Movies

James Gunn Reveals Original Pre-Production 'Awesome Mix Vol. 1'

Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol.1
By Germain Lussier

Sitting down to see Guardians of the Galaxy the first time, the most surprising thing about it was its tone. Director James Gunn created such a fun, energetic feeling with the film, which was cemented in that wonderful opening credits sequence. That showed Star Lord (Chris Pratt) rocking out to Come and Get Your Love by Redbone. Instantly, you knew this movie was different. This movie was going to be fun, yet also grounded.

The actors had that knowledge before the film even began shooting. Gunn gave Pratt in particular his own customized Awesome Mix Vol. 1 to listen to so he'd be in the mindset of his character. Most of the songs made it into the movie but some did not. Now Gunn has revealed the full original list. He also explains why a few of the songs didn't make it into the final film. Check out the original Awesome Mix Guardians of the Galaxy songs below.

Gunn took to Facebook to reveal the original track list. And don't get it confused with the Awesome Mix Vol. 0, which was high energy music used in the background on set for one specific scene. Here's the original Vol. 1 track list:

  • I'm Not in Love - 10cc
  • Come and Get Your Love – Redbone
  • Go All the Way – Raspberries
  • *Never Been to Spain – Three Dog Night
  • Hooked on a Feeling – Blue Swede
  • *Magic - Pilot
  • The Pina Colada Song – Rupert Holmes
  • *Livin' Thing – Electric Light Orchestra
  • Moonage Daydream - David Bowie
  • Fooled Around and Fell in Love – Elvin Bishop
  • *Fox on the Run - The Sweet
  • Cherry Bomb – The Runaways
  • Spirit in the Sky - Norman Greenbaum
  • O-O-H Child – Five Stairsteps
  • *Surrender – Cheap Trick

    • The tracks with the asterisks were not in the film, and here's what Gunn has to say about that:

    Some of these songs were in the first cut of the movie – the mean blue guard danced through the prison listening to Magic on Quill's headphones, and Livin Thing featured in a montage in the Milano after the gang left the prison. We shot Quill singing "Never Been to Spain" at the Nova guards in an aggressive manner when he was having his mug shot taken, but the winding-up-the-finger gag worked better, so it never made the cut. The rest were never really in, but I thought this would give you a good idea of the complete Awesome Mix to which young Peter Quill might have lived his life.

    Also, in all honesty, Moonage Daydream wasn't on the original tape – I added it in post-production – but I thought I'd leave it on the list to keep things simple.

    And here's a very important and cool addition:

    As you can see, Ain't No Mountain High Enough and I Want You Back are not on this list as they were technically a part of Awesome Mix Volume 2. I didn't want Chris to be familiar with those songs.

    I love this kind of stuff. So cool.

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