As some of you know, I’m mildly obsessed with the marriage of music and video in commercials, movies, and the like. I spend a lot of time after watching films looking for soundtracks, bands, and songs from the stuff I watch. It’s unhealthy enough that I’m building another site to expand the TV Commercial Music post that has garnered so many comments (If I knew even the least bit about hair dye, I might’ve done that one too). Well, every once in a while you just come across an amazing blend of the music and story in very unlikely places.

Heidi is currently obsessed with Scrubs. She’s been watching reruns on Tivo for weeks, ordered the early seasons in DVD from Netflix and has otherwise been Scrubs obsessed. There was a great set of episodes in Season 5, My Lunch [] and My Fallen Idol []. The end of My Lunch features a song by The Fray called How to Save a Life. The blend of the music with the story here is amazing.

Of course, this being 2007, you don’t need to take my word for it as someone posted the clip to YouTube. Enjoy it (spoiler warning!):

It’s a great scene, especially if you know the characters.

The song has been featured in both Scrubs and Grey’s Anatomy among many other shows. Heidi and I spent half the car ride back to CT from Philly yesterday analyzing and reanalyzing the lyrics [], trying to figure out what the song was about. It’s such a broad song and open to so many interpretations that we bounced from a couple talking about an abortion to a breakup to someone wondering if they could’ve helped a suicide. It turns out that the song was inspired by the writer’s experiences working in a camp for troubled teens. Within that frame, it’s equally powerful.

The song has inspired a PSA campaign catalyzed by the death of a teen in a car accident. The videos on the campaigns YouTube group are touching. Worth a quick look.

The song was also mentioned on an TV show I saw recently (blanking on which show/network) that talked about how these songs make it onto your favorite TV shows. They featured Alexandra Patsavas who is the music supervisor for the O.C. and Grey’s Anatomy. She runs Chop Shop Music Supervision and is behind a bunch of the music you hear on TV. She was recently featured in a NY Post interview. How does one become a music supervisor? Read the interview.

The most recent video for this song is also great.

If you want to know more, there’s even a Wikipedia entry for the song (yes, I’m serious, go look!).

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