The film has an original score by Hans Zimmer, a handful of Christmas classics and hits by everyone from The Killers to The Spinners.
Although Love Actually might remain the most popular star-studded festive romcom of the 21st century, it has a solid rival in The Holiday – which has now firmly established itself in the Christmas canon.
Nancy Myers’s 2006 film stars Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz as two women living in England and the US respectively, who swap homes for the festive period in a bid to cast aside their relationship woes, only to each find themselves falling for local guys played by Jack Black and Jude Law.
In addition to both films being cheesy but cheerful festive favourites, one of the other things The Holiday has in common with Love Actually is that it includes a brilliant soundtrack – featuring everything from a number of classic seasonal staples to a rendition of The Killers’ Mr Brightside.
The film also includes an original score composed by the legendary Hans Zimmer, while a couple of samples from various other beloved film scores can also be heard as performed by Jack Black’s Miles in a memorable scene in a video rental store.
And if you’re a superfan of the film and its music, you may have recently attended one of the special performances of The Holiday in concert – which sees a live orchestra performing the soundtrack on stage to accompany a screening of the film, and toured various cities around the UK.
Read on for all you need to know about the soundtrack and score to The Holiday.
The Holiday soundtrack
The following pieces of music are all featured in The Holiday.
- Winter Wonderland performed by Darlene Love
- Last Christmas performed by Wham!
- It May Be Winter Outside (But in My Heart It’s Spring) performed by Love Unlimited
- Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree performed by Brenda Lee
- Mr Brightside performed by The Killers
- It’s a Shame performed by The Spinners
- Are You Gonna Be My Girl performed by Jet
- Let Go performed by Frou Frou
- Christmas Waltz performed by Eddie Higgins Trio
- Mrs. Robinson performed by Simon and Garfunkel
- Got to Be Real performed by Cheryl Lynn
- Sha-La-La (Make Me Happy) performed by Al Green
- Santa Baby performed by Kylie Minogue
- Chariots of Fire by Vangelis, performed by Jack Black
- Theme from Jaws by John Williams, performed by Jack Black
- Driving Miss Daisy by Hans Zimmer, performed by Jack Black
- Raider’s March by John Williams, performed by Jack Black
- Just for Now performed by Imogen Heap
- You Send Me performed by Aretha Franklin
- Projection for Two by Ennio Morricone and Andrea Morricone
- Toto And Alfredo by Ennio Morricone and Andrea Morricone
- Flight of the Foo Birds performed by Count Basie and His Orchestra
- Wade in the Water performed by Ramsey Lewis Trio
- Tara Theme performed by Max Steiner
- Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas performed by James Taylor
- Moonglow performed by Claude Bolling Big Band and Stéphane Grappelli
The Holiday score
The film also includes an original score by Hans Zimmer – you can find the titles of all the tracks below:
- Maestro
- Iris And Jasper
- Kayak For One
- Zero
- Dream Kitchen
- Separate Vacations
- Anything Can Happen
- Light My Fire
- Definitely Unexpected
- If I Wanted To Call You
- Roadside Rhapsody
- Busy Guy
- For Nancy
- It’s Complicated
- Kiss Goodbye
- Verso E Prosa
- Meu Passado
- The ‘Cowch’
- Three Musketeers
- Christmas Surprise
- Gumption
- Cry
The Holiday (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is available to listen to here. The Holiday is currently streaming on both Netflix and Prime Video.
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