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The 5 Best Needle Drops in Supernatural (Including One You Won’t Hear on Streaming)
For 15 seasons and an astounding 327 episodes, the hit CW show Supernatural followed Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) as they hunted monsters across the United States. From its inception, series creator Eric Kripke knew that music, especially classic rock, would be an important part of the show’s identity. Dean even put an AC/DC cassette into their car’s tape deck in the pilot.
The importance of music to the show never wavered all the way to the series finale, titled “Carry On” after “Carry On My Wayward Son” by Kansas. Predictably, some musical moments stood out more than others. Here are 5 of the best needle drops in Supernatural, including one streaming viewers won’t hear.
5.) “Turn Into Earth” – The Yardbirds, Season Seven Episode 14
In season four, Supernatural introduced angels, the powerful warriors of Heaven. One of them, Castiel (Misha Collins), was only supposed to appear in a few episodes. But the character was so popular that he stuck around until the end of the series. In season seven, Castiel lost his memory after exploding and releasing millennia-old entities that had been in him. Assuming the identity of faith healer Emanuel, a faith healer with actual healing powers, Dean found him in episode 14, “The Born Again Identity,” while looking for someone to heal Sam. Sam was gradually losing his mind thanks to visions of Lucifer in his head and facing possible death as a result. Together with the demon Meg (Rachel Miner), Dean brought him to the hospital where Sam was. They found the place surrounded by demons ready to ambush them.
They revealed to Castiel who he truly was, and told him to go take care of the demons. That is where the music kicked in. Castiel walked down and began smiting the demons. The scene was set to the song “Turn Into Earth” by The Yardbirds. The song was released in 1966, which is surprising since it lacks the sound typical of 1960s music. The song, paired with the awesome shots of Castiel beating the demons and flashes of past events as his memories returned, made for an incredible scene that brought the character back to the powerful angel fans knew and loved.
4.) “God Was Never on Your Side” – Motorhead, Season 14 Episode 20
The final villain of Supernatural was Chuck Shurley (Rob Benedict), also known as God. In the season 14 finale “All Hell Has Broken Loose,” the son of Lucifer (Alexander Calvert) went towards the dark side, so Sam and Dean concocted a plan with Chuck to kill him. After Dean had a change of heart, Chuck became angry that they weren’t playing their roles. So he killed Jack himself and revealed to the Winchesters that he had been writing their story from the very beginning, orchestrating all of the terrible things that had ever happened to them (and they went through a lot in the series, including dying multiple times).
Deciding then to end the world, he opened up a rift into Hell, through which thousands of condemned souls began to escape, including ones the Winchesters had previously killed, like the ghost of the original serial killer clown John Wayne Gacy. As the souls escaped and took over bodies buried in the cemetery they were in, the 2006 song “God Was Never on Your Side” by Motorhead plays. This was a perfect choice for the scene, as he literally never was. Sam and Dean were always just something for him to play with. It also made for an epic soundtrack to what many consider the greatest season-ending scenes of the entire series as Sam, Dean, and Castiel were slowly surrounded by thousands of “zombies,” facing the most insurmountable odds imaginable and the darkest cliffhanger of the show.
3.) “Renegade” – Styx, Season Two Episode 12
Season two episode 12, titled “Skin,” followed Sam and Dean as they investigated a shapeshifter robbing banks. A local man, who believed it was a mandroid with laser eyes, interfered with their investigation and caused the bank to go into lockdown as he made it look like an armed robbery (despite saying it was not an armed robbery). Word got out that Sam and Dean were inside, and FBI special agent Henriksen (Charles Malik Whitfield) arrived on the scene. He was hunting Sam and Dean, who were wanted on a multitude of charges, including murder and corpse desecration. This was all part of hunting, but most people had no idea that monsters were real, so the brothers were just seen as psychopaths.
After the FBI and SWAT made entry into the bank, the Winchesters managed to knock two of them out and steal their uniforms, tying up the two unconscious officers and putting them in a closet. They used this as a cover for their escape. After Agent Hekriksen was alerted to their escape, the scene cut to Sam and Dean in full SWAT gear running up the stairs to their car in a nearby parking garage. As they did so, the opening of “Renegade” by Styx (1979) began to play. The perfect song for the scene, it talked about a man being on the run from the law, which is exactly what they were. Then the song picks up its tempo, and the brothers rode off, making their great escape.
2.) “Rooster” – Alice in Chains, Season Two Episode 19
Agent Henriksen once again had the Winchester brothers in his sights in season two episode 19, “Folsom Prison Blues.” Sam and Dean received a call from a family friend about a supernatural death in a prison, so they purposely got themselves arrested. They didn’t account for Henriksen catching wind of their incarceration, which complicated their plans, but there was no turning back at that point. They investigated their deaths in the prison and identified it as the ghost of a nurse. With the help of their lawyer, they were able to find out where she was buried, and then escape with the help of the friend who called them there.
Henriksen knew their lawyer had told them where to go, so he turned to her to find the information. Thankfully, though, she lied after finding out the truth about their work when the ghost attacked her. “Rooster” by Alice in Chains (1993) begins to play as Henriksen and a team of SWAT officers swarm a cemetery looking for Sam and Dean. At the same time, viewers see them in a separate cemetery burning the spirit’s bones and making their greatest getaway yet, while Henriksen was left outsmarted once more. The lyric “Ain’t found a way to kill me yet” well reflected the feeling of the scene, and the song itself is simply one of Alice in Chains’ best, with the perfect mood for what happened.
“1.) “Don’t Fear the Reaper” – Blue Öyster Cult, Season One Episode 12
Swinging back around to brothers in need of faith healers, season one episode 12, “Faith,” saw Dean dying. He was electrocuted while on a hunt, and the shock caused terminal damage to his heart. Exhausting all other options, Sam found a faith healer, Reverend Le Grange (Kevin McNulty). It was a last-ditch effort to save his life. Le Grange selected Dean to be healed, and a miracle occurred as Dean’s heart issue vanished. Later, they learned that at the same exact time as Dean’s healing, another man had died from the same condition. That happened with each person
Digging through the lore, Sam couldn’t figure out how Le Grange was doing it. Dean was the one to solve the case. Remembering an old and sickly looking man he saw on stage during his healing, he told Sam there was only one thing that could give and take life in that way. Somehow, Le Grange was controlling a reaper. As they discussed this and Dean found the answer, the 1976 Blue Öyster Cult classic “Don’t Fear the Reaper” began to play. This track fit the scene well, but it also served as dramatic irony. As a woman was running for her life, afraid of the reaper following her, the song in the background was saying not to. This is one of the greatest and most well-known scenes from the first five seasons of the series, but it is also one that streaming viewers may not be aware of. When the first season was made, it was not expected that streaming would take off as it has, so the streaming rights were not purchased for the music. While television airings and physical media retain the original music, all streaming platforms that carry Supernatural have different music for almost all of the season. The rest of the series, however, has all of the original songs.
What is your favorite musical moment from the 15 seasons of Supernatural? Let us know down in the comments.
