Rock star Gabriel tops film music poll

The rock and world music star Peter Gabriel has been named composer of the best movie musical moment.

The top 45 musical moments in film history have been chosen by the movie magazine, Empire. The list names Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" from the 1989 film, Say Anything, as the best ever. It is a relatively obscure choice, with more familiar titles lower down the list.

Other memorable moments include Simon and Garfunkel's "Mrs Robinson" from the 1967 film The Graduate in sixth place and Wagner's "Ride Of The Valkyries" from Apocalypse Now, made in 1979, in seventh. The Beatles are the only band to make two appearances – "A Hard Day's Night" from the 1964 film of the same name and "Twist And Shout" from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, made in 1986.

The list is printed in the December edition of Empire. The magazine says of its top choice: "If they had boomboxes and Peter Gabriel back in Shakespeare's day, this is exactly what the balcony scene from Romeo And Juliet would have looked like. Probably."

One choice that will not please the star of the film involved is the number 27 entry, "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" from the 1969 movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Robert Redford admitted recently he had never seen the completed film. He said that when viewing the rushes he was appalled to see that the song had been dubbed on to a scene featuring him. He felt it out of character with the film.

While some songs are contemporary to the movies, others were recorded decades before directors selected them.

The Who's 1960s song "A Quick One While He's Away" was used in the 1998 movie Rushmore and is at number 25.

Stealers Wheel's 1973 song "Stuck In the Middle With You" was notoriously used by Quentin Tarantino in his 1992 film Reservoir Dogs as background to the scene in which a police officer's ear is hacked off.