The ingredients to make an unforgettable film are a good storyline, a perfect cast, a great scenography and… an engaging soundtrack!
Many people do not put the right attention on the soundtrack: of course, everyone knows the iconic music of sagas like Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings, but not everyone is able to notice and appreciate how certain pieces are put as the background of a precise scene to increase the pathos or to emphasize the importance of what is happening.
Still, music has always been a fundamental part of “seventh art“, the cinema, until becoming important on its own, regardless of the film in which it is included because it is recognized as a true and own artistic masterpiece that deserves its own space in History.
In any case, when you venture into the tunnel of “soundtracks’ dependence” you must know that there is no way back: you start by listening to the melody that you particularly liked from a movie, then you look for all the others and in the end you find yourself listening almost every day to your favorite soundtracks, which almost become a background for some moments of your life.
But which have been the most beloved, wonderful and listened to soundtracks of the last 50 years? Drafting a list was not easy, but we are sure that the following 10 titles will make you aware of how essential (and magic) is the music for the success of a film!
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The 10 Most Memorable Movie Soundtracks
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Title: Star Wars – The Saga
Composer: John Williams
Iconic track: Main Title Theme
Why the soundtrack is important: “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” One of the most famous soundtracks contributed to bringing to the success this saga!
John Williams (also author of the masterpieces’s soundtrack of the first three films of the “Harry Potter” saga, “Indiana Jones”, “Superman”, “Jurassic Park”, “E.T.” and basically all of the Spielberg‘s filmography) for his contribution to all the titles of this saga the composer has been defined by critics as the one who “began a revival in the soundtracks’ field, shifting the perception of grandeur in the direction of great orchestras and radical themes.” The original idea of Lucas for Star Wars was of doing an opera-style score, using different musical styles, but Williams created instead a classical-style music, inspired by the master Igor Stravinsky.
Every musical track is perfectly thought for all the scenes of the film, from those of battle, to the dialogues and to the most touching moments, and also thanks to the lucky Leimotive it is deeply linked to every character and atmosphere.
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The 10 Most Memorable Movie Soundtracks
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Title: Pirates of the Caribbean – the Saga
Composer: Hans Zimmer
Iconic track: He’s a Pirate
Why the soundtrack is important: Raise your hand if you would love to sail to the world’s end with Jack Sparrow every time you hear this song (but also all the soundtrack)!
Did you know that not all the soundtracks were curated by the great Hans Zimmer (author also of the music for “Gladiator”, “The Lion King”, the Batman trilogy signed by Christopher Nolan and of most of his films, including “Interstellar”)?
When Jerry Bruckheimer finished the edit of “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the First Moon”, he was not satisfied with the music composed by Alan Silvestri and he wanted then to replace him with Zimmer. But Hans Zimmer was composing the music of “The Last Samurai” and he had to refuse the task that was in the end given to Klaus Badelt, one of the Zimmer’s colleagues at Media Ventures.
Zimmer has however provided some scores used in the first title and he was then hired as the composer for all the sequels. Only the last chapter, “Dead Men Tell No Tales” is not signed by Zimmer, who was busy composing the music for Nolan’s “Dunkirk”. The work was given to George Zanelli, his faithful collaborator in many other films, who followed with scrupulous attention the footsteps, or rather, the pirate route of his colleague.
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The 10 Most Memorable Movie Soundtracks
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Title: Braveheart
Composer: James Horner
Iconic track: Sons of Scotland
Why the soundtrack is important: James Horner is well-known as the composer of the “Titanic“‘s soundtrack (which earned him two Oscars in 1998), but during his career, he had the opportunity to compose the music of other famous titles, including the “Braveheart”’s one.
For the execution of the songs he chose nothing less than the London Symphony Orchestra, giving life to some of the most famous, excited and “Celtics” melodies ever, the only ones able to compete with the power of the William Wallace’s words: “They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!”
Following the large success of the soundtrack (which earned him an Academy Award nomination in 1996), in 1997 came out a new edition entitled “More Music from Braveheart” that expanded the material already contained in the first version (1995), also through the insertion of the dialogs.
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The 10 Most Memorable Movie Soundtracks
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Title: Inception
Composer: Hans Zimmer
Iconic track: Dream is Collapsing
Why the soundtrack is important: Hans Zimmer composed the music of this film involving the guitarist Johnny Marr, former member of The Smiths: thanks to the fusion between the sound of a 12-string guitar and the one of an orchestral line it was possible to create the atmosphere of restlessness and anguish that accompanies the protagonists in their journeys through the various dream’s levels.
To emphasize even more the gloom and surrealism of the film, Zimmer mixed the orchestral performances with electronic music: the intention was to create nostalgic and romantic sounds capable of accompanying the spectator into the dream’s reality, and for succeeding in this operation, the director Christopher Nolan involved Zimmer step by step in the making of the film; so that the development of the music was coordinated with the end of the filming.
One last curiosity: the track “Dream is Collapsing” was often used by Dream Theater as intro of their concerts. A dream in the dream, even musically speaking!
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The 10 Most Memorable Movie Soundtracks
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Title: The Graduate
Composer: Simon & Garfunkel
Iconic track: The Sound of Silence
Why the soundtrack is important: Besides being one of the most famous films of all time, The Graduate is also one of the best examples of a perfect fusion between images and music: the soundtrack was entrusted by director Mike Nichols to Simon & Garfunkel when their popularity was at the best.
