Entertainment

Paul Simon, the Shins and Snow Patrol don't sound much alike, but they have one thing in common: A major debt to Zach Braff.

Mr. Braff is best known as the star of TV's Scrubs and director of the '04 sleeper film Garden State. But the 31-year-old New Jersey native also is an obsessive rock fan who's emerged as a music biz mover and shaker.

His handpicked Garden State soundtrack sold 1.2 million copies, won a Grammy and lifted the career of the little-known Albuquerque band the Shins. It also pumped new life into a 34-year-old Simon & Garfunkel tune, "The Only Living Boy in New York": Mr. Simon is singing it every night on tour and telling audiences Garden State inspired him to resurrect the song.

"The fact that Paul Simon liked my movie puts me in a good mood whenever I'm down," Mr. Braff says. "I printed out his quote and put it above my computer. It still makes me smile every time I see it."

He's hoping to get a similar reaction with the music in The Last Kiss , the new coming-of-age dramedy he stars in. Directed by Tony Goldwyn, the film doesn't open until Sept. 15, but the Braff-compiled soundtrack CD hit stores last week.

The disc shuffles between songs by well-known acts (Coldplay, Fiona Apple), up-and-comers (Amos Lee, Remy Zero) and lesser-knowns (Joshua Radin, the Cary Brothers). The common denominator, Mr. Braff says, is that every song is essential to the film.

"So many people finish their movie and say, 'OK, stick some songs in there.' But a great soundtrack uses songs that take a scene to a new level. And the album becomes a souvenir of that emotional experience."

He's hardly the first Hollywood type to see grand potential in soundtracks: The Graduate soundtrack featuring Simon & Garfunkel topped the charts in 1968. Saturday Night Fever's double-LP sold more than 25 million copies. In recent years, Quentin Tarantino has redefined the soundtrack with his cutting-edge mix-tapes for Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown and Kill Bill.

Mr. Braff takes a more conventional bent: "I'm the first to tell you I don't know a whole lot about music," he says by phone from his home in the Hollywood Hills.

"I just know what I like: Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor, Billy Joel, John Denver. That's what my parents listened to when I was a kid, and a lot of the music on The Last Kiss soundtrack is the modern version of those people. It's guys and girls with guitars."

Both the movie and the CD kick off with "Chocolate," a chiming, driving tune by the Irish band Snow Patrol. The choice was inspired by Mr. Braff's childhood love for The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink.

"'Chocolate' is a great anthem, you know, like all those John Hughes movies that had their anthems," Mr. Braff says. "It had to be a song that could dictate the scale and tone of the movie."

He also took a musical cue or two from Cameron Crowe, the Rolling Stone writer-turned-director of Say Anything, Singles and Jerry Maguire.

"I remember seeing Say Anything and thinking 'God, this is the soundtrack to my life. This music is about my generation.' It just made it so exciting. Like this person feels the same feelings I do."

Say Anything forever linked Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" with the image of a lovesick John Cusack holding a boombox beneath his girlfriend's window. Mr. Braff wants The Last Kiss to work similar magic with Imogen Heap's off-kilter lullaby "Hide and Seek" and Mr. Radin's cello-laced "Star Mile."

He's practically a cheerleader for Mr. Radin: He gave the Cleveland-raised singer his big break by putting "Winter" on Scrubs, which led to a deal with Columbia Records. He also directed the video to Mr. Radin's "Closer."

"He reminds me of a young Paul Simon," Mr. Braff says. "His voice is just flawless, and I just think he writes some of the sweetest love songs I've ever heard."

Like a lot of music fanatics, the actor is always on the prowl for intriguing new bands. He asks fans to recommend CDs at www.zachbraff.com – a recent tip led to his current obsession, Jump Little Children – and he also relies on his Scrubs mates to turn him on to new groups.

It was on the set of Scrubs that he fell head over heels for the indie-rock band the Shins. Later, he worked the group into a Garden State scene in which Natalie Portman slaps a pair of headphones on Mr. Braff and declares "The Shins will change your life!"

That phrase became the name of a now-defunct blog poking fun at would-be hipsters who heap praise on obscure acts. But Mr. Braff stands by the line – "they're a pretty astonishing band" – and the emotion behind it.

"Music really can change your life," he says, getting tongue-tied as he stops to think about it.

"It's a very powerful art form that makes you feel a whole lot less lonely," he says. "You connect with people through music, and you think, 'God, I'm not alone.' Music saves you when you need saving."

E-mail tchristensen@dallasnews.com