'The Last Dance' Soundtrack: Where to Find Every Song Featured in ESPN's Michael Jordan Documentary

By Dan Cancian On 5/19/20 at 5:15 AM EDT

Throughout the last five weeks, many aspects of The Last Dance earned plaudits. From the behind-the-scenes footage to the range of interviews and the format, ESPN's 10-part documentary chronicling Michael Jordan's final season with the Chicago Bulls won almost universal praise.

One aspect that stood out for many of the viewers was the soundtrack, which accompanied the show throughout its 10 episodes. Not only does the soundtrack features a wide range of artists, it also spans completely different music genres.

Director Jason Hehir explained the choice of including such an eclectic mix of songs was deliberately done to ensure the soundtrack reflected the decades it covered.

"I think we pretty quickly realized that the best thing was to tell the story with songs from the era," he told The New York Times.

"The entire story of the Bulls for someone like me, who's 43-years-old, is grounded in nostalgia.

"I really wanted to reflect the music of the times in telling the story of the '80s and '90s and the world the Bulls were living in."

From Pearl Jam to Kenny Lattimore, Prince to Beastie Boys and Run DMC to Fatboy Slim, the soundtrack covers a multitude of genres and charts key developments of the U.S. music scene.

"It just seemed that with the rise of the Bulls from obscure NBA team to global symbols of American pop culture and the rise of hip-hop from obscure musical genre to a global symbol of American pop culture, there were direct parallels from 1984 to 1998," Hehir added.

While Hehir selected each song himself, he was helped in the process by Rudy Chung, music supervisor for The Last Dance. Chung explained how the priority for the producers was to find songs that complemented the episodes, as opposed to simply pick the best songs available.

"It wasn't about making a great soundtrack necessarily," he was quoted as saying by The Ringer. "With all these film and TV projects, it's about making the best episodes possible. Music was just one component of that."

The soundtrack is composed of 29 songs, which are listed below, and each of them is available on a Spotify playlist titled "The Last Dance", which features "music from and inspired by The Last Dance."

The playlist features a total of 55 songs including tracks that did not appear in the documentary.