What's your favourite film soundtrack?

As BBC4 launches a new series on the sound of cinema, we'd like to hear from you about the film soundtracks that mean the most to you

Writing in the Guardian this week, Neil Brand, presenter of BBC4's Sound of Cinema, says: "Most memorable movie music announces itself, whether with the blast of trumpets that begins Star Wars or the low, febrile string notes that usher in Jaws; whether the electronic hammer blows of Blade Runner or the unexpectedly lyrical solo piano that opens the Coen brothers' True Grit. These are the pieces we remember, the stuff we can hum along to, so engrained in us that it seems to have existed for ever."

The BBC, as part of it's Sounds of Cinema season, is currently polling listeners to find the greatest ever soundtrack, with a shortlist of 20. Is your favourite on this list?

8 ½ 'Otto e Mezzo' (Nino Rota)
Apocalypse Now (Wagner)
Billy Elliot (Swan Lake music, Tchaikovsky)
Bombay (AR Rahman)
Dark Knight Rises Suite (Hans Zimmer)
Django Unchained (Luis Bacalov / Riz Ortolani / Morricone)
Grease (various)
Lawrence of Arabia Main Theme (Maurice Jarre)
Mary Poppins (Sherman brothers)
Planet of the Apes (Jerry Goldsmith)
Psycho (Bernard Herrmann)
Sholay (RD Burman)
Sound of Music (Richard Rogers / Oscar Hammerstein II)
Star Wars Main Theme (John Williams)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Ennio Morricone, arr. David Arnold)
The Third Man (Anton Karas arr. Cox)
The Wizard of Oz (Harold Arlen, E.Y. Harburg, Herbert Stothard)
There Will be Blood (Jonny Greenwood)
Vertigo (Bernard Herrmann)
West Side Story (Leonard Bernstein)

We'd like to hear from you about the music soundtracks that have had the greatest impact on you. Let us know about your favourite via the form below, and we'll publish a selection of responses in the coming days.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2013/sep/13/what-favourite-film-soundtrack?

Gladiator.

1.Easy Rider soundtrack

2. Grease

3. Sound of Music

Favourite movie score, Star Wars

Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

The soundtrack to the 1937 Walt Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first commercially issued film soundtrack

Apart from Star Wars, not one of those ones would I normally listen to.

Agree with Iridium that Gladiator is awesome. Not sure if it is my favourite, but it is definitely close and gets a regular cycle in my playlist.

Others would include
- Band of Brothers (not a film but mini-series admittedly, but one of the best easily.)
- Braveheart
- How to Train Your Dragon
- Last of the Mohicans (Cora particularly)
- Willow (Elora Danan, about 2 minutes in = awesome)
- Master and Commander (love that duet scene)
- The Princess Bride (probably more sentimental than in real quality, but as an extremely simple soundtrack with few instruments, it is very effective).
- Saving Private Ryan (not Band of Brothers good, but still good).

There are plenty of mainstream action ones that are really good that and so hard to skip as well, like Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park and even Titanic (not action I know).

To be honest, video game soundtracks are often just as good if not better. Some of my favourite soundtracks are from games like Journey, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Baldur's Gate, Uncharted etc.

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lion king also...Halo?

Oh and 8 mile, get rich die trying.

Edited by iridium1010: 13/9/2013 11:43:15 PM

Mmm, Mortal Kombat theme makes me want to fight... or does a pump class or something.

You're right, Lion King was pretty cool.

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Edited by chillbilly: 14/9/2013 12:05:37 AM

Anything by Hans Zimmer is pretty good, these especially.

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Oh yeah, this is definitely amongst the best.

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The Lion King, that soundtrack is just perfection.

Best soundtrack in video games ever:
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Saturday Night Fever (soundtrack)
Purple Rain

Edited by Joffa: 14/9/2013 12:42:09 AM

Twilight had an amazing sound track.

In terms of a soundtrack of mixed artists, it's be the best I've heard.l

:d :d :d :d :d

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The use of that theme in these 9 minutes of film, freaking blows me away every time. Particularly at around minute 6, when it focuses on Alice when those deep bass notes, amazing.

Damn this topic. Now I can't stop thinking about film tracks and the list to choose from keeps getting longer.

Indiana Jones
You've got a friend in me - Toy Story
Superman
Space Odyssey
Chariots of Fire
Mission Impossible
Pink Panther
ET

Game of thrones.

Main theme or Rains of Castamere?

Master & Commander is my favourite.

Blackhawk Down is great.

Lion King fo sho. Movies by Cameron Crowe always have an eclectic mix of good music, Vanilla Sky being my favourite.

Forgot about Purple Rain, was amazing. Romeo + Juliet is great too

main, but the rains of castamere was great also(thanks got wiki)

Master and commander...epic film.

From Blade.

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Edited by iridium1010: 14/9/2013 01:48:50 AM

The Drive soundtrack is pretty cool.

Footloose
Dirty Dancing

Inception
The Dark Night Rises
Tron Legacy

Romeo + Juliet's is pretty good.

The best film soundtracks are the ones where you don't even notice the music, it's just a part of the storytelling rather than sitting there noticing the music.

Wanted, GWTDT, Band of Brothers, Inception, The Social Network all do that really well.

Most of these aren't classics, but definitely my favourites:

Man on Fire (Harry Gregson-Williams)
Deja Vu (Gregson-Williams)
Bourne Identity/Supremacy (John Powell)
The Da Vinci Code (Hans Zimmer)
Gladiator (Zimmer)
Senna (Antonio Pinto)
The Island (Steve Jablonsky)

From an Aussie perspective, I also thought the original Underbelly soundtrack was amazing. Well in Burkhard Dallwitz!

