Top Ten: John Williams Movie Themes & Scores

There is no doubt that John Williams has composed some of the most recognized movie scores of our lifetime. Moviegoers of the last four decades have only to hear a few notes of any of Williams' scores to know the movie. Some of us can even place the scene, characters and describe the action.

Born February 8, 1932 in Floral, Park NY, Williams is best known as the composer of both the Jaws and Star Wars musical scores.

Williams began composing for TV in the 1950s, and made the leap to movies in the 1960s. He has worked with the absolute crème' of cinema, including Spielberg and Lucas, and his 1971 score for Fiddler on the Roof won one of his 5 Oscars for Best Score.

As difficult as it is, I have torn myself asunder and listed what I believe to be John Williams' Top 10 Movie Themes. These appear in no particular order, as I cannot possibly choose a favorite from so many excellent pieces of music.

1978: Superman

Bringing Simon and Shuster's Man of Steel to life was the task of Ilya Salkind. Williams was not the first choice to score the film. Jerry Goldsmith was director Richard Donner's original pick. Goldsmith left the project over scheduling issues, and Williams took over. His sweeping score with its crashing symbols and heroic crescendos makes this one of the most widely known film scores in the world. From Otis' opening stroll to the crashing of Kal-El's crystalline space ship, Williams' music set the mood for the entire series, as later attempts to bring the Man From Krypton to TV.

1980: Star Wars: The Imperial March

Easily one of the world's most used themes, this ode to the Sith Lord of Star Wars juxtaposes the dignity and calm of the Jedi with the selfish, emotionally raw Sith. Released in1980, The Imperial March quickly became known as Darth Vader's Theme, as it evoked the Sith Lord over and over again throughout the now 6 film series.

1977: Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Five of the most famous notes in the history of films is the basis for this musical and cinematographic collaboration with Stephen Spielberg. This was Spielberg's third film with Williams. The two became inseparable and Spielberg simply couldn't go wrong when he and Williams combined their genius on the big screen.

1975: Jaws

This theme for Spielberg's foray into animal attacks is probably two of the scariest notes ever played together. Throughout filming, the mechanical shark used for close-ups and action scenes repeatedly failed. When the contraption simply refused to come to life, Spielberg substituted a cameraman and laid Williams' simple and terrifying duo-tones above it.

Many believe the film wouldn't have been nearly as good if the shark had worked. The suspenseful and thrilling tune comes to a cliffhanger of a climax that usually ended in someone getting snapped up by the ornery shark-bot. Thanks to Williams' Oscar-winning score, that shark scared the world to death, especially when we couldn't see it.

1981: Raider of The Lost Ark

Take a college professor, give him a khaki shirt & pants, a whip and a hat and you've got a movie icon. Set the entire thing to a sweeping, rolling, upbeat theme and you've got a legend. Williams scored the entire four part George Lucas series and created a following as large as Star Wars or Superman.

2001: Harry Potter & The Sorceror's Stone

The score for the Harry Potter franchise was born at Williams' Los Angeles and Tanglewood homes before final recordings were done in London in 2001. The tentative opening followed by rolling strings puts all of us on Platform 9 ¾.

1993: Schindler's List

Williams' score for Spielberg's Best Picture won three prominent awards: Oscar for Best Score, Golden Globe for Best Score, and the Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition for a Motion Picture or Television. This heartbreaking and triumphant theme reflects the horrors and hopes of the Holocaust. It's said that when Williams saw the movie he was awed, and told Spielberg he needed a better composer. Spielberg agreed, but reminded his friend that all those composers were already dead.

2008:Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull

Reuniting Indy with Marion, Spielberg revisits the adventuresome professor and no other could possibly set him to the proper music. Williams' theme for the latest installment of rewon the hearts of his longtime fans and captured an entirely new audience in one sweep.

1991: Hook

In 1991, Spielberg asked, "What if Peter Pan grew up?" Robin Williams gave answered, giving life and form to Spielberg's adult version of the boy from Neverland. John Williams' rolling, rollicking, salty-dog tunes make this entire soundtrack a personal favorite.

1993: Jurassic Park

"Life finds a way," warns chaos theorist Dr Ian Malcolm, played in typical Jeff Goldblum fashion. On an island far away from civilization, mankind is building dinosaurs. In Spielberg's adaptation of Michael Crichton's DNA disaster, Williams allowed several of the songs to run right into each other, giving the score a nearly continuous flow. Williams purposely allowed the theme to run a bit out of his normal structure, giving the tones a feeling of life struggling to find a way.

Williams hasn't been stingy with his talent for moving the world to the same beat. He has composed for the 1994 Olympics in Los Angeles, 1988 Olympics in Seoul, 1998 Olympics, Atlanta, and "Call of the Champions" for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

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