John Williams Film Composer appreciation thread

I just went to see our local Gig Harbor orchestral group perform a tribute to John Williams, and just thought what a international treasure his music continues to be. What are some of your favorites? Feel free to link to YouTube videos of your faves.

 

At the concert they said John Williams personal favorite is Raiders of the Lost Ark!

 

Star Wars

 

Of course, before he was John Williams, he was Johnny Williams and played jazz piano
on Henry Mancini's two "Peter Gunn" late 50's albums, plus others (including "Combo" where he
played jazz harpsichord).
Hard to believe he went from playing the main beat on this to being such a major composer.....

 

The first soundtrack songs by John Williams that I just loved were his theme songs to the Irwin Allen 1960s science fiction shows Lost In Space, Time Tunnel, and Land of the Giants.

 

An amazing composer - the Mozart of our age.

 

And here he is playing harpsichord on a track from the Mancini "Combo" album.
(He plays harpsichord on every track, one of Mancini's best jazz albums).

 

I have a 17 year old son who is obsessed with Star Wars and even moreso with Williams' scores. We went to Tanglewood to see him conduct last summer, my son cried a little. I also have a 9 year old daughter who is obsessed with Harry Potter and taught herself how to play the opening notes of Williams' "Hedwig's Theme" on piano. Quite possibly the most important composer of our time.

 

He's written and composed some of the most amazing film scores in the history of film scores. What else needs to be said?

 

I've always felt that John Williams and Star Wars was the ultimate perfect marriage; the 2 are almost intertwined as 1 whole thing. This is going to sound absolutely insane, but I don't know if SW would have had the same impact on people if the soundtrack was done by someone else. I think outside of Morricone/Leone, Lucas/Williams is the perfect film/soundtrack combo. I get goosebumps when I hear certain songs from SW.

 

I've seen clips from Star Wars without John's score and it just isn't the same experience.

 

Always liked this one!

 

We have tickets to see the NY Philharmonic play the score for Empire at Lincoln Center in September. We also have plans to return to Tanglewood to see John Williams conduct. Hopefully the weather is better this time. Though it was pretty cool to have lightning as a background to the Superman and E.T. music.

 

Here is a wonderfully different theme from John Williams and Steven Spielberg's first film together.

 

I think many don't know the depth and breadth of all John Williams work, so I'm trying to share some of his lesser known work.

 

DRACULA (1979)

 

THE FURY (Brian De Palma)

 

Here's one very few know of - HEARTBEEPS (1981)