Memorable Movie Themes

[Artycool8or]

Movies without music would be boring, to say the least.
Even during the silent era, theatres employed pianists to accompany the picture with live performances.
In spite of that, some of the Theme songs can do just fine on their own. In fact some of them outshine the films they were in, and become instantly recognizable to many people who might or might not have seen the source.

Which ones are popping to your head right now? Is there any personal experience that goes with it?
Please, share your story, as well post (or embed) the link to the Theme.

[The Confessor]

The classic John Williams' themes (Star Wars, Superman, ET, Indian Jones etc, etc) are pretty hard to beat. They're tremendously evocative, extremely memorable and have become wholly associated with their respective characters/franchises in the general public's mind. From that stand point, it's hard to think of a movie theme composer that has been more successful than Williams.

Other soundtracks that I think work really well to enhance the atmosphere of their respective movies include Vangelis's Blade Runner and Chariot's Of Fire soundtracks, Tan Dun's music for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Howard Shore's score for the Lord Of The Rings trilogy and Bert Bacharach’s music for Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid. This last one is particularly odd because a late '60s pop score shouldn't, by rights, work in a film set in the wild west...but it does!

I also really rate James Horner's soundtrack for Titanic, although I can't stand that Céline Dion song at the end.


EDIT: As far as personal experiences go, John Williams' "Planet Krypton" theme from Superman The Movie always seems to produce a lump in my throat.

[Chiasm]

The music from The Fountain is great and makes the movie worth watching. An actual scene from the movie with the music. If you haven't seen the movie the clip won't make any sense since its jumping around in multiple time periods but you can see throughout how the music dominates. Also the clip is from near the end of the movie so I guess it could be seen as SPOILERISH even though its confusing without the context of the what came before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFe7qaJ22jA

[Artycool8or]

All good examples.

[Devin D]

[DebkoX]

Indiana Jones, a really upbeat clever sound.

[Karl Cook]

[Karl Cook]

[Karl Cook]

[Artycool8or]

[Karl Cook]

[Karl Cook]

[The Black Guardian]

Any of John Williams' themes
"Sprach Zarathustra"
"Grease (is the word)"
Jaws
Rocky
Shaft

[Artycool8or]

[dupersuper]

Great stuff. I'll add Elfman and the music from South Park. Also A. Foley.