John Williams, who turned 85 today, has written so many wonderful, bombastic, mournful, jubilant and terrifying pieces of music that its hard to really nail down faves, but these are ones that I often return to. (Never mind the adaptions of music that he has done for Musicals like Fiddler on the Roof, Goodbye Mr Chips or Christmas music for concert arrangements, his concertos or his early jazzy Johnny Williams phase). Hell he’s still writing new music, admittedly at a slower pace than before, but it still tugs at the heart.
Note that these are NOT in order and I’ve largely avoided the obvious album picks (Indy Series, Star Wars):
Full playlist:
- The March from 1941 – 1941
- Fascinatin’ Rhythm – Rhythm in Motion
- March from The Midway – The Midway
- Wild Signals (or The Conversation) – Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- Crimebuster – Heartbeeps
- The Land Race – Far and Away
- Omaha Beach – Saving Private Ryan
- Viktor and His Friends – The Terminal
- The Train Robbery – The Missouri Breaks
(I struggled between this, The Chase and the Main Title) / - Training Montage – Space Camp (arguably there are better tracks on the album, but the chameleon like shift in style / sound just stays even after all these years. Otherwise I would say Spacecamp (track 8 on Intrada album) or Re-entry)
- The Turbulent Years – Nixon
- Anderton’s Great Escape – Minority Report (this is slightly cheating due to its similarity, to Zam The Assassin Chase Through Coruscant from Star Wars: Attack of the Clones )
- Finale – JFK
- The Shark Cage Fugue – Jaws (or Tourists on the Menu its so not what you think when you think of Jaws )
- Banning Back Home – Hook (lovely jazzy number, film version is a quite different and thanks to La La Land is available. Hook’s another I could choose multiple tracks. Ultimate War (parts 1-3 from LLL release, but for lack of that on Youtube here is the original album release track )
- Making The Plane – Home Alone (though honestly the whole album, particularly the La La Land release! Particularly for the Christmas music arrangements)
- Christmas at Carnegie Hall – Home Alone 2 (I would choose the later half of We Overslept Again / Holiday Flight but I prefer the alternative version of Holiday Flight and the beginning is like “Making the Plane” above 🙂 )
- Jim’s New Life – Empire of the Sun
- Catch me if you can – Catch me if you can
- Call of the Champions
- Summon The Heroes
- Follow Me – Always (this piece is in the middle of the suite, honesty the whole suite is delightful – I have a real soft spot for this movie)
- The Soccer Game – Stepmon (Isabel’s Horse and Buggy is another choice)
- Preface – Superman 2 (this is a cheat as its a Ken Thorne piece based off of Williams’s music)
- The Cowboys Overture
- The from Checkmate – Checkmate
I could go on and add the Amazing Stories Theme, Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, stuff from A.I. and on it goes.
I freely admit I am often more drawn to the Marches or his upbeat, catchy or wild music and struggle with his darker / atonal music 🙂