Top 10 overall favorite scores

[filmmusic 1,843]

On 07/03/2024 at 11:58 PM, Jay said:

1997 - Fifth Element (Serra)

This is an unusual choice...

[Jurassic Shark 12,098]

12 minutes ago, Andy said:

Seriously, bro? Not in your TOP 50???

 

Speed 2? Earth Star Voyager?  But NOTHING for ‘78?

 

We need to talk. 

 

To add to your surprise, he's never listened to the soundtrack of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

[Thor 7,531]

Taking Williams out of the equation, maybe:

 

1. BEYOND RANGOON

2. The Nightmare Before Christmas

3. Blade Runner

4. Edward Scissorhands

5. The Abyss

6. Alien 3

7. Waterworld

8. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

9. 1492: Conquest of Paradise

10. The Neverending Story

 

Or something.

[Andy 4,147]

6 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

To add to your surprise, he's never listened to the soundtrack of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

I mean. I can’t pick at that… we all have to discover classic scores from before our time on our own time.  I just purchased TGTBTU last year myself. 
 

But not giving a top 50 slot to one of Williams’s golden Masterpieces?

 

While I’m at it, @Jay I should also ask you “What is best in life???”  

[Jurassic Shark 12,098]

2 minutes ago, Andy said:

 I just purchased TGTBTU last year myself. 

 

You hadn't listened to this soundtrack before last year? 

 

2 minutes ago, Andy said:

But not giving a top 50 slot to one of Williams’s golden Masterpieces?

 

As Jay probably knows, it's only the first third that's a masterpiece. 

[Andy 4,147]

Just now, Jurassic Shark said:

 

You hadn't listened to this soundtrack before last year? 

 

 

Look, forget about me for a minute. 
 

John Barry doesn’t make Jay’s top 50!!!!!

[Jurassic Shark 12,098]

6 minutes ago, Andy said:

I mean. I can’t pick at that… we all have to discover classic scores from before our time on our own time.

 

Then you can't piack at him for not listing Superman, can you?

 

2 minutes ago, Andy said:

John Barry doesn’t make Jay’s top 50!!!!!

 

Which of Barry's scores do you think qualify?

[Andy 4,147]

Dances With Wolves would be a good start. 
 

BTW, I’m sure Jay knows I’m just picking on him in good fun.  My top 50 would be all lopsided.  And I have whacked out taste too.  
 

So, Jay, thanks for the snapshot of your mind and you keep on doing you. 

[Mephariel 451]

Classic Scores

1.  The Good, The Bad And The Ugly – Ennio Morricone

2.  Lawrence of Arabia – Maurice Jarre

3.  Spartacus – Alex North

4.  The Way We Were – Marvin Hamlisch

5.  Shaft – Isaac Hayes

6.  The Magnificent Seven – Elmer Bernstein

7.  King of Kings - Miklós Rózsa

8.  Once Upon a Time in the West - Ennio Morricone

9.  The Battle of the Bulge – Benjamin Frankel

10. Love Story – Francis Lai

 

Modern Scores

1.  Interstellar – Hans Zimmer

2.  Titanic – James Horner

3.  The Lion King – Hans Zimmer

4.  Jurassic Park – John Williams

5.  Gladiator – Hans Zimmer

6.  Tomorrow Never Dies – David Arnold

7.  Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Howard Shore

8.  The Land Before Time – James Horner

9.  Memoirs of a Geisha – John Williams

10. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End – Hans Zimmer

[Richard Penna 3,696]

If the last half page or so is any indication, some super judgemental stuff is about to erupt...

 

The only Barry even remotely close my top 50 is Dances With Wolves, and I think it's overlong and tedious outside of my 35 minute album. Unlikely candidate considering the competition.

 

My non-Williams top 10 is going to look something vaguely like this, although not in this order (and I reckon three of these would go if I included Williams). A lot of scores just miss this list and would easily be in a top 20-30.

 

FotR

Gladiator

Sleepy Hollow

The Mummy

The Edge

Dante's Peak

Signs

The Village

The Horse Whisperer

The New World

[filmmusic 1,843]

Is there a top 10 overall favorite film music themes thread?

Or I should start one?

Although, again, I'd like it to be a non-Williams thread, because I'm sure for most of us Williams would dominate our lists.