The Great Gatsby

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Anything by Hans for me, guy is a genius that is on another plane when it comes to making compositions with character, the likes of which you can identify an actual person by the sound or tone of the music.

Out of all his works The Last Samurai is always my favourite (and rightyfully award winning piece) with The Dark Knight very shortly behind.

-PB

Pulp Fiction and Top Gun

Resevoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Fight club, Trainspotting, Dazed and confused, Empire records, Elizabeth Town, Almost famous, Idle hands, School of Rock and Singles.

i don't much care for scores.

The Boat That Rocked soundtrack is pretty cool in terms of a compilation of various artists.

I agree with PB though, Zimmer's soundtracks are immense in terms of how they influence the actual film.

I just like the way he does things so differently.

Eg for the Sherlock Holmes soundtrack he deliberately went out and bought a cheap off-tune piano to get that authentic "gypsy" like notes.

Or his single note piece used to characterise the Joker in The Dark Knight.

Same goes with his nice use of Taiko drums from The Last Samurai.

-PB

lion king
friday
moonwalker

The Lost Highway
The Crow
Spawn
O Brother Where Art Thou?

The Lord of the Rings
How to Train Your Dragon
Master and Commander (I really wish they did the whole series of those books)
King Arthur
Pirates of the Caribbean

This.

Juno, twilight and LOTR are all personal favourites as well.

Otto I mezzo soundtrack was fucking amazing. Look it up and download if you haven't heard it.

Loved the Moon and Requiem for a Dream soundtracks by Cint Mansell.

Always love the OSTs of Wes Anderson movies like Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore etc.

Amelie soundtrack is probably my favourite of all time though

The Lion King
www.youtube.com/watch?v=In4cvWZ7KXQ

The Beverley Hills Cop
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qfMIhV1UJE

But seriously...
Almost Famous
Singles (was a favourite when I was a bit younger still pretty good)


Edited by quichefc: 20/9/2013 04:19:56 PM

Edited by quichefc: 20/9/2013 04:20:35 PM

I forgot to add:

Schindler's List and Forrest Gump

The mission

Inception

The social network

Lord of the rings.

I tried to watch Gatsby the other day, IIRC that was the film where the first thing that stood out to me was the rap music in the opening sequence of a film set in the roaring 20's. Bad move.

I barely made it through the opening dinner party sequence before the gaudy cinematography made me turn it off.

Drive has an amazing soundtrack.

I thought it was pretty sick!

Very refreshing movie.

I really enjoyed it. So did the mrs.

I can see how the cinematography would turn people off. If you can stick through it & watch it again, I highly advise doing so though.

Star Wars theme voted UK's favourite film soundtrack

John Williams' score took almost a quarter of all votes
DAISY WYATT FRIDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2013
   
John Williams’ Star Wars theme has been named the nation’s favourite film soundtrack by BBC Radio 3 listeners.

The Star Wars theme took almost a quarter of the votes, beating the musical accompaniment to films such as Grease, West Side Story and The Sound of Music.

Ennio Morricone’s score for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly came second, with Leonard Bernstein’s soundtrack to West Side Story named third.

Viewers and listeners from across the BBC's services chose the original Star Wars movie soundtrack, Episode IV: A New Hope.

Williams won an Oscar for his work on the film, which also included the well-known jazz-style “Cantina Band” scene.

He announced he will return to compose the score to the forthcoming Star Wars: Episode VII film, which is due for release in 2015.

Excerpts from the top 20 film scores will be played live in a countdown on Radio 3 later at 2pm today in a programme presented by Robert Zeigler from the London's famous Air Studios.

The station will also feature Williams talking about his writing next week in Composer Of The Week each weekday at noon and 6.30pm.

The shortlist of soundtracks was put together by broadcasters and movie music experts.

Top ten film themes as voted for by BBC Radio 3 listeners:

1. Star Wars (Williams)

2. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Morricone)

3. West Side Story (Bernstein)

4. Lawrence of Arabia (Jarre)

5. Vertigo (Herrmann)

6. The Third Man (Karas)

7. Dark Knight Rises (Zimmer)

8. Grease (various)

9. The Sound of Music (Rogers & Hammerstein)

10. Apocalypse Now (Wagner)


http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/star-wars-theme-voted-uks-favourite-film-soundtrack-8843741.html

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These guys are great - always top quality videos

Lost in Translation
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Donnie Darko
Trainspotting

When I was a teenager I used to love the crow soundtrack for its bands and Poledouris' Conan the Barbarian. The film didnt have a lot of dialogue so the heavy Orff/Holst like music suited it well. Music usually works well in Kubrick films. The simple trumpet playing worked well in Chinatown.

Would be interested in a soundtrack by Johnny Greenwood with one or two haunting Thom Yorke songs thrown in. Not Eraser style, more like 'True Love Waits'

Two Hands

Tank Girl
Natural Born Killers
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Blow

just off the top of my head.

The Last Samurai.
By all accounts a terrible concept for a film, but amazingly well executed, and a great score, probably one of Zimmer's best. The Pirates of the Carribean soundtrack is brilliant, although somewhat re-used from Gladiator.
Star Wars is the other pretty obvious one.
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Yeah Hans won awards for that score.

That particular song always sticks in my mind, whenever I listen to it I can always picture their last stand, the last throw at the dice to fight a fight they couldn't win, laying down their lives for their beliefs and their honour.

Never ceases to move me, their sacrifice that is (even for a movie).

-PB

The Bodyguard

The Blade Runner soundtrack by Vangelis. Futuristicly epic.