20 greatest movie soundtracks: The Times

[Maurice]

chosen by The Times 'Playlist' magazine:



1. Lawrence of Arabia (Maurice Jarre, 1962)



2. The Third Man (Anton Karas, 1949)



3. The Magnificent Seven (Elmer Bernstein, 1960)



4. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Ennio Morricone, 1966)



5. Casablanca (Maz Steiner, 1942)



6. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (John Barry, 1969)



7. Shaft (Isaac Hayes, 1971)



8. Dirty Harry (Lalo Schifrin, 1972)



9. The Harder They Come (Jimmy Cliff, 1972)



10. Taxi Driver (Bernard Herrmann, 1975)



11. Saturday Night Fever (The Bee Gees, 1977)



12. Star Wars (John Williams, 1977)



13. Midnight Express (Giorgio Moroder, 1978)



14. Blade Runner (Vangelis, 1982)



15. Koyaanisqatsi (Philip Glass, 1982)



16. Purple Rain (Prince and the Revolution, 1984)



17. Paris, Texas (Ry Cooder, 1984)



18. American Beauty (Thomas Newman, 1999)



19. The Piano (Michael Nyman, 1993)



20. The Last Temptation of Christ (Peter Gabriel, 1988)

[will.15]

No Godfather?

No High Noon?

No Psycho?

No The Great Escape?

No Jaws?

No Citizen Kane

No Laura?

No Now Voyager?

No Exorcist?

No Wizard of Oz?

No Mary Poppins?

No The Graduate?

No Midnight Cowboy?

No Captain Blood?

No Gone with the Wind?

[GoggleboxUK]

That looks like a list put together by someone who has only seen 25 films.

Purple Rain doesn't even figure in the Top 100 albums let alone the Top 20 soundtracks. If you're going to have 'modern' chart music in there then surely The Song Remains the Same, any of The Beatles' movies or even Grease are more worthy?

[jimw1]

name='GoggleboxUK']That looks like a list put together by someone who has only seen 25 films.

Maybe only 20................



wheres "The Mission" Ennio Morricone.......

[GoggleboxUK]

name='jimw1']Maybe only 20................



wheres "The Mission" Ennio Morricone.......

I was allowing for 5 Disney films viewed as a child.



Mind you, if that was the case The Jungle Book would be in that list.

[Sleepin_Dragon]

Oooh Godfather and Gladiator are missing there

[vincenzo]

So are Ben Hur and The Big Country.

[Freddie Freeloader]

name='will.15']No Godfather?

No High Noon?

No Psycho?

No The Great Escape?

No Jaws?

No Citizen Kane

No Laura?

No Now Voyager?

No Exorcist?

No Wizard of Oz?

No Mary Poppins?

No The Graduate?

No Midnight Cowboy?

No Captain Blood?

No Gone with the Wind?

No The Wild Bunch?

No The Day The Earth Stood Still?

No Catch Me If You Can?

No 8 1/2 ?

No Vertigo ?

No Sweet Smell Of Success?

No Rosemary's Baby?

No ET,The ExtraTerrestial?

No Cape Fear (1962)?

No One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest?

No Breakfast At Tiffany's?

No The Overlanders?

No The Man With The Golden Arm?

No The 49th Parallel ?

No The Edge Of The World?

No The Red Shoes?

No Anatomy Of A Murder?

[christoph404]

Including the Bee Gees and "Saturday Night Fever" and Prince "Purple Rain" on that list says it all, whoever compiled it is not worth taking seriously.

But on the subject of memorable film scores, I was watching a recently purchased blu ray copy of the original "Planet Of the Apes" over the weekend, the music by Jerry Goldsmith has got to be one of the best soundtracks ever, its brilliant, I would certainly include that in a top 20 list.

[GoggleboxUK]

Didn't that movie include The Funky Gibbon by The Goodies?

[Reeldigger]

Not a single score by Miklos Rozsa. If I took these lists seriously I would be shouting heresy. The writer was obviously someone who is inclined towards "pop" scores. Hence, Casablanca gets cited as Max Steiner's best score because of the film's indentificiation with the song "As Time Goes By." I doubt if any hardcore film music afficionado would regard it as being anywhere near Steiner's best work.

[Steve Crook]

name='Reeldigger']Not a single score by Miklos Rozsa. If I took these lists seriously I would be shouting heresy. The writer was obviously someone who is inclined towards "pop" scores. Hence, Casablanca gets cited as Max Steiner's best score because of the film's indentificiation with the song "As Time Goes By." I doubt if any hardcore film music afficionado would regard it as being anywhere near Steiner's best work.

As you doubtless know, "As Time Goes By" wasn't anything to do with Steiner. It was composed for a stage play.



The rest of the score for Casablanca isn't exactly memorable as one of the best scores of all time. That's not what the film is usually remembered for



Steve

[GoggleboxUK]

Isn't there a difference between a soundtrack and a score? If I recall correctly I have seen examples of both being available on CD for certain movies.



Surely a soundtrack uses songs whereas a score uses instrumental music?



Wikipedia seems to back this up:



[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_score]Film score - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

[Steve Crook]

name='GoggleboxUK']Isn't there a difference between a soundtrack and a score?

Yes, they're different. One's got 10 letters and the other's only got 5

But they both begin with an 's' so they must be related



You're quite right, the soundtrack is everything you hear in the film including sound effects and dialogue where the score is just the music.



That's yet another thing that the person who compiled this list doesn't seem to know anything about.



Steve

[torinfan]

No Urban Cowboy?

No FM? (the soundtrack was better than the movie!)

[Mr Sloane]

Kings Row is a favourite of mine in the traditional sense.



My favourite score using old records is the one for Diner ( the records are contemporary to the action), an overlooked film IMO.

[Edward G]

No "Superman"?

[Rick C]

name='Steve Crook']Yes, they're different. One's got 10 letters and the other's only got 5

But they both begin with an 's' so they must be related



You're quite right, the soundtrack is everything you hear in the film including sound effects and dialogue where the score is just the music.



That's yet another thing that the person who compiled this list doesn't seem to know anything about.



Steve

I thought the "score" was what the musicians read in the studio, and the "soundtrack" is what we listeners listen to at home on LP/CD or whatever?

[christoph404]

name='Steve Crook']Yes, they're different. One's got 10 letters and the other's only got 5

But they both begin with an 's' so they must be related



You're quite right, the soundtrack is everything you hear in the film including sound effects and dialogue where the score is just the music.



That's yet another thing that the person who compiled this list doesn't seem to know anything about.



Steve

I wouldn't disagree with that definition but there does seem to be a dual usage at times. I have quite a few "soundtrack" Cds and "music from the film" Cds as well. For example my CD of John Barry's music from the film "Deadfall" reads on the cover "Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" "Composed and conducted by John Barry". There is no dialogue on the CD, only music, but it refers to the original soundtrack because this was the actual music recording used in the film and not rerecorded at a later date. The same goes for CD of "The Ipcress File" which says on the cover "The original Soundtrack Album" , composed and arranged and conducted by John Barry. Another example would be Barry's music for the Bond films, OHMSS reads "Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" So I think there is a convention of referring to film music as the "original soundtrack" when it is the actual music recorded for the film. There are plenty of generic film music CDs and compilations which would be referred to as "Music from the film" denoting that it is a rerecording made at a later date with different orchestra and arrangement.

[torinfan]

Beyond the Sea