The Most Recognizable Movie Music
Compiled by Jeff Bond and Lukas Kendall
On the subject of The Most Recognizable Movie Score Themes, we received
this mountain of e-mail:
Jeff Commings, Jeffswim@aol.com:
I asked my roommate, who is not a big film score fan like myself,
and asked him what film scores stick in his head the most. Of course he
said Star Wars and Jaws, but I was also surprised that he mentioned Indiana
Jones and Chariots of Fire! Not that I disagree with him, but Indiana Jones
doesn't naturally come to my head most of the time. I also have to disagree
that the themes from Jaws and Psycho aren't really tunes. If it's music,
then it's a tune!
I find myself wondering how familiar Chariots of Fire is going to
be in ten or twenty years. The movie itself is hardly a cultural artifact
at this point, and itıs so grounded in a dated, 80s synth and percussion
style that I canıt see it going on to become the kind of pop culture touchstone
that weıll be returning to in decades hence. Similarly, while Moroderıs
Midnight Express was a stunning contribution to film music at its time,
I wonder how many people are going to be able to hum that theme in the
next century.
I think we can already see an example of that in the best-selling soundtracks
from the 1950s--The Eddy Duchin Story, Charade, and so forth. Even
with some of the musicals and their best-known songs, thereıs a whole generation
that doesnıt recognize the tunes. -LK
Jon Owens, JOWENS@usagroup.com:
Two notable omissions: Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the
Indiana Jones theme.
The theme from CE3K became a part of the story and I don't know
of too many people who wouldn't recognize it outside the film. In fact
I just verified this with co-workers who don't listen to film scores. They
immediately recognized both themes.
I was fortunate to recently attend a lecture at USC given by composer
Kevin Kaska, who has put a great deal of time and effort into analyzing
John Williamsıs music and exactly why we will be humming the tunes to Indiana
Jones and CE3K many years into the future. But if I told your readers any
of the trade secrets revealed at this lecture John Williams would have
to kill you.
Jeff and I saw Kevin later that evening. Heıs done some great research
regarding Williams and we hope itıs available one day. Donıt ask where
you can get his stuff for now, since you canıt, but give us time to persuade
him. -LK
Mark Bagby bagby@calcot.com:
Depends on the generation and the audience, of course...
But, a partial list would have to include Bernstein's Magnificent
Seven and Great Escape, the Colonel Bogey March from Bridge on the River
Kwai, Ernest Gold's Exodus, Tubular Bells from The Exorcist, The Entertainer
from The Sting, Over the Rainbow from Wizard of Oz, Laura by David Raksin,
just about anything by Alan Menken for Disney animated features, A Summer
Place by Max Steiner, Never on Sunday, Theme from Moulin Rouge, Michel
Legrand's The Windmills of Your Mind & Summer of '42, Francis Lai's
Love Story, The Godfather and Romeo & Juliet by Nino Rota, The Way
We Were...
This really needs more parameters. Are we talking about general
audiences? I'm assuming we are...which in most cases means they're a lot
more familiar with title songs, or the theme therefrom as played ad infinitum-nauseam
in a variety of recordings and renditions. Which is why, say, Tiomkin's
High Noon, or Singin' in the Rain, or the like, are easily and readily
recognized...as are Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra, etc.
The problem today, as Miklos Rosza noted in his autobiography, is
that the pop-oriented score, while it sells lots of records, does not necessarily
enhance the film and certainly does little to educate the listener. He
compared film scoring to having the opportunity to having a captive audience
and the composer had an opportunity--nay, an obligation--to provide the
best music possible. I'm convinced much of the problem facing modern day
listeners of fine music is a constant exposure to music which does not
challenge them as listeners (other than trying to decipher incomprehensible
and insipid lyrics from an over-bassed and over-beaten rhythm track). That's
not to say all popular music is bad... to the contrary, much of it is fine.
But when that's all your musical diet runs to, you will not be healthy.
It's akin to eating only one food all the time. That may be fine for dogs,
but hey, we're human beings and capable of so much more. I hope.
Well, we have to eliminate songs here (unless the song is developed
from a theme that is clearly played as a part of the score in addition
to being sung); otherwise weıd be here all night. I know the Colonel Bogey
March was evidently all the rage in its day, but I can barely remember
a note of the score to A Bridge On the River Kwai, even after having
seen the movie half a dozen times. And Laura is something that I
think is quite familiar to people well-versed in music, but probably not
so much to the general public anymore. But the rest of your choices would
have a strong chance of being recognized. -Bond
Sean OıNeill, emerging@mondenet.com
The recognizable film tunes to memory are as follows:
Star Trek Fanfare - Courage
Star Trek The Motion Picture opening theme and/or Star Trek Next
Generation opening theme - Courage and Goldsmith
The Raiders March - Williams
Theme from The Magnificent Seven - Bernstein
Titles from Charriots Of Fire - Vangelis
and maybe even perhaps The Impierial March - Williams
You might not recognize the Chariots of Fire theme to be from the
movie, but you might recognize it to be heard on the summer Olympic broadcastings.
Perhaps we should make another list, most recognizable music from movies
for which people have no idea what the original movie is. #1) ³Fire in
Brooklyn Theater² from Come See the Paradise! -LK
Jeffrey Heise, jdh@socialstudies.com
I would have to pick "Tara's Theme" from Gone with the
Wind-hands down. Yes, the themes from Jaws and Star Wars and even the Bond
films might be more familiar to today's ears, but think about this: they
all had record albums to back them up! There was no recording of the GWTW
theme for close to fifteen years, and no release of the OST until the mid-60's!
Yet I remember hearing this piece of music a lot when I was very young
(pre-teen) and many of the people who were avid moviegoers when the film
came out just had to hear a few bars and know what movie that music was
from, and they didn't even have a recording of it. Today's films have the
music you can buy, but this theme almost has the longevity of a piece of
folk music-passed from one generation to another.
Good point. When people downplay the importance of Max Steiner (something
Iım certainly guilty of), they often forget what a monolithic hold on the
American public movies had in the days when Steiner was writing. He probably
had greater exposure than just about any film composer to date with the
possible exception of John Williams. Movies in the 30s and 40s were like
the Big Three television networks were in the 60s: there was no competition,
and just about everybody watched them. -Bond
Village Christian School Staff <vcs01@telis.org>
Here's a memorable movie theme for you: Chariots of Fire. How many
people fell in love with music and/or movie music from this one movie alone?
I know it changed my perception of movie music. Not bad for an electronic
score. Vangelis outdid himself with this one.
Vangelis has written more than his share of memorable tunes, many of
them winding up on television commercials and worming their way into the
public psyche that way. But again, I have to wonder if any of these are
going to still have people humming by the time we all get High Definition
Television in the 25th century... -Bond
Do you have ideas as to the Most Recognizable Movie Music? We want to
milk this baby but good. Send to MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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