Greatest Soundtrack Ever: Lord of the Rings voted Number One. (1 Viewer)

Here are 'The Greatest Soundtracks Ever' as voted by 52,000 Classic FM listeners.

1)Lord of the Rings - Howard Shore
2)Star Wars - John Williams
3)Schindler's List - John Williams
4)The Empire Strikes Back - John Williams
5)Gladiator - Hans Zimmer
6)ET - John Williams
7)Out of Africa - John Barry
8)Lawrence of Arabia - Maurice Jarre
9)Dances With Wolves - John Barry
10)Titanic - James Horner
11)Doctor Zhivago - Maurice Jarre
12)Raiders of the Lost Ark - John Williams
13)The Mission - Ennio Morricone
14)Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - John Williams
15)The Magnificent Seven - Elmer Bernstein
16)Saving Private Ryan - John Williams
17)Jurassic Park - John Williams
18)Brief Encounter - Rachmaninov
19)2001 A Space Odyssey - Richard Strauss
20)Henry V (1945) - William Walton
21)Braveheart - James Horner
22)The Piano - Michael Nyman
23)Chariots of Fire - Vangelis
24)The Big Country - Jerome Moross
25)Superman The Movie - John Williams
26)Blade Runner - Vangelis
27)Gone With The Wind - Max Steiner
28)The Lion in Winter - John Barry
29)The English Patient - Gabriel Yared
30)The Mask of Zorro - James Horner

Many favorites here, John Williams easily has the most votes, a lot of great oldies missing, including Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments and The Great Escape.
But the biggest miss must be John Williams superb 'Jaws' score which should have been in the top 10 IMO.

The list defineately skews towards the new. I wouldn't put FOTR at the top, and I would have dropped Harry Potter, but a pretty good list over all.

A good list, but FOTR is not near the best to me. While a great soundtrack, IMO, it doesn't compare to Star Wars, ESB, Titanic, Out of Africa, Chariots of Fire etc...
Talk about a thing of beauty: Give Out Of Africa a spin. John Barry composed this and it's beautiful.

Good list, but how could they have left out James Horner's wonderful score for Field of Dreams!?

It's nice to see so many from John Barry. He's highly underrated as far as I'm concerned.
I, too, would not put LOTR at the top. I find the "Star Wars", "Superman", and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" soundtracks to be much more memorable.
I was actually kind of surprised to see "Mask of Zorro" there. Great soundtrack, don't get me wrong, but compared with the others, it caught me off guard to see it on the list.
Personally, I think that "The Ten Commandments", "High Road to China", and "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (believe it or not) should have been on that list, but that's just me.

I was justing talking about John Barry's High Road To China score just the other day. It's a beautiful piece score.

There are a lot of good soundtracks on that list. I happen to like soundtracks that have great musical scores, and I also like ones with rapid transitions.... Regarding Lord Of The Rings, I especially like the scenes when Frodo puts on the ring and he can see the "spiritual