‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ turns 45: Every song in the midnight movie musical, ranked – USA TODAY

Richard O'Brien and cast perform 'The Time Warp' in the 1975 film 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show.'

Warning: The following contains light spoilers for "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Though, come on, you'vehad 45 years to see how awesome it is. Get with the program.

I would like to take you on a strange journey.

The late Charles Gray's opening words as the criminologist narrator of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" couldn't be more apt. Since 1975, many, many have embraced this wild and wonderful confection that's part campy musical, parthorrorand all midnight movie.

For the uninitiated, "Rocky Horror" a film version of creator Richard O'Brien's stage show stars Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick as Janet Weiss and Brad Majors, a couple of Midwestern squares waylaid by a blown-out tire. They venture to a nearby castle, where they find all manner of weirdness perpetrated by Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry), a cross-dressing mad scientist from the planet Transsexual in the Transylvania galaxy.

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Nell Campbell (from left), Patricia Quinn, Tim Curry and show creator Richard O'Brien reprised their roles from the original "Rocky Horror" stage show for the 1975 movie.(Photo: 20TH CENTURY FOX)

The movie isan ode to old-school science fiction, Hollywood and rock 'n' roll, as well as an exploration of sexual expression and gender fluidity. It's also chock-full of catchy songs. To celebrate Friday's 45th anniversary of "Rocky Horror," we're definitively ranking them all. (Fun fact: There's not a stinker in the bunch.)

Bostwick's solo tune, which Brad sings after he cheats on Janet with Frank and ponders their relationship as Janet watchesvia secret camera got axed from the film's final cut. (You can find it in the extras on various home-video releases.) It's a fine song but definitely not up to snuff comparatively.

A melancholic, space-rock number that only appears in the movie's U.K. cut serves as an epilogue of sorts after a destructive finale where Brad and Janet take stock of what's happened over the course of a life-altering night.

At an awkward dinner, where cannibalism is on the menu, Brad and Janet's college professor Dr. Everett Scott (Jonathan Adams)explains how he wound up at the castle, too: His juvenile-delinquent nephew Eddie (more on him in a bit) got caught up in Frank's charms and sent him a bloody note for help. The best song in the musical that involves a teddy bear. (To be fair, there is only one.)

Rocky (Peter Hinwood), a blond and tanned muscle man created by Frank in his laboratory, runs around in gold briefs in his groovy "It's alive!"moment as the not-so-good doctor screams and obsessively chasesafter him. "Oh! Woe is me! My life is a misery," Rocky sings, although his is a spunky number accented by "Sha la la's" from the Transylvanian chorus.

Janet (Susan Sarandon) and Brad (Barry Bostwick) get a sexual awakening in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."(Photo: 20TH CENTURY FOX)

After their car breaks down,Brad and Janet trudge through the rain and sing this hopeful and a littlehymnalballad about seeing a guiding light at the castle that will lead them to safety not knowing yet what's in store for them.

The Charles Atlas bodybuilding ads of yesteryear, where abullied 90-pound weakling can turn himself around by hitting the gym, is the inspiration for Frank's multilayered tune with tinkling-piano verses taking turns witha swaggering chorus that's both an ode to hitting the weights as well as creating one's own buff lover.

Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon sing 'Dammit Janet' in the 1975 film 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show.'

After attending a wedding of some friends at the beginning of the film, stuffed-shirt Brad and bouquet-catching Janet croon their love and devotion to each other and get engaged! and faux-walk down the aisle accompanied by strings and backup vocals from some sinister members of the church.

When Frank realizes the jig is up and he needs to go back to his planet, he sings this very emotional, Bowie-esque tune to say goodbye although it wont be a happy ending for the bisexual alien doctor.

Meat Loaf sings 'Hot Patootie' in the 1975 film 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show.'

In the movies second-best character introduction, '70s rocker Meat Loaf dons denim and a tenor saxophone as delivery-boybiker dude Eddie, who breaks out of the deep freeze ex-lover Frank stuck him in for a rambunctious, ear-wormingromp. It's all good times until a jealous Frank grabs a pickaxe.

The three-part epic begins withfeather boas and garters galore as Frank dresses up our heroes for his climactic floor show, where the formerly conservative Brad and Janet each get a mini-monologue about being sexually released.An orchestral fanfare leads to "Don't Dream It," Franks ballad shouting outFay Wray as a fashion icon, and after floatingon a Titanic life preserver, the action shifts to the electric, high-kicking number "Wild and Untamed Thing." Totally worthit to see Sarandon and Bostwick both rocking out in lingerie and high heels.

Everybody's wearing fishnets and corsets by the last song-and-dance number of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."(Photo: 20TH CENTURY FOX)

The movie opens with an overture of sorts performed by a pair of disembodied lips that have become the signature"Rocky Horror" hallmark. Sung by O'Brien (who also stars as hunchbacked handyman Riff Raff), the quirky pop tribute to B-movies and serialsincludes many referencesthat inform the movie's narrative. (You mayneed to Google.)

Sarandon gets her time to shine with this sensual and peppy solo.Janet and Brad are put in separate rooms and both are seduced in the night by a shapeshifting Frank in Janet's case, losing her virginity.Sad and confused, she runs into an escaped Rocky and nowhasquite thesexualitch to scratch."

Tim Curry sings 'Sweet Transvestite' in the 1975 film 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show.'

"I'm not much of a man by the light of day, but by night I'm one hell of a lover," Curry's Frank-N-Furter proclaims in his sassy, strutting piece of glam rock, throwing off his cloak, posing confidently in a corset and fishnets, and playfully breaking the fourth wall in one of cinema's all-time entrances.

Exuberant and infectious, "Time Warp" has transcended the movie as a song that tells you how to do it right in the lyrics. In the movie, however, it's a number with doughnuts, tap dancing and many pelvic thrusts that gives a shocked Brad and Janet (andthe audience) a very good hint that this isn't your everyday musical.

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'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' turns 45: Every song in the midnight movie musical, ranked - USA TODAY