1. "The High and the Mighty" theme
2. "Tara's Theme" from Gone with the Wind
3. "San Francisco" from the Clark Gable/Jeanette McDonald film
4. "Lawrence of Arabia" theme
5. "Colonel Bogey March" from "The Bridge on the River Kwai"
6. Theme from "Chariots of Fire"
7. Theme from "The Guns of Navaronne"..Dmitri Tiompkin's best, IMHO
8. Theme from the "Godfather"
9. "As Time Goes By" from Casablanca
10. "Somewhere over the Rainbow" from "The Wizard of Oz"
A few other brief comments:
1. Two very catchy orchestrations, in fact THE signature pieces of their films, but IMHO not really "songs" and therefore excluded from my list:
a) "Jaws" shark music
b) Five note sequence from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"
2. Worst, most saccharine, and waaay overrated : "Lara's Theme" from "Dr. Zhivago"
BTW..if anyone has any midis they want to link and share..please do so..
Of course I was in my teens and in love when this film came out. That may cloud my memory a little bit.
I do like the theme from "Ice Castles".
Ballad of the Green Beret, I forget the name of the movie but it was a Great 'Nam movie shot while the war was still going on and John Wayne starred.
Haven't had much time to think about it but I'll throw in "The Natural" and "Goldfinger".
P.S. I happened to love "Laura's Theme".
I also like the theme from Summer of '42, but then again, I'm a sap. :-)
The one I remember most is "Burning Bridges" the theme song from Kelly's Heroes. I just loved that movie which came out in 1970.
I can't believe no one has mentioned the following Star Wars songs:
The Imperial March
Princess Leia's Theme
Across the Stars
Classic John Williams.
Here's my top ten, in no particular order:
_______________________________________________
There are so many. I only have one to add. The theme from Titanic. I never watched the entire movie, but Celine Dion just brings me to tears sometimes when I listen to it.
Tired of Laundry mentioned the Potter movies score.
And suddenly the deranged lullaby from "Rosemary's Baby" popped into my head, too. (Shudder!)
It seems our favorites here were all written by the same guy - Hugo Montenegro - including Lara's Theme, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly...
...and "Rosemary's Baby":
http://launch.yahoo.com/release/32063
Surprised nobody has mentioned the theme from "Patton" yet.
My favorite is the "Chariots of Fire" theme. I love that movie too.
The "Blackhawk Down" soundtrack is very good, and so is the soundtrack for "Sharky's Machine" (great jazz singers).
"Thirteen days of Glory", theme song from The Alamo, w/John Wayne.
Theme song from the movie "The Sting".
Wonderful collection of tunes!
However, I have to insist-there has NEVER been a more effective score to a movie than "Jaws".
I have a friend who told me about a dream he had:
"I was in a giant underground parking lot, and I walked through this door into a darkened area. It was pitch black, and on the far end of the room, maybe 25 yards away, there was a small barred window, with a shaft of light streaming down onto the floor. The big heavy metal door swings shut behind me of its own accord and snaps shut with a resounding, echoing, clunk. All I see now is pitch black with the window far away with its shaft of light, and I hear the music...'bum bum-bum bum-bum bum-Bum Bum-BUM BUM-BUM BUM...' and I KNEW there was a giant man-eating shark in this underground parking lot! So I run to the barred window streaming light, leap up, grab the bars and place my face between them, and scream in a terrified voice at the top of my lungs 'HEEEELLLLPPPPP! HELLLPPPPPPPPPPPP!'. I then woke up, I was standing on my bed with my face in my window because my room is in the basement, it is around 5:00 AM and I see my neighbors light switch on..."
I nearly died when he told me this...I still laugh about his shark in the underground parking lot...
"2001"
"The Magnificent Seven"
"The Professionals"
"The Third Man"
"The Hustler": Entire Soundtrack
"Goodfellas" : "Rags To Riches". "Layla": Soundtrack
"The Sweet Smell Of Success": Entire Soundtrack
"The Big Combo": Entire Sountrack
"To Live And Die In L.A.": Wang Chung
"Thief": Tangerine Dream's Opening Theme
Jack.
The Theme from the First Thomas Crown Affair movie... only hinted at in the remake.
Man Of Constant Sorrow---from Oh Brother Where Art Thou
The Good The Bad and The Ugly
Once Upon A Time In The West
Somebody's Baby-Jackson Browne-Fast Times At Ridgemont High
All I can think of at the moment.
"The Sting"
other notables:
"Patton"
"Raiders of the Lost Ark"
"Magnificent Seven"
"The Bridge on the River Kwai"