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Steven Spielberg’s remarkable career has been shaped by many influences – from the classic Westerns he watched as a child to the musical theatre records that filled his childhood home.
Appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs in 2024, the legendary director of Jaws, E.T., and Schindler’s List shared the eight tracks he would take with him to a desert island. Each song reveals a different side of Spielberg – the boy who fell in love with movies, the romantic college freshman, the devoted father, and the world-famous filmmaker who never stopped being a fan.
From Beatles ballads to Bruce Springsteen anthems, here’s the soundtrack of Spielberg’s life:
Gene Pitney – (The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance
Gene Pitney’s 1962 hit wasn’t actually used in the John Ford film it was written for, but it became a radio staple – and for Spielberg, it became a entry point into one of his favourite genres.
“I think why I’ve taken the Gene Pitney song ‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’ is because it was a seminal movie in my life”, Spielberg said. “It was one of the first times that a song led me to the theatre, not the other way around.”
He admitted he hadn’t even heard of Ford at that point: “I just knew that the song outlined a story that I could not wait to see. And it became one of my favourite westerns of all time.”
Johann Sebastian Bach – Fugue in G minor, BWV 578 (“The Little Fugue”)
Bach’s ‘Little Fugue’ is one of the Baroque period’s best-known works, but for Spielberg, it’s inseparable from the memory of his father.
“Well, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a piece called Little Fugue in G minor. It’s the song that identified my father to all of us”, he said. “Every time he came home from work and pulled the car into the driveway, he’d get out and walk around the front of the house whistling Bach’s Little Fugue. He’d open the front door – it would get louder and louder. We knew it was him. We knew it was home. We knew it was suppertime.”
“He would only stop whistling when we started talking to him: ‘Hey, Dad.’ And he’d stop whistling, hang up his hat and coat, and start asking us about school. It’s the piece of music I most identify with my father.”
The Beatles – Michelle
‘Michelle’ appeared on The Beatles’ Rubber Soul album, and Spielberg’s connection to it was deeply personal: “The reason I picked that song is it’s a silly little story” he laughed. “I was a freshman in college, and there was a girl I liked a lot. She would let me take her out – to dinner, to a jazz club, to the movies – but she would never let me kiss her.”
But he described one night that changed everything: “We were driving back from somewhere, pulled into the big parking lot by the dorms at Long Beach, and ‘Michelle’ came on the radio. I think we heard it for the first time together. The melody is just heart-achingly beautiful. She had tears in her eyes. And just before the song was over, she jumped over onto my side of the car and started kissing me.”
Years later, Spielberg even shared the story with Paul McCartney himself: “I had a chance to tell Paul that Michelle helped me get my first kiss.”
Jackie DeShannon – What the World Needs Now Is Love
Jackie DeShannon’s 1965 hit offered a lifelong message for Spielberg. “I remember hearing the song when I went out to see a movie by Paul Mazursky called Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” he recalled. “It had that song in it, and I just never forgot the impact it had on me.”
He said the song’s message was now more urgent than ever: “It’s exactly what the world needs today. It’s what the world needed yesterday. It’s what the world needed 78 years ago. That song makes me want to hug a Republican. That’s the kind of thing I’d love to see – a progressive and an extreme Republican hear that song and hug each other. That would make me very happy right now.”
Frank Sinatra – Come Fly With Me
“I’m a big Frank Sinatra fan,” Spielberg said. “And one of my favourite signature Sinatra songs has always been ‘Come Fly With Me’.”
The love for the tune, the title track for Sinatra’s 1958 album, was so strong that Spielberg made sure it featured in one of his films: “I was able to acquire the rights from Tina Sinatra, who I know, and she licensed that song for me to use in the movie Catch Me If You Can with Leonardo DiCaprio.”
Bruce Springsteen – The Ghost of Tom Joad
Bruce Springsteen’s ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’ came out in 1995, and its themes – resilience, injustice, perseverance – spoke deeply to Spielberg.
“If I could take anybody to the desert island with me, of course, I’d take my wife… and then I’d take Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa,” Spielberg humorously said.
“Bruce’s music has been a tremendous influence on my career, my life, my relationships. We share a love of Steinbeck, and Bruce certainly was able to encapsulate and translate Steinbeck so well in this single song.”
Reri Grist – Somewhere
The song ‘Somewhere’ from West Side Story isn’t just a childhood favourite – it helped spark Spielberg’s lifelong love of musical storytelling.
“When I was 10 years old, we had only classical music in our house. There was nothing popular”, he said. “Then one day my parents came home with a record: The original Broadway cast album of West Side Story.
“I wore out the record. My parents had to buy a new one a month later because I scratched it to death.”
One song hit harder than all the others: “Whenever I listened to Somewhere, I cried. It’s the reason, years and years later, I wanted to reimagine West Side Story for a whole new generation.” He ended up doing so in 2021, when he produced and directed the newest cinematic adaptation of the musical.
Buzzy Lee – Coolhand
Spielberg’s final pick is perhaps his most heartfelt. Coolhand is a song by Buzzy Lee, the stage name of his daughter, Sasha Spielberg.
“The final choice today is a song called Coolhand by an artist named Buzzy Lee, who happens to be my daughter,” he said proudly. “Whenever I hear this song, it just reminds me of the privilege of parenthood.”
