In addition to producing a song that hasn’t aged even a minute in the 40-plus years since its release, Freddie Mercury and Bowie proved that two giants can indeed work together to create something immensely powerful, and its endurance in music naturally stretched over to other forms of art, and it is now a favourite in the movie business.

Likewise, arguably one of the most brilliant tunes ever recorded by The Rolling Stones, ‘Gimme Shelter’ has been religiously used in movies, dating as far back as Adventures in Babysitting in 1987. Most notably, Martin Scorsese, a fan of the band, has used the track in three of his films within a decade and a half, including Goodfellas, Casino and The Departed, and even directed their 2008 concert film, Shine a Light, which, funnily enough, did not feature the song in question.

Then, there’s the 1969 song, ‘Spirit in the Sky’ by Norman Greenbaum, which keeps finding new life in film, despite the singer being a one-hit-wonder success story, with the track being used in countless major films throughout the years, making it one of the most used of all time in cinema history. From Apollo 13 to Ocean’s Eleven to This is the End, it has proved time and again that no classification can constrain its flexibility, and even though the rest of Greenbaum’s catalogue never took off quite the same way, this one song has taken incredibly good care of him.

Which song tops the list as the most used in film?

All these songs have made appearances in movies spanning generations, yet they never seem to get old, and the fact that they fit so well with acting almost suggests that they were designed to transcend mediums and travel far beyond the spaces they were conceived in. However, while the above names have certainly enjoyed tons of mileage, when it comes to the most used track in film history, none of them come even close to ‘Born to Be Wild’ by Steppenwolf, which has been used in over 35 movies.

The 1968 classic has also been featured in a number of video games, television series and documentaries, but its place in movies alone speaks to its enormity. Most famously, the song can be heard in the 1972 cult classic Easy Rider, which is as iconic to film as ‘Born to Be Wild’ is to music. From there, the song took off and began springing up in every direction, from Problem Child, Dudley Do-Right, Herbie: Fully Loaded, Borat, and Paddington to Nymphomaniac: Vol I and Drive being just a few of the many projects that have carried its flag.

A timeless gem, even 2025 feels like the perfect year to have the song playing in the background of a slapstick sequence, a slasher chase or an action scene, which is part of its enduring charm: place it anywhere, and it just works!

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