Good movie but the music was terrible.

i agree, the music annoyed me alot.

I saw this back in the summer of '67, so the movie was probably made in late '66 or early '67 and conceived earlier than that. Groups like Blue Cheer, Deep Purple and even Steppenwolf really weren't widely known at the time of this film. Those bands hit it big in '68. It would be interesting to poll some bikers of the mid '60s and find out who they listened to. If the characters were pushing 30 their tastes may not have exactly mirrored what was on the charts at the time.

I thought that the POOR's "Study in Motion" was a good track and resembled the music scene pretty accurately pre '68. They sounded very much like the West Coast bands like the Byrds, Beach Boys that were big at the time. In fact that piece of music occurred in my favorite scene in the movie where the group is shown on the road and the camera focuses back in forth among the riders. The cinematographer of this film got high praise for his work in this film and I've got to believe this bit was referenced.

I do agree that some of the incidental music sounds like cheap stock music, but then this was an American International film, not exactly known for large budgets.

The album version was awesome. Looking forward to the someday re-issue on CD with movie soundtrack cues included. This was done with Beneath the Planet of the Apes and the recent re-recording of Bullitt cues came out great. Didn't like anything much about HA on W, but probabably ought to rent it to see how it has aged.

We shot this movie in Feb of '67. The sound track sucked compared to the then, rock and roll. But the movie was made to exploit your dollar. With Hells Angels in the title, it could have a really bad soundtrack, and a crappy ending. But it is one of the biggest grossing motorcycle movies, ever! It was a 13 day shoot on a quarter million ($250,000) budget. It grossed 9 mil in the first 8 months. If it wasn't for Jack's stardom, HA on Wheels would have been forgotten.

Agreed, it could have been better, but in addition to the low-budget factor that somebody else mentioned, I don't think filmmakers back then really put nearly the effort into movie soundtracks, as they do nowadays, where movies have additional incidental items that are aggressively marketed, like movie soundtrack albums, action figure dolls, etc.

It seems like most major (and many of the minor) motion pictures made since the late 80's/early 90's boast of a soundtrack album put out by a major recording label, and they really put a lot of effort into tailoring the movie's music a certain way, to complement the movie as well as to boost interest in (and sales of) the soundtrack albums.

I've noticed how often times these IMDb boards for various contemporary movies are jammed with questions like "Song help..." "What was the song..." etc. So I know that music is playing a much bigger role in movies nowadays than ever before.

When I first saw this movie, it was very early in the morning, so I was quite groggy. I think that's why I enjoyed it so much at the time. Anyways, I think the music's hilarious, and it just wouldn't be Hells Angels on Wheels without it. The fight scenes at the bar and at the hotel, in particular, are hilarious because of that music. It's like, superhero action music! Did anybody else think this movie had a dreamy feel to it - like - it was all just a crazy dream?

Does anybody know where I can get the music that plays during the barfight/motel? Or what it's called or anything? It's hilarious :)

The production cost of an explotation movie comes first. How can they produce it cheaply? The most important thing is the title. At the time, any movie with the name "Hells Angels" or just "Angles" in the title lured people into the theaters. Once the moviehouse got your dollar, the movie could be crap, as they all were. The biker movies were scripted and produced by non bikers. The soundtrack was most lilely given to the lowest bidder. The delivered soundtrack was used "as is". Non bikers made the soundtrack, and non bikers edited the track into the movie. Did they know what bikers listened to? Did they even care? The only thing that was important was to produce the movie the cheapest way they could. The soundtrack was just the "music" required by the Hollywood formula for making a movie. It's the drama, not the action, that makes a movie successful (or so Hollywood thinks). Is the soundtrack in a low-budget movie gonna fit the subject? Who cares when Hells Angeles is in the title. But, the use of the name was very expensive. Then. again, the name is what drew the people into the thearter.
Dirt