According to the ever-reliable Tune Find, 239 songs have been played over Mad Men‘s seven-season run, which comes to an end this Sunday. That’s a lot of music accompanying a lot of memorable moments in the lives of Don Draper, Peggy Olson, and the rest of the good-time gang, from 1920s jazz to then-contemporary rock ‘n’ roll music to now-contemporary indie rock. Providing such a rich, expansive soundtrack is one of Mad Men‘s greatest achievements. Today, we’re counting down the best musical moments by season.
Season 1: “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” by Bob Dylan
When we first see Don Draper in the Mad Men pilot, he’s the all-American male. Handsome, gorgeous wife, two kids (one girl, one boy, who would later be replaced by nine more boys), damn fine suits, high-paying job in the big city. But by the end of Season 1, he’s all alone, a broken man coming home to an empty house, accompanied only by Dylan’s sardonic “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.” If only Don knew how much more not all right things would get for him.
Season 2: “The Infanta” by The Decemberists
“The Infanta” isn’t a great song — it’s not even the best track on The Decemberists album it comes from; that would be “On the Bus Mall” — but it’s one of the show’s most memorable musical moments. Mad Men rarely goes contemporary, especially in the later seasons, but Matthew Weiner did here (and for the Cardigans) because it looks like all the women are wearing corsets, and The Decemberists sound like they were around when the corset was invented, I guess?
Season 3: “Charleston” by Paul Reeves
I mean, obviously. It’s Trudy and Pete, back before the early onset Nic Cage-ness set in, doing the Charleston at a party where Roger would later make even Don cringe by dressing up in blackface and singing “My Old Kentucky Home.” Look how happy Pete is! There should have been a Dancing with the Stars crossover episode.
Season 4: “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by The Rolling Stones
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Season 4’s “The Summer Man” takes place in 1965, the same year The Rolling Stones released the iconic “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” (in fact, the 50th anniversary is next month). It was the beginning of something special, something snotty and alienated, and the stuffy Don Drapers of the world couldn’t understand what was happening. The revolution wasn’t for them, and it was the first time they began to feel irrelevant and ignored, like how the women walk by Don without noticing him. An obvious selection, but still pretty great.
Season 5: “Zou Bisou Bisou” by Jessica Paré
Matthew Weiner spending a quarter of a million bucks on Don Draper not getting Revolver is a tempting choice, but I couldn’t resist the siren song that is Megan’s uncomfortably sexual “Zou Bisou Bisou.” One day it was a French obscurity from the 1960s; the next, on the Monday after “A Little Kiss” premiered, it was all anyone could talk about, and iTunes even released the slinky Mad Men version as a downloadable single. The Harry Cranes of the world rejoiced.
Season 6: “Piece of My Heart” by Janis Joplin
Maybe it’s my Pete Campbell bias showing, but as great as Don displaying his childhood home to his kids while Judy Collins’ “Both Sides Now” played was, I’ll take Pete smoking a joint in slow motion while leering at a woman’s backside to a Janis Joplin song any day. Thank you.
Season 7: “The Best Things in Life Are Free” by Robert Morse
No one, not Grandpa Gene, not Miss Blankenship, and certainly not Sal, had a better send-off than Bert Cooper. He got to do what he does best, make someone look after his painting of an octopus going down on a naked woman. Also, he sang “The Best Things in Life Are Free” to Don in one of the show’s more elaborate fantasy sequences. It’s a scene straight out of a Broadway play, as is the song, which was written for the 1927 musical Good News. Bert Cooper himself, Robert Morse, was also on Broadway in… How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. This Matthew Weiner guy apparently knows what he’s doing.