Opening Song: "Last Train to San Fernando"

Formerly ecarle.

One thing about Asteroid City: the opening song.

Near the beginning(not AT the beginning) as the credits roll we get a shot of a train(animated?) heading to Asteroid City(based on the opening of Bad Day at Black Rock, I've read) and a 1957 song called "Last Train to San Fernando."

I looked up the song on YouTube. It is "for real," and sung by some rockability guy of 1957 with some distinctively wacky vocals and I thought:

"Where do these auteur filmmakers FIND these songs?"

So often a moviemaker puts a song on the soundtrack of a movie and (a) I've never heard it in my life and (b) it is pretty entertaining.

Paul Anderson's "Licorice Pizza," set in 1973, opened with a sweet love song called "July Tree" and ended with a hip and upbeat song called "Tomorrow May Not Be Your Day" and though I was around in 1973, I NEVER heard those songs back then. Where did PT Anderson find them?

PT Anderson DID use a song in Licorice Pizza that I DID have and I was pleased to hear it: "Lisa Listen To Me" by Blood Sweat and Tears. Those guys had much bigger hits(Spinning Wheel, And When I Die) but that Lisa song was on a 1971 Best of Album and I had it and I liked that song but..it wasn't FAMOUS like Spinning Wheel so I guess that's why PT Anderson used it.

Wes Anderson also used a different unknown song called "Freight Train" in Asteroid City, I've learned. But that "Last Train to San Fernando" is just wacky and sets the mood just right.

Again: how do these people FIND these songs?