The 10 Best Movie Soundtracks Ever Made

Bernard Herrmann's unsettling score for Martin Scorsese's urban nightmare was also his last -- he died the night he finished composing the last track. Often ignored in comparison to Herrmann's other popular soundtracks for films such as "North by Northwest," "Taxi Driver" is simultaneously a great jazz record (think Lalo Schifrin's "Dirty Harry" score ) and one of the finest soundtracks ever written.

9. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Ennio Morricone's renowned work for director Sergio Leone is one of his finest. Inarguably his most popular work -- and the one that most often seems to define his style of spaghetti western music to casual listeners -- it's one of the best things you'll ever hear; the main theme is still an evocative masterpiece after all these years. It works as well within the film as it does on its own.

8. Saturday Night Fever

Fueled by the Bee Gees and other disco artists such as Walter Murphy and Ralph McDonald, it's almost a cliche at this point to list Saturday Night Fever as one of the greatest soundtracks of all-time, but if you can appreciate (or, in some people's view, tolerate) the outdated sounds of the disco era, you'll find a lot of solid tracks here. The Bee Gees' work is, of course, the best -- and, thankfully, the most present. They dominate the album with songs like "Stayin' Alive" and "More Than a Woman." It was the soundtrack of an era. (Also, don't overlook film composer David Shire's contributions to the album.)

7. The Conversation

Speaking of David Shire...

This score by Shire for Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece of the paranoia thriller subtly evokes the schizophrenia of the main character with its moody jazz and piano pieces. Not only is The Conversation one of the most underrated films of the 1970s (I'd easily place it within the top ten of the decade) -- its soundtrack is even more painfully overlooked. It took a lot of searching on my part to find a copy of this. Definitely seek it out if you're a fan of piano and jazz.

6. Batman

It is rather unnecessary to introduce this soundtrack -- everyone knows Danny Elfman's main theme by now. I was a fan of the Batman Begins soundtrack as well, and there's no doubt it's a bit more complex than this one, but as far as big, rousing themes go -- Elfman is one of the kings. He made a lot of fun, amusing soundtracks back in the day (Midnight Run, for example) -- but Batman was about as close as he ever got to being a master of the mainstream blockbuster scoring.

5. Back to the Future

Alan Silvestri is an underrated composer (his work on Cast Away is still one of my favorites) and Back to the Future is unarguably his most well-known album. Once again, it's unnecessary to really explain what makes this work so well -- by now, you've probably seen the films dozens of times and heard the rousing main theme enough to have it ingrained in your memory -- but to say this is only one of the most enjoyable and likable soundtracks would be a huge understatement. It's also one of the absolute best.

4. The Godfather

Nino Rota's classic Godfather Waltz is one of the scores that defines an entire genre of filmmaking. It has influenced every epic in the time since its release, and you can't even venture far outside of the crime genre without hearing its impact. Subtly evocative, this is the best work of Rota's career (and he scored many great films!) and an absolute essential.

3. Star Wars

I'm not even going to try and justify this -- no explanation is necessary. It's just a classic film score from beginning to end, and is fairly all-inclusive (you could just as well pick up Empire Strikes Back or Jedi and experience just as much great music).

2. Once Upon a Time in America

This is my personal favorite Ennio Morricone album, and I think it's shamefully underrated (as is the film). Many people don't seem to be aware that he did work outside of the spaghetti western genre, but he did, and much of it was equally good -- if not better -- than those pieces. For starters, America's main theme is haunting and emotional -- and other tracks such as Deborah's Theme and Cockeye's Song are incredibly moving. One of the producers of the film stated in a recent interview that the soundtrack almost certainly would have won an Academy Award, but the troubled production of the film prevented them from submitting it for consideration in time, and it went fairly under the radar. It's a shame, because in my opinion, this is hugely inspiring stuff -- the work of a genius moving outside his comfort zone, perhaps, but turning in the best work of his career. Morricone hasn't matched it before or since.

1. Blade Runner

Could this be one of the few cases where a soundtrack is better than the classic film it is a part of? Blade Runner is an interesting movie and one of the most challenging science-fiction films of all-time, so it was only appropriate that Ridley Scott would employ Greek electronic artist Vangelis (Chariots of Fire) to write the soundtrack.

The album wasn't released for about a decade, and when they finally put it out (in coordination with the Director's Cut re-release of the movie), it was heavily cut and shortened -- they had taken out of much of the actual music and just left the main themes and a few interludes. Over the years since its release, many fans have compiled together bootleg compilations -- some of them are terrible and others are fantastic.

The best out there is the 2-Disc "Esper Edition," which you can find quite easily for download through Google. This includes music from the film and the official 1990s CD release put together as a whole.

If you enjoy the music from the film, there's also an interesting compilation called Los Angeles 2019 which derives its music from the Blade Runner video game as well as the film. It's basically a more complex ambient album and gives the experience of living in the futuristic city (the opening track is audio of a busy Los Angeles street with pouring rain and the occasional hover car flying by). There is so much material out there that it's really worth exploring whatever you can find.

Honorable Mentions:

Lawrence of Arabia, Psycho, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Vertigo, JAWS, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Anatomy of a Murder, The Shawshank Redemption, Dirty Harry, Rocky, Once Upon a Time in the West, Alien, Dances with Wolves, Cool Hand Luke, Goldfinger, The Graduate, La Dolce Vita, The Legend of 1900, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Man with the Golden Arm, The Mission, Punch-Drunk Love