
And then it happened.
I’m not sure where I was, but there was a person up on a stage and they were lingering a little too long and getting a bit lost in their notes. The audience was getting restless when one of them stood up and yelled “San Dimas High School Football RULES!!!” and everyone erupted in laughter and cheers – and that’s when I began to understand that there was an army of fans for Bill & Ted.
So last night I was paying bills while watching the finale of a popular series on AMC. The music began building and building and it was SO quintessentially 80s – so familiar and uplifting that I had to give the screen my entire attention.
What was this song?? How did I know it???
I made a note to look it up in the morning, but moments later I began to envision two young idiots windmilling their arms in slow motion in front of their guitars and with a start I realized that I had forgotten one of the MOST EXCELLENT end credit songs of my generation: In Time by Robbie Robb, from the soundtrack of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
Life had happened and I’d forgotten all about this music.
So I decided that it was time to replace my long lost cassette tape and I began looking on iTunes to buy a digital download of the soundtrack. The only problem was, all I could find was something that didn’t match my memory of the soundtrack. I went on Amazon but all I could find was a thing that had incidental music.
This music is the film’s score, not its soundtrack – so be warned that the previous link goes to something that does not include the awesome music by Robbie Robb.
Track Listing from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure Soundtrack
A digital download of this “actual” original soundtrack isn’t available from Amazon or iTunes. After further digging I found what I believe to be a seller with a CD of the actual soundtrack on Amazon.com – listed below are the tracks that you should expect to find on your soundtrack CD. To make it fun I’ve linked to copies of the songs on YouTube (no guarantees that they’ll stay up long).
- Play With Me – Extreme
- The Boys And Girls Are Doing It – Vital Signs
- Not So Far Away – Glen Burtnick
- Dancing With A Gypsy – Tora Tora
- Father Time – Shark Island
- I Can’t Break Away – Big Pig
- Dangerous – Shark Island
- Walk Away – Bricklin
- In Time – Robbie Robb
- Two Heads Are Better Than One – Power Tool
To purchase a copy of the physical CD for yourself take a look at this page on Amazon.com
Bill & Ted’s Soundtrack is Now a Collector’s Item
At this point I think that it’s fair to suggest that this album has become a collector’s item, mostly because I have set out to collect one for myself.
Hope that this post has been helpful to all you excellent people :)