[Jurassic Shark 12,098]

7 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

The only Barry even remotely close my top 50 is Out of Africa

 

[GerateWohl 4,385]

21 minutes ago, Thor said:

10. The Neverending Story

Klaus Doldinger! I had that album on LP.

[Bellosh 3,420]

i could squeeze, maaaaaaybe 4 non-Williams scores on this list.  they would be

 

Dances With Wolves

Robin Hood Prince of Thieves

Return of the King

Wrath of Khan

[Andy 4,147]

21 minutes ago, Mephariel said:

 

6.  The Magnificent Seven – Elmer Bernstein

 

Thank you for being the only person to list a Bernstein score.  Curiously, your list of classic vs newer scores seems to omit much of the great stuff from the 70s and 80s. 

[Bellosh 3,420]

that would be in my top 10 themes list.

[Andy 4,147]

Mag7’s theme is so good, by comparison, the rest of the score can’t reach its heights. So it ends up being good, but not great. 

[Jay 37,379]

On 14/04/2024 at 8:35 AM, filmmusic said:

I was thinking of starting a thread about 10 favorite non-John Williams scores ever! (if I was to post my list for 10 overall favorite scores, I'm sure 8-9 out of 10 would be John Williams scores)

But I might as well post here my list:

 

I think that is a GREAT idea for its own thread!

 

 

16 hours ago, Andy said:

@Jay

 

1978 - WTF?

 

Seriously, bro? Not in your TOP 50???

 

Speed 2? Earth Star Voyager?  But NOTHING for ‘78?

 

We need to talk. 

 

I've never liked the Superman score as much as many people here do.  Partly it could be a wrong place wrong time thing; The movie and score came out before I was born, and while I saw the film on pan&scan VHS at some point in my childhood, it wasn't a favorite of mine; I'm not sure if I've ever actually seen it a second time (most likely I did around 2000 or so when the DVD came out, but not sure).

 

The score was certainly one of the first I got when I began buying film scores in 1994.  I bought the Rhino expansion, the FSM blu box, and the La-La Land.  I've listened to all these presentations multiple times.  It's a good score.  The main theme is redonkulously iconic.  I think the first few parts of the score are GREAT - all the Krypton and Smallville scenes, actually the Fortress of Solitude and early Metropolis scenes too.  But some time after the flying sequence, nothing else has managed to really WOW me, not any of the times I've tried. 

 

So yeah, it's really not top 50 worthy for me.  Every score I listed in that post I have definitely listened to more times than I have to Superman.  It is what it is!

 

 

16 hours ago, filmmusic said:

This is an unusual choice...

 

It is?  (this is referring to The Fifth Element by Eric Serra).

I love that score! You don't like it?

 

16 hours ago, Andy said:

I mean. I can’t pick at that… we all have to discover classic scores from before our time on our own time.  I just purchased TGTBTU last year myself. 
 

But not giving a top 50 slot to one of Williams’s golden Masterpieces?

 

While I’m at it, @Jay I should also ask you “What is best in life???”  

 

I've never been able to get into the Conan The Barbarian score at all either.  I have heard it all, I love the main titles of course.  This is another film I didn't grow up on; I've only seen it once, on DVD around 2000ish or so, and didn't care for the film.  I do plan on revisiting the score at some point - I bought the 3CD Intrada and I LOVE Poledouris' scores to Starship Troopers and Robocop.  Some day.

 

16 hours ago, Andy said:

 

Look, forget about me for a minute. 
 

John Barry doesn’t make Jay’s top 50!!!!!

Oooh, that's an oversight!  I LOVE Dances With Wolves.  That's a masterpiece of a score!  It might not have occurred to me, because it's another one I didn't grow up on.  While I did see the film when it came out, and have since seen it at least 3 more times (all the extended cut, I believe), I never actually owned any version of the score until the LLL came out.  And I loved it immediately and have listened many times since.

[Andy 4,147]

Our preferences are such products of our generation. 

[Edmilson 7,475]

We should create a thread: Top 10 scores for movies you didn't grow up on and only fell in love with it after you were out of your formative years

[Andy 4,147]

6 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

We should create a thread: Top 10 scores for movies you didn't grow up on and only fell in love with it after you were out of your formative years

Yessss! Now that’s a good one. 

