The Lost Folio

The Superman and Home Alone folios are very hard to find now. The best way to start is to see if your local library does interlibrary loans. You might get some folios that way, especially if you are in the U.S. As for E.T., I only have the original 1982 folio with me, but I am almost 100% sure that the 2002 reprint had exactly the same arrangements. There was also an easy piano folio published (I don't list the easy alternatives on my website), so maybe you are thinking of that one? Do you actually own both and can compare? I agree there is a lot of material in Lost Crusade that could have made a wonderful folio. The Indiana Jones folios are all quite disappointing, with few arrangements, and most of them uninspired. At least, the Scherzo is really well arranged. I play piano, and I frequently play everything listed on the website. I have not made recordings of any of it though. Maybe in the future I would like to record it all. It's a crazy idea that will likely never happen - I know I will never manage to play perfectly the hardest pieces. There are two concert recordings of me playing Poulenc and Kabalevsky from ten years ago: https://soundcloud.com/tristanparemorin The book is rather big and heavy, with hardcover. But even then, I think $130 is too much. Again, as with the folios, your library might be able to get it for you. Good luck!

New update to The John Williams Piano Collection! I added a bibliography of books and academic articles written about John Williams's music. This will be of interest mostly to scholars and researchers who wish to get a quick overview of where studies of John Williams stand; but I think it's a fine addition to a website devoted to John Williams "on paper." Hope it can be of interest to some of you! Here's the link: https://sites.google.com/view/johnwilliamspiano/bibliography

This is a common way of writing 8th notes in vocal music: 8th notes are detached when they set different syllables. So many possibilities!! I'll try to watch Animal House soon to check if any of the music matches the "published" melody. But then, unless we watch a bunch of 1962 TV, we might not find out until the sheet music shows up in some archive... It's interesting that, apart from "America... the Dream Goes On", none of the songs you listed as "Other" in your thread were recorded at the time of their composition. I demand a list of Williams' failed projects!! 🤓

Thanks @Thor for watching it for us! But I'm not convinced: this clip from Animal House does not match the published melody. I don't deny a forgotten 1962 song could show up in a 1978 movie - let's believe the soundtrack listing from the database - but it's really surprising. And even if it ends up in Animal House, it does not explain the song's mysterious sources... I'm also not so sure about the Diamond Head connection anymore. The title song was published by Columbia Pictures Music Corporation, not by Hawaii Music Company.

A 1964 advertisement for sheet music includes the first line of music of two rare and early Johnny Williams songs, with the mention "Complete Copies at Your Music Dealers." Sadly, none of the two songs show up in any archives that I know, as if they were not actually published, or had a very, very limited print. The first song "Tomorrow" is from the series Wagon Train, but the source of the second song "The Way of a Wand'rer" is a mystery! It was entered for copyright on 15 Nov 1962 and it is advertised as a publication from Hawaii Music Company, possibly connecting it with Diamond Head... Could it be a discarded song? Here are the two melodies. Anyone knows what happened to these songs?

Done! I hope I didn't make any mistake with the lyricists. (Wagon Train was confusing: Herbert was definitely a lyricist in those years, but Wilson could have been co-composer.)

Let's just say that Bespin and I have different perspectives. (A while ago, I actually asked him if he wanted to combine our websites. I let you guess his answer...) I wish there could be a single, extensive website about the different aspects of JW's career. I did my website because I believed it was time for a John Williams bibliography. There are so many lists of works, but I could not find a list of publications. That's what I tried to do with The John Williams Piano Collection. I know not many people here seem to play piano, but I hope the information I provide can be useful to fans as well as archivists, musicologists, and scholars.

I finally added Seven for Luck to my website. I also added "Dream Away" from The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing, with lyrics by Paul Williams (who also did Cinderella Liberty that same year, 1973). It was officially published in a 1978 Paul Williams anthology. I should have a look at it in a week or two.

Well, after all, it looks like "The Same Hello, the Same Goodbye" has been published! It's in the Barbra Streisand folio What Matters Most: Barbra Streisand Sings the Lyrics of Alan and Marilyn Bergman (Cherry Lane Music, 2013). I couldn't find a separate sheet music for the song, yet, but since it's copyrighted 2008-2009, I wouldn't be surprised to find it somewhere else too. Do we know when it would have been composed? I listed it as 2008 on my website since that is the copyright date.

Great list @Thor! I'll add a link to your list on my website. I see that all the major songs have been published, but would you say there are some unpublished highlights?

I did this list of all the songs that have been published. There's a list by lyricist at the bottom: https://sites.google.com/view/johnwilliamspiano/home/songs

Hook is conspicuously missing from the list. Even if it was not a perfect release, I have never been more excited for a JW announcement since! It's still my favorite score and my most-listened expansion. We'll see if HP changes that...

I was finally able to acquire the piano/vocal sheet music of the rare song We're lookin' good (Official Special Olympics Song)! The sheet music consists of six pages of music. It is dedicated to Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founder and chairman of Special Olympics International. I don't think the lyrics by Alan & Marilyn Bergman ever leaked anywhere and I never found a recording of this piece as a song (rather than a fanfare), so here's a little sample of the words... We're comin', we're hummin', we're lookin' good. We're lined up and shined up and lookin' good. The drummers are drummin' the beat of our hearts and now it's time to move it, to make it, to reach out and take it. We'll face the wind together. Then race the wind together. Come on let's hear it: we're lookin' good! It's a simple piece, but very effective as a Special Olympics hymn, especially the coda where John Williams gradually builds to a climax on the words "the sky is the limit."

I counted 138 hours if you exclude any repetition (besides major alternates) and exclude the OST from expanded releases (which shortens a bunch of these releases by about half). For example, I did not count both volumes of "Not With My Wife, You Don't!", although they are different recordings. Of course, there are various ways to count this. I counted mine at the most conservative - let's say, how much completely original and different music JW wrote, trying to count only 1 version of each piece. Of course, the total amount of music recorded is way above that. Reversely, if you only count OSTs, it's 76 hours of OSTs released at the time of the movie's release, and up to 91 hours if you include all first album releases. (I counted the fanfares within the 11 hours of concert works. I did not count any of the concert versions - but that's an additional 7.5 hours for all of the Signature Edition.)

The total duration of all the movies scored by John Williams is 235 hours. By adding up the most expanded release of each film/TV score and including the bootlegs of unreleased scores, it adds up to roughly 127 hours of music. (In the case where the expanded release also includes the original album, I only counted the complete score, without duplicate tracks from the OST.) Of course, many movies have not been expanded, but that number gives you something to start with. Meanwhile, his complete concert works (including Thomas and the King) last about 11 hours, of which there are 5 hours of concertos. So, I count 138 hours of John Williams music either officially released or available as bootlegs. This is far from "more than 200 hours" (Some movies have an hour or so of unreleased music, but most only have a few minutes). Personally, I would not even count alternates in that total amount, as I would not count a discarded draft of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony in the duration of the work. Every composer writes a lot more music than they retain in their final work. If the composer only changes a few notes, or adds a 10-second insert somewhere, I would definitely not count the slightly alternate version within duration of the "complete works". Of course, some alternates are significantly different and deserved to be heard! The 127 hours counted here includes all officially released alternates.