‘Never Been Kissed’ – 5 Essential Soundtrack Cuts

Any soundtrack that includes a Smiths b-side gets a gold star from us. Breezy, acoustic, introspective, and lovelorn, this classic strikes us as the type of song Noel Gallagher of Oasis might cite as an influence, and at 1:53, it’s short and sweet, just like our attention span.

Why haven’t you heard of the Murmurs? Maybe because you've had earwax in your ears since 1990? ‘Smash’ is a super-sized ‘90s female-fronted tune reminiscent of the Rentals and Blink-182, and that makes it perfect ‘Never Been Kissed’ fodder. You might know Leisha Hailey, one-half of the songwriting and vocals team, as part of the latter-day group Uh Huh Her.

A decent grunge band in the post-Nirvana-knock-off era, Local H put out one of the better pissed-off ‘90s anthems in ‘Bound for the Floor.' Their addition to the ‘Never Been Kissed’ soundtrack, ‘Cool Magnet,’ is like the Beatles’ ‘Day Tripper’ played on distorted guitars. It's an electric tune that makes us want to buzz back to the '90s.

‘Never Been Kissed’ star Drew Barrymore has a lot of famous girlfriends, including Courtney Love. It's only natural, then, that Love’s band, Hole, appears on the soundtrack, and the heavily Byrds-influenced ‘Heaven Tonight’ actually includes a kissing-related lyric: “Here comes a kiss / that I never had / nothing feels like this.”

If ever there was ever perfect timing for a band to land a song on a major motion picture soundtrack, this is it. At the time, Jimmy Eat World were in the midst of getting dissed by their record label and had put out what would become their signature album, ‘Clarity.’ The addition of ‘Lucky Denver Mint’ -- easily ‘Clarity’’s catchiest number -- on this soundtrack helped the band gain a more mainstream audience, and it probably helped them sell a few extra albums. (The ‘Never Been Kissed’ soundtrack also includes a demo version of ‘Seventeen,’ from JEW's 1996 ‘Static Prevails’ album).