Ferris Bueller’s Day Off OST

…or lack thereof

If you have never seen Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, stop reading now. Immediately. Get yourself over to Play or Amazon or something and go get yourself a copy. Order it, download it, watch it and then come back.

Right, everyone else – still here? Good.

Believe it or not I managed to make it to my 17th year without ever seeing this film. My good friend Bodger, upon discovering my apparent deprived childhood would not let me leave his house again until I had seen it. Twice. Needless to say we were late for college that day.

Many, many things have been said about this film – none of which I’m going to try and emulate or even beat (perhaps another time), however one area that’s not touched upon that often is that of the awesome soundtrack to the film.

From the manic synths of Sigue Sigue Sputnik through to the soft, dulcet tones of The Smiths; the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off OST is a wonder to behold. Except… it doesn’t actually exist.

That’s right, perhaps one of the most bizarre yet luminescent and nostalgic collections of music ever to placed into one film was never actually released as an album.
The reason? The director, the supremely talented John Hughes, was worried about the mix of songs being ‘too eclectic’ to see as an album.

According to Wikipedia, he said:

“The only official soundtrack that Ferris Bueller’s Day Off ever had was for the mailing list. A&M was very angry with me over that; they begged me to put one out, but I thought “who’d want all of these songs?” I mean, would kids want “Danke Schoen” and “Oh Yeah” on the same record? They probably already had “Twist and Shout,” or their parents did, and to put all of those together with the more contemporary stuff, like the (English) Beat – I just didn’t think anybody would like it. But I did put together a seven-inch of the two songs I owned the rights to – “Beat City” on one side, and… I forget, one of the other English bands on the soundtrack… and sent that to the mailing list. By ’86, ’87, it was costing us $30 a piece to mail out 100,000 packages. But it was a labor of love.”

Amazing.

Thanks to a mixbag of research and Wikipedia, I’ve managed to hunt down a full track list for what would’ve been the FDO:OST.

  1. “Love Missile F1-11” (Extended Version) by Sigue Sigue Sputnik
  2. “Jeannie” (Theme from I Dream of Jeannie)
  3. “Beat City” by The Flowerpot Men
  4. “Main Title / Rebel Blockade Runner” by John Williams (From, Star Wars)
  5. “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” (instrumental) by The Dream Academy (a cover of a song by The Smiths)
  6. “Menuet Célèbre” by (Zagreb Philharmonic Chamber Studio)
  7. “Danke Schoen” by Wayne Newton
  8. “Twist and Shout” by The Beatles
  9. “Radio People” by Zapp
  10. “I’m Afraid” by Blue Room
  11. “Taking the Day Off” by General Public
  12. “The Edge of Forever” by The Dream Academy
  13. “March of the Swivelheads” (a remix of “Rotating Head”) by The (English) Beat
  14. “Oh Yeah” by Yello
  15. “BAD” by Big Audio Dynamite

And – minus a few that I couldn’t find in the library – I’ve managed to throw [most of] them down into a handy little Spotify playlist.

Enjoy.

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Author: James Whatley

Chief Strategy Officer in adland. I got ❤️ for writing, gaming, and figuring stuff out. I'm @whatleydude pretty much everywhere that matters. Nice to meet you x

10 thoughts on “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off OST”

  1. That white car his sister drove…yeah I had one of those, but in yellow. It was awesome being able to drive it 😀

  2. Nice one dude. One of my all time favourite films. Always bemoaned the lack of soundtrack, I shall listen to this in the morning.

  3. Just watched the DVD last night and spend a number of hours listening. Here is the best order I could come up with. It contains some dialogues from the movie.
    01 – Fertilize the Lawn (dialogue)
    02 – They Bought it-Handle School on a Day Like This (dialogue)
    03 – Love Missile F1-11 by sigue sigue sputnik
    04 – Fake Out Your Parents (dialogue)
    05 – Roll Call (dialogue)
    06 – Let My Cameron Go (dialogue)
    07 – Jeannie
    08 – Makes You Look Like an Ass Ed (dialogue)
    09 – He’s a Rightous Dude (dialogue)
    10 – Bueller, Ferris Bueller (dialogue)
    11 – The 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California (dialogue)
    12 – Oh Yeah by yello
    13 – What Aren’t We Going to do (dialogue)
    14 – If You Had Access to a Car Like This (dialogue)
    15 – Beat City by the flowerpot men
    16 – B.A.D. by big audio dynamite
    17 РMenuet C̩l̬bre by (Zagreb Philharmonic Chamber Studio)
    18 – It’s Understanding (dialogue)
    19 – Schwing Batter (dialogue)
    20 – Rebel Blockade Runner (short version) by john williams
    21 – Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want (instrumental) by dream academy
    22 – The Parade (dialogue)
    23 – Danke Shoen by wayne newton
    24 – Twist & Shout by the beatles
    25 – Radio People by zapp
    26 – I Heard That You Were Feeling Ill (dialogue)
    27 – I’m Afraid by blue room
    28 – Taking the Day Off by general public
    29 – If You Say Ferris Bueller, You Lose a Testicle (dialogue)
    30 – The Edge of Forever by dream academy
    31 – March of the Swivelheads by the english beat
    32 – Life Moves Pretty Fast (dialogue)
    33 – Oh Yeah (dance mix)
    34 – You’re Still Here…It’s Over…Go Home…Go (dialogue)

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