AFI’s Top 25 Movie Scores

      From the AFI press release: “American Film Institute (AFI) revealed the top 25 film scores of all time in The Big Picture: AFI’s 100 Years of Film Scores, a one-night only presentation produced by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association in cooperation with AFI.  A jury of over 500 film artists, composers, musicians, critics and historians selected John Williams’ iconic score from the classic film STAR WARS as the most memorable film score of all time.  John Williams is additionally noteworthy as the most represented composer on the list with three scores making the top 25.
    “[…] While television broadcasts have announced the previous eight installments of AFI’s 100 Years… series, this event marks the first time an AFI countdown was revealed before a live audience.”
The Honorees Are…

	FILM TITLE	YEAR	COMPOSER
01	STAR WARS EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE	1977	John Williams
02	GONE WITH THE WIND	1939	Max Steiner
03	LAWRENCE OF ARABIA	1962	Maurice Jarre
04	PSYCHO	1960	Bernard Herrmann
05	THE GODFATHER	1972	Nino Rota
06	JAWS	1975	John Williams
07	LAURA	1944	David Raksin
08	THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN	1960	Elmer Bernstein
09	CHINATOWN	1974	Jerry Goldsmith
10	HIGH NOON	1952	Dimitri Tiomkin
11	THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD	1938	Erich Wolfgang Korngold
12	VERTIGO	1958	Bernard Herrmann
13	KING KONG	1933	Max Steiner
14	E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL	1982	John Williams
15	OUT OF AFRICA	1985	John Barry
16	SUNSET BLVD	1950	Franz Waxman
17	TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD	1962	Elmer Bernstein
18	PLANETS OF THE APES	1968	Jerry Goldsmith
19	A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE	1951	Alex North
20	THE PINK PANTHER	1964	Henry Mancini
21	BEN-HUR	1959	Miklos Rozsa
22	ON THE WATERFRONT	1954	Leonard Bernstein
23	THE MISSION	1986	Ennio Morricone
24	ON GOLDEN POND	1981	Dave Grusin
25	HOW THE WEST WAS WON	1962	Alfred Newman

    This list is okay by me, I guess, although obviously it would have even more John Williams.  And Adventures of Robin Hood would be higher up.  Quibbles?  I can’t say the On Golden Pond made any kind of impression on me, so I’m surprised to see it ranking so high.  And, now that I think of it, no Elmer Bernstein’s Ten Commandments???
    P.S.: want to hear some film music right now?  Check out Film Music Radio, streaming twenty-four hours a day.   (Plus there’s the Soundtrack.net podcast at iTunes.)