While Gen Z’s Spider-Man is Tom Holland, Tobey Maguire was the friendly neighborhood wall-crawler for the millennial generation. And that generation got an emo anthem in 2004’s Spider-Man 2.
The film’s soundtrack, which turns 20 on Saturday, memorably spawned the Dashboard Confessional song “Vindicated,” creating a bond that frontman Chris Carrabba continues to feel.
“I do have a connection to the movie,” Carrabba told ABC Audio in 2021. “It’s all tied to these great memories that I had of being creative, myself. And getting a break from somebody in a vaulted place.”
“Vindicated” would eventually appear on the 2006 Dashboard album Dusk and Summer. In between, it became Dashboard’s highest-charting alternative radio single.
“We had to wait to put it out, it was exclusive to them for awhile,” Carrabba shared. “But it’s OK, it was in good company, the bands on that soundtrack are great. And the song did OK even though it wasn’t on one of our records for awhile. “
Among those also on the soundtrack were Hoobastank, Taking Back Sunday, Jet, Yellowcard and Queen‘s Brian May. Hoobastank frontman Doug Robb recalls that his band’s contribution, “Did You,” was leftover from another album session.
“When you go to record an album, you end up recording 15 or 16 songs, and only 12 make it,” Robb says. “So you have all these extras for that purpose, literally. I remember our manager saying that, like, ‘Yeah, you gotta have some bangers that you leave off [for] soundtracks!"”
Certain international editions also included Switchfoot‘s “Meant to Live.”
“It’s always so wild when your song is used for something other than itself, when it’s used in a movie or a TV show or something like that,” frontman Jon Foreman said in 2022. “It’s such an honor.”
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