Forrest Gump: The Soundtrack is the soundtrack album for the 1994 Academy Award-winning Tom Hanks film Forrest Gump, and contains music from many well-known American artists. The score, composed by Alan Silvestri, was released separately (as Forrest Gump – Original Motion Picture Score) on the same day. The album was reissued in 2001 with two additional tracks, namely "Running on Empty" by Jackson Browne and "Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood Mac. Reflecting on compiling the soundtrack, the film's music producer Joel Sill stated "We wanted to have very recognizable material that would pinpoint time periods, yet we didn't want to interfere with what was happening cinematically." According to Sill, director Robert Zemeckis requested all the music in the film to be from American artists because he thought that was the only kind of music that the main character, the titular Forrest Gump, would buy, further stating "All the material in there is American. Bob (Zemeckis) felt strongly about it. He felt that Forrest wouldn't buy anything but American."

Commercial Performance

The soundtrack jumped from number 34 to 7 on the Billboard 200 albums chart on July 30, 1994. The next week on August 6, 1994, it moved from number 7 to 3, staying there for one week. It reached its peak position of number 2 on the chart on August 13, 1994, staying there for seven weeks until September 17, 1994, when it was displaced by the soundtrack of The Lion King. The Forrest Gump soundtrack dropped from the charts on October 15, 1994. In Canada, it reached number one for one week in September 1994.

Track listing

Disc one

Disc two

Note: Tracks 12 and 15 on Disc 2 are additional bonus tracks on the 2001 Collector's Edition CD.

Additional songs

Songs in the movie but not on the soundtrack include: John Lennon's song "Imagine" is mentioned and has its lyrics quoted, but was not used in the film.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Sales and certifications