The Nickel Boys soundtrack includes songs by L.C. Steels, Sidney Poitier and Mulatu Astatke. This info article contains composer and music supervisor details for RaMell Ross’ 2024 movie on Amazon, Apple and MGM+. Check out Vague Visages’ Soundtracks of Cinema category for more soundtrack song time codes and track listings.

Nickel Boys stars Ethan Herisse as Elwood, a Black man from Florida who gets wrongfully convicted of stealing a car in 1962. Brandon Wilson co-stars as Turner, the protagonist’s cynical reform school friend. The storyline follows the main protagonists as they develop a bond while fighting against racism and injustice. Composers Scott Alario (Hale County This Morning, This Evening) and Alex Somers (Honey Boy) scored the 140-minute film; music supervisor Gabe Hilfer (Blitz) selected the featured needle-drops. Here’s every song in Nickel Boys, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s 2019 novel The Nickel Boys.

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Nickel Boys Soundtrack: Every Song in the 2024 Movie

• “Come Back Betty” by L.C. Steels (00:10:00): Mr. Hill (Jimmie Fails) talks to Elwood about an opportunity at Melvin Griggs Technical School. The Nickel Boys soundtrack song continues during a transition sequence. A man pokes at Elwood with a cane.
• “Walk Through the Valley” by Edna Gallmon Cooke & The Radio Four (00:15:00): Hattie (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) chats with Elwood during an interior scene. She turns on a radio. The Nickel Boys music plays from the speaker system.
• “Young Girl” by Frank Lynch (00:18:00): Elwood hitchhikes to Melvin Griggs Technical school. A Black driver turns on his radio. He says, “Oh, yeah, there we go.”
• “The Old Ship of Zion” by The Roberta Martin Singers (00:21:00): The Nickel Boys soundtrack song accompanies an interior scene. Hattie says, “Act out of your station… and you will pay.” She talks about her father while sitting at a table.
• “Long Gone (From Bowlin’ Green)” by Sidney Poitier (00:24:00): Elwood gets wrongfully arrested for stealing a car. A movie sequence begins. Sidney Poitier sings during the opening credits of The Defiant Ones (1958).
• “White Christmas” by Studio Musicians (01:22:00): Turner talks about “365 days of humiliations.” The Nickel Boys music continues during a holiday montage sequence. Elwood and Turner stand outside before a boxing event.
• “Tezeta” by Mulatu Astatke (02:07:00): Elwood tries to escape from Nickel Academy. He gets shot and killed by Harper (Fred Hechinger). The track scores a movie-ending epilogue montage in which Turner survives and assumes Elwood’s identity.

Additional uncredited music was provided by APM Music.

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The Nickel Boys soundtrack also includes:

• “Andy Griffith Theme” by Earle Hagen and Herbert Spencer

Q.V. Hough (@QVHough) is Vague Visages’ founding editor.