Every Song on 'The Last Dance' Soundtrack

The Last Dance, now airing on Netflix, chronicled the final season that Michael Jordan played for the Chicago Bulls in 1997-98.
The doc features a slew of high-profile songs, including old school rap hits by LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, and OutKast.
Find the full song list and links to stream the music of The Last Dance below.

The Last Dance is a sprawling documentary that focuses on the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls season, but also tells the story of the rise of Michael Jordan, as well as Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman, throughout the '80s and '90s. To capture that, music supervisor Rudy Chung chose a wide range of songs from that era, focusing particularly on classic hip-hop.

Tracks by OutKast, Run-DMC, LL Cool J, Naughty By Nature, and A Tribe Called Quest all capture the sound of Jordan's playing era, which lasted from 1984-1993, as well as his return to the Bulls from 1995-1998. Some non-hip-hop records that made it into The Last Dance include songs by Prince, Cream, and Fatboy Slim.

"Sirius," written by The Alan Parsons Project in 1982, appears in the documentary and was used throughout the Jordan era as the Bulls' starting lineup intro music. It continues to be used by the team today.

Another notable song featured in the show is "Be Like Mike," which was used in a popular Gatorade commercial starring Jordan. It was inspired by the Jungle Book song "I Wanna Be Like You," and featured new lyrics by Bernie Pitzel that are about Jordan.

"Sometimes I dream / That he is me / You've got to see that's how I dream to be / I dream I move, I dream I groove / Like Mike," the song goes.

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Chung, a veteran in the industry, also worked on the docuseries Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men, as well as shows like Silicon Valley and Everybody Hates Chris.

At the emotional conclusion of the 10-hour series is Pearl Jam's "Present Tense," a song from the band's 1996 album No Code. Though it doesn't exactly fit the rest of the music, director Jason Hehir told The Seattle Times it was a song he wanted to use since he first heard it as a college student.

“I remember thinking, when I heard that, that would be such a cool song to cut highlights to,” Hehir said. “This is long before I even became involved in the industry.”

Hehir said he did look for a rap song for that climactic scene, but he couldn't find one and went back to "Present Tense." In a strange turn of events, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder once played the song at the United Center—home of the Bulls—and talked about how it connected music and athleticism.

Below is the complete list of songs used on The Last Dance soundtrack, along with a Spotify playlist of "Music from and inspired by" the historic documentary.

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