The HBO television drama The Sopranos received considerable critical attention for effective use of an eclectic array of music. Series creator David Chase personally selected all the show's music, with the producer Martin Bruestle and music editor Kathryn Dayak—sometimes also consulting Steven Van Zandt, who portrays Silvio Dante on the show and is also a guitarist for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. They often selected music after completing an episode's production and editing, but occasionally filmed sequences to match pre-selected pieces of music. Stylistically, the music on the show ranges from mainstream pop (Britney Spears, The Bangles) to oldies and classic rock artists (The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd), from classic jazz and soul (Ella Fitzgerald, Ben E. King) to hip-hop (Xzibit, Time Zone), often within a single episode.

Opening credits

In the opening credits for each episode, Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) drives from the Lincoln Tunnel to his home in North Caldwell, New Jersey. The musical accompaniment for this segment is the "Chosen One Mix" of the song "Woke Up This Morning" by the British band Alabama 3 (known in the United States as A3 for legal reasons). "Woke Up This Morning (Chosen One Mix)" is four minutes and five seconds long, so a shortened version of it is used in the opening credits, which is approximately one minute and thirty seconds long.

End credits

Each episode's closing credits sequence features a unique piece of previously recorded music, with few exceptions. The episode "A Hit Is a Hit" uses a song by the fictional band Defiler, which appeared earlier in the episode. Three episodes feature multiple songs in the credits sequence ("Commendatori," "Whitecaps" and "Cold Stones"), while two episodes ("Full Leather Jacket" and "Made in America") have no music at all. The following is a list of songs used at the end of each episode:

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5

Season 6

Alternate music in Europe

For the version of the series aired in Europe, the producers partially replaced the music for licensing reasons. European DVD editions (in the case of the first season, only the 16:9 re-issue) contain these altered versions as foreign-language dubs as well as the original unaltered English soundtrack in Dolby Digital 5.1.

Soundtrack compilations

To date, there have been two official soundtrack compilations released in association with The Sopranos. The first, titled The Sopranos: Music from the HBO Original Series, was released in 1999, and contains selections from the show's first two seasons. The second, titled The Sopranos: Peppers & Eggs: Music from the HBO Original Series, was released in 2001, and contains two Compact Discs of songs from the show's first three seasons.

Track listings

The Sopranos: Music from the HBO Original Series

The Sopranos - Peppers & Eggs: Music from the HBO Series

Disc one

Disc two