Movie/TV/Game Scores Through The Ages - Alan's Personal Favourites

No, just Greece, close though.

I know; i don't care

There must be something about the air in Greece ya think????????????

1972 - Superfly - Curtis Mayfield

I came across this score (and songs) for the first time about a year ago and I've enjoyed it ever since. There's just so much energy in each and every track. And the songs are just so listenable in their own right. I much prefer this over Shaft which, to me, has a corker of a title theme but the rest fails to deliver to the same extent.

If you haven't heard this then I recommend you take Mayfield's advice in one of the "radio spot" cues:

"...sit down and take a listen. This may be something that you're missin'..."

There's some scores that have some great themes, but they're only highlights in amongst the other tracks: The Poseidon Adventure, The Godfather, tracks such as "Roma Baldacca" from Morricone's Questa Specie D'amore, "Dueling Banjos" from Deliverance (Eric Weissberg) and "Dogs, Ponies & Old Ruins" from Images (John Williams).

And TV makes another strong year (by my reckoning) for catchy title themes: Jack Trombey's theme for Van Der Valk (but played to death at the time on radio as I remember), Jerry Goldsmith's The Waltons, Jim Helms' title theme for Kung Fu (which I used to hum as a kid), Neil Richardson's theme "Approaching Menace" for Mastermind, Robert Farnon's theme for the Second World War series Colditz and Cliff Twernlow's end title theme for Crown Court (as wells as the use of Leos Janacek's Allegretto from his Sinfonietta).

But the greatest TV theme from 1972 is undoubtedly Patrick Williams' muscular theme for The Streets of San Francisco.

A great year indeed for TV theme tunes!

Glad to be of service!

The Cowboys is a score I've not heard so can't comment on that one. And I also don't play Images very often save for 1-2 tracks (including the one I mention above.)

The Poseidon Adventure is a funny one. I remember hearing the theme used in one of the vocals on an old Geoff Love compilation and liking it them. And it was only recently that I heard the score itself when La-La Land Records re-released it recently. I knew before I heard that release that a lot of the actual score was atmospheric (I've seen the movie countless times) but it's a very difficult listen as a stand-alone experience.

Thanks for the comments Thor.

I'm listening to a snippet of Williams' The Cowboys (a suite from Silva's The Magnificent Westerns and the main title from Varese's Great Composers: John Williams). I quite like the sweeping strings I'm hearing in the title theme but, I'm afraid, when the harmonica kicks in I just stitch off.

I'm very particular when it comes to how harmonica is used in film music: harmonica + Americana...probably not, harmonica + Herrmann...yes! Harmonica + Genevieve...definitely not!!

Harmonica can be on/off for me too, but when it's on, it's really ON. Listen to this track, probably my alltime favourite film theme (yes, you heard that right!) for the Norwegian puppet film FLÅKLYPA GRAND PRIX (PINCHCLIFFE GRAND PRIX) from 1976 or thereabouts...largely considered the best and most successfull Norwegian film of all time:

http://www.celluloidtunes.net/non-website/flaklypa.mp3

I had a long debate about this over at FSM (that I won't go into here), but it basically went like this:

For the most part, I found it to be an engrossing, traditional Western with quality performances and little "cheese". It was also more gritty and violent than I had expected, knowing this was a John Wayne vehicle and not a Sam Peckinpah western.

However, there were some bits that I found a bit "on the edge", morally.

SPOILERS AHEAD!


For example, the introduction of the black chef with the matter-of-fact statement from the boys: "it's the first time we've seen a nigger!"....without any problematization of the term itself. Yeah, I realize it was made in a different time, but the film is still contemporary enough that it felt a bit odd and uncomfortable. And then when Wayne yells at the kid for stuttering...the kid breaks into tears, yells back at Wayne and then magically loses his stuttering - as if stuttering was a pure matter of confidence - well that didn't click with me. And then there is that whole ending, where the boys become killing machines. I realize it's a film about the evolution from boy to man, but that just felt too forced and at odds with the whole moral of the film.

SPOILERS END.

Thanks Thor, it's been a very long time since I've seen it.

Yeah, there was a soundtrack in the early 90's, I'm not sure how available it is outside Norway. Most of the tracks are in charming "hot jazz" style, though (New Orleans-type), as that was a particular favourite of Danish composer Bent Fabricius Bjerre. But that theme, "Reodor's Ballade", is simply the most gorgeous film theme I can think of. It's played by the inventor character in the film as he sits on a rock upon his cliff and gazes at the starlit night sky.

You're welcome. Groven is considered one of the best harmonica players in the world by the connaiseurs, in league with Tommy Morgan and Toots Thielemans.

I never realised Tommy Morgan had played on so many film scores, including some of the legends of our time including John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith. I've also seen him play live at the RAH, he came on for John Barry performing Midnight Cowboy and The John Dunbar theme....great memories

He's played on more than one Horner score.

You also forgot to mention he's also played with the likes of Newman ( both Alfred and Thomas ), Lalo Schifrin, Bill Conti, Alan Silvestri, Jerry Fielding, Quincy Jones, Michel Legrand, Michael Giacchino etc