Got a long car ride ahead? Make a Spotify playlist of these notable tunes and soundtracks from various MHz Choice series before you embark on your trip! Don’t have a Spotify account? Click here to create a free account and listen to all of the songs on this list in their entirety.
NOTE: This is by no way an a exhaustive list, nor are the songs listed from “Best to Worst” (you can stop writing that email right now). Think of this as a primer of all of the great songs and scores on MHz Choice. Sing along if you can! Did we miss a song? Let us know here!
Above L to R: Olivia Sellerio, Shirley Bassey and Jonathan Johansson
A French Village
Tequiero – Eric Neveux
Used frequently throughout the series, composer Eric Neveux’s theme “Tequiero” evokes the ghosts of friends and family lost to the ravages of war in A French Village. Bells chime and strings ache as each character must reconcile the decisions they’ve been forced to make to survive.
Tatort: Borowski
Tainted Love – Marilyn Manson
When you think of MHz Choice, my guess is American goth rock is not the first thing that comes to mind, but leave it to the producers of Germany’s longest running detective series, Tatort, to throw a creative curve ball into the list! In the series opener of Tatort: Borowski, the deliciously awkward investigator Klaus Borowski finds himself in a brothel while Marilyn Manson’s cover of Soft Cell’s Tainted Love pumps through the scene. Delicious indeed!
Tatort
Theme From Tatort – Soundtrack & Theme Orchestra
The instantly recognizable opening theme music for Germany’s Tatort franchise. Fun fact: this theme also happens to be the ringtone of one well known German crime scene cleaner (hint: his name rhymes with potty). Go to this page here and watch the Season 1 trailer for the answer!
Johan Falk
Glaza – Bengt Nilsson
From Season 3 of Swedish action-drama Johan Falk. We spoke with series creator Anders Nilsson about his creative process in making Johan Falk in our exclusive interview here.
Johan Falk
Archangel – Bengt Nilsson
Swedish singer Sonja Bjurdell lends her formidable vocals to this cut from Season 3 of Johan Falk. For deep background on the Johan Falk series, I highly recommend digging into writer Allison Lowe Huff’s entertaining recaps here!
Don’t Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves
This Is My Life – Shirley Bassey
From the three-part drama Don’t Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves about the 1980s AIDS epidemic in Stockholm’s gay community, Shirely Bassey’s signature song This Is My Life provides an emotional, defiant backdrop to a heartbreaking drama about a group of men struggling to understand and survive both the biological and societal assault their community is under.
Don’t Ever Wipe Tears Without Gloves
Du Lever Bara En Gång – Noice
Even though their roots are firmly in the Swedish punk and hardcore scene in 1980s Stockholm, Noice’s music is perhaps better described as “thrash-ier Elton John” than raw hardcore like the music of their punk cohorts Mob 47 or Anti Cimex.
Redemption Road
The Only Face – The Bryan Ferry Orchestra
Versatile pop singer and arranger Bryan Ferry reimagines some of his solo and Roxy Music catalog as 1920s Jazz Age pop standards and the results are astounding! This track comes from WWII German drama Redemption Road and was originally released on Mr. Ferry’s 1994 solo album Mamouna. Click here to listen to the original version of The Only Face.
Welcome to Hindafing
The Rest Of My Days – The Exploding Voids
From the opening title sequence of the Fargo-esque, Welcome to Hindafing, The Rest Of My Days by The Exploding Voids sets the appropriate tone of “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry”.
Missing
Mean Old Devil Got On – Daniel Norgren
Swedish singer/songwriter Daniel Norgren’s spooky-bluesy Mean Old Devil Got On is comfortably at home in this tremendously UN-comfortable tale of tragedy in the Swedish Bible Belt. Missing was one of our most watched series in 2017 and this track is just one of several haunting tunes in this riveting series.
Browse full list of songs below: