Smallville’s Top 5 Music Moments of All Time 

Now that Smallville is coming to an end it’s time to look back and reflect upon the ten-year journey we’ve been on watching Clark Kent transform into Superman. There have been a lot of epic moments in the series…moments of triumph, of tragedy, of love, of lust, of loyalty, of betrayal…but imagine now watching those moments with the mute button on. Takes a lot away from it right? Sometimes the right song or piece of music can drastically alter a moment and take it from being pretty good to legendary. We’ve gone back and picked the top ten music cues from the entire Smallville series and how they impacted the show. Our first part counted down numbers 10 – 6. Here’s our second part — the top 5 music moments of all time.Quick note: you might want to open up YouTube on your browser or have iTunes open and type in the artist and song to help jog your memory. Most, if not all, of these songs can be found through both of these sources.

#5
Artist: Dishwalla
Song: “Angels or Devils”
Episode: Season 2, Episode 8 “Ryan”

For my money, this was truly one of the most heartbreaking episodes of the series. Ryan was a stray who had these meteor-enhanced abilities that Clark and the Kents took a liking to and welcomed him to their home. As it turned out, he was suffering from a tumor and Clark raced halfway across the world to find him a doctor that could help, but ultimately Ryan died. This wasn’t a cheesy, sappy, melodramatic episode like some people might have expected. It was a startling dose of reality where Clark learned that no matter how many super powers he may have, ultimately, he can’t control death. The final scene of him standing outside of Ryan’s empty hospital room bewildered by his loss with nothing but the song playing over the scene was one of the most powerful and memorable endings to any episode of the entire series.

#4
Artist: Peter Gabriel
Song: “I Grieve”
Episode: Season 5, Episode 12 “Reckoning”

It was the 100th episode and anticipation was high. You could just feel from the very beginning that this was going to be a very different, very memorable episode. Little did we know that this would be the episode where we’d say goodbye to Jonathan Kent. It was tough watching Clark lose his mentor, his best friend, his adopted father and that was the moment that Clark went from being a kid to a man. I remember my friend telling me that when he watched the scene and he heard that song gently playing over it that it reminded him of the parent that he had lost and it was a very emotional scene for him. Smallville has had some really big moments, but it’s the smaller more reserved moments like this one that really stays with us.

#3
Artist: Mozart
Song: “Requiem in D Minor”, “Introitus: Requiem”
Episode: Season 3, Episode 22 “Covenant”

I still think this is the best season finale that Smallville had in its run (not including the yet-to-air series finale). The tension had been building between Clark and Jor-El, Lionel and Lex, Lionel and Chloe…hell Lionel and everyone really, not to mention he was in jail while he was feuding with them! It was so operatic and almost Shakespearean the way the final montage played out with Lionel getting his long hair shaved off while Lex was poisoned, Chloe’s house blew up, and Clark disappeared into the cave walls while being summoned by Jor-El. Most of the show up to this point had been monster-of-the-week-oriented, but this shocking finale and memorable montage firmly cemented the mythology of the show and helped to push it into a whole new league.

#2
Artist: Johnny Cash
Song: “Hurt”
Episode: Season 3, Episode 8 “Shattered”

This is one of my favorite episodes and mostly for the final few minutes. We had been left to wonder about the mental stability of Lex. Was he losing his marbles or was daddy dearest poisoning his mind? Lex finally caught Clark using his powers to protect him from being hit by a car (a moment that lived in the opening credits for a few more seasons) but no one believed Lex when he told them what he had seen. This led Lionel to place Lex in Bell Reeve insane asylum. Johnny Cash’s voice has such a weight to it and such a sense of despair and watching Lex completely crumble in his padded cell while Lionel looked on was a chilling enough visual…but then you add that song on top of it and it was that much more chilling. “Hurt” has been used in a lot of different movies and TV shows in the last couple of years, but this was one of the most effective uses of the song I’ve seen so far. There really were no better words to describe what was happening than to hear it straight from the Man in Black himself.

#1
Artist: John Williams
Title: The score from Superman: The Movie
Episode: Season 2, Episode 17 “Rosetta”

It’s hard to put into words how awesome and epic this episode was. Clark goes to visit Dr. Virgil Swann played by the greatest Superman of all time himself, Christopher Reeve who finally gives him the answers he’s been looking for. One aspect that makes this interesting is that usually in episodes like this where a lot of exposition is being given and answers are being revealed the audience is learning all of this information along with the protagonist, but here we get to just sit back and watch Clark learn about where he comes from and who he is. I’ll never forget the goosebumps I got watching Clark learn his Kryptonian heritage while the legendary John Williams Superman score played in the background. If you ever had any doubts whether or not this was a true blue Superman show, this moment squashed them like a bug. The Superman theme is timeless and so well known that even if you have a fuzzy recollection of the movies or haven’t even seen them, you hear those notes and you instantly know it’s Superman. To hear that classic

The Superman theme merged with this new story of Superman’s past provided a sense of continuity and for lack of a better term just pure badassness that will go down as one of the show’s crowning moments.

Agree? Disagree? Tell us what you think.