[Ollie 1,059]

Too many to make a definitive top 10.

 

 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

PATTON- Goldsmith

IN LIKE FLINT- Goldsmith

KING KONG- Barry

THE LION KING- Zimmer

ALTERED STATES- Corigliano

KOYAANISQATSI- Glass

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH- Herrmann

LOST HORIZON- Tiomkin

JFK- Williams

THE NATURAL-R. Newman

 

[Holko 9,532]

7 hours ago, Jay said:

I do plan on revisiting the score at some point

Try the Prometheus rerecording so the sometimes weak performance and awful recording doesn't block you from enjoying the music!

[GerateWohl 4,385]

On 17/05/2021 at 5:09 PM, GerateWohl said:

Yes, look at my entry for top 10 John Williams scores.

 

But if I should rank my top 10 non-Williams scores, I chose to not pick more than one score per composer.

 

If I would think longer and probably listen to some I would decide differently.

 

Favourite non Williams scores:

Joe Hisaishi - Princess Mononoke
Bernard Herrmann - Vertigo
Jerry Goldsmith - Poltergeist
Basil Poledouris - Conan the Barbarian
Howard Shore - Return of the King
Angela Morley - Watership Down
Miklós Rózsa - El Cid
Dario Marianelli - The Darkest Hour
Patrick Doyle - Much Ado about Nothing
Alan Menken - Mirror Mirror

 

By the way. I was surprised by myself that I didn't pick any Danny Elfman score. But I just prefer his non-film work and I am not aware of any top 10 score of his.

I just looked at my list from two years ago and just realized

 

1. Today my list would probably look completely different.
2. One characteristic of a personal top of all time score is for me, that I almost never listen to it. If you like a score that much and it has earned its place in that list, you have listened to it that much, that you can just replay it in your head if you like. It really requires a very special mood or some well minded company to listen to it again.

[Thor 7,531]

8 hours ago, Edmilson said:

We should create a thread: Top 10 scores for movies you didn't grow up on and only fell in love with it after you were out of your formative years

 

That's a good idea. Not only films you grew up with, but scores you discovered in your formative years in general (even if they're from BEFORE your formative years). Remove those, i.e. only count scores (from all history) that you've discovered and loved AFTER you turned, say, 20, and I'm sure most of our lists would look considerably different.

[filmmusic 1,843]

13 hours ago, Jay said:

It is?  (this is referring to The Fifth Element by Eric Serra).

I love that score! You don't like it?

Well, I like the slow romantic theme, but the rest from what I remember is sound design-y and some upbeat techno stuff and such..

That's why I said it was an unusual choice. I thought you liked mainly orchestral music.

[Richard Penna 3,696]

4 hours ago, Thor said:

 

That's a good idea. Not only films you grew up with, but scores you discovered in your formative years in general (even if they're from BEFORE your formative years). Remove those, i.e. only count scores (from all history) that you've discovered and loved AFTER you turned, say, 20, and I'm sure most of our lists would look considerably different.

 

Yes! My formative years were the first half of the 00s - probably by 2005 or so my musical direction was established, because I already had an appreciation of synth/electronic music from other interests I had. I'm not sure where my tolerance for modern horror scoring came from but it definitely wasn't during those initial years.

[Thor 7,531]

It's a bit trickier for me, because I'm so ancient. I was 20 in 1997 already. So still plenty of late 90s and early 2000s nostalgia to wallow in that would "disqualify" the picks, even if I was past my formative/teenage years then. I might have to start at roughly 2005, like you, and try to think of things I've discovered after that that have made my favourites list. A challenge taken later, in the weekend, over a glass of red wine, I think.

[Jurassic Shark 12,098]

2 minutes ago, Thor said:

It's a bit trickier for me, because I'm so ancient. I was 20 in 1997 already.

 

Holy cow, you belong in a museum!

 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,556]

9 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

Holy cow, you belong in a museum!

 

So do you! Throw him over the side 

[Jay 37,379]

1 hour ago, filmmusic said:

Well, I like the slow romantic theme, but the rest from what I remember is sound design-y and some upbeat techno stuff and such..

That's why I said it was an unusual choice. I thought you liked mainly orchestral music.