Together, they did nothing but place strategically during all the film some of their just engraved songs, adding only an original composition, “The Sound of Silence”. The rest of the soundtrack was completed by Dave Grusin, a famous jazz pianist of the time.
The album containing “The Graduate”‘s soundtrack was not initially planned but it was then published in 1968 to satisfy the many requests of the fans and it was such a success that it ended up rooting out from the top of the charts even the “White Album” of the Beatles.
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The 10 Most Memorable Movie Soundtracks
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Title: The Lord of the Rings – The Saga
Composer: Howard Leslie Shore
Iconic track: The Fellowship of the Ring – The Shire Theme
Why the soundtrack is important: 44,000 radio listeners, in a survey promoted by the british broadcaster Classic FM, voted the soundtrack of The Lord of the Rings as the best of all time. A victory definitely deserved if you just think about the success of the saga, inspired by the J.R.R. Tolkien‘s masterpiece, which has become more and more successful over the years.
Shore won the Oscar in 2002 for the soundtrack of “The Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring” and in 2004 for “The Lord of the Rings – the Return of the King” one, and he won also an Oscar for the best original song with “Into The West”, played by Annie Lennox.
The soundtrack of the saga became later a symphonic work composed of 6 movements for orchestra and chorus that, from 2003, has been performed all over the world by the best orchestras, directed by Howard Shore himself.
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The 10 Most Memorable Movie Soundtracks
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Title: Alien
Composer: Jerry Goldsmith
Iconic track: Face Hugger
Why the soundtrack is important: The soundtrack of Alien is one of Goldsmith’s masterpieces (in his curriculum he includes the music of “Rambo”, “The Mummy”, “Star Trek” and “Chinatown”) and it is considered “Avant-Garde” for the fact that it acts as a dissonant and bleak “background” to a story already quite disturbing and intense by itself, accentuating in this way the intense atmosphere.
To achieve this result, Goldsmith also used typical instruments of the 16th century, such as the serpentine, and ethnic ones like the shofar and the didgeridoo. Other instruments were then used in such an atypical way to “give voice” to the film’s creature that they become unrecognizable once recorded.
However, not all recorded airs were included in the film, since it was decided to use some music from other projects instead (like those taken by “Freud”, also composed by Goldsmith, whose rights were bought by director Ridley Scott without the composer’s authorization). The complete soundtrack was released for the 20th anniversary of the film.
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The 10 Most Memorable Movie Soundtracks
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Title: Back to the Future
Composer: Alan Silvestri
Iconic track: Overture
Why the soundtrack is important: The soundtrack to “Back to the Future” is full of great pop songs from “The Power of Love” to “Johnny B. Goode”, but the music that makes you reach the 88 miles per hour as soon as it plays is the overture signed by Alan Silvestri.
Master of cinema’s music, Silvestri has written some of the most beloved and famous themes including the one of The Avengers and the suite for “Forrest Gump”, that is always able to make us fly with the imagination, like a feather in the wind.
For “Back to the Future”, Silvestri created a magical overture, which fully encompasses the Sci and the Fi of the Robert Zemeckis‘ cult (with which he also collaborated for “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”): it is played by an orchestra formed by 98 components, the largest ever used for a film at the time, which was renamed for the occasion “The Outatime Orchestra“.
Even out of the cinema context the music of “Back to the future” are perfect for those who want to get in the car and take any road. “What do I say, roads?! Where we are going, we don’t need roads!”
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The 10 Most Memorable Movie Soundtracks
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Title: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Composer: Ennio Morricone
Iconic track: The Ecstasy of Gold
Why the soundtrack is important: It is perhaps the most famous of the Master Ennio Morricone, marked by the unmistakable style of the Roman composer made of his epic, his choirs, his rhythms in continuous trotting, perfect for the Spaghetti Westerns that have made him famous, but at the same time full of emphasis and pathos.
When you listen to any of Morricone’s work you can understand how much the old school can still teach the new one: the emotions that he is able to give to his scores are unique and probably no other composer among those we have mentioned here has ever managed to create even just an air that is at the level of the Italian master’s ones.
The Morricone/Leone pair is ranked among the most important composer/director couples of all time, like the one formed by Nino Rota and Fellini or the before mentioned Williams/Spielberg, and it has generated some of the most beautiful scenes in the entire Cinema’s history.
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The 10 Most Memorable Movie Soundtracks
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Title: Blade Runner
Composer: Vangelis
Iconic track: End Theme
Why the soundtrack is important: “Blade Runner” is one of the symbol of the sci-fi genre, with a deep storyline that is not very suitable for the big masses. It is a film that has revolutionized the way to imagine the future and consequently the present. The same did the music of Vangelis, which has revolutionized the world of soundtracks by introducing a completely new style, far from the orchestral compositions and based instead on artificial sounds, clearing the synthesizer also in music for the visual arts.
The long notes of the Blade Runner’s final theme go up from the stomach until they totally upset you with a completely new rhythm, mechanical, coming from another era, and they accompany Rick Deckard to the awareness of his being, lighting him the way as if they were an Olympic torch on the notes of “Chariots of Fire” (main theme of the homonymous film, composed by Vangelis too: as you see, we never say random stuff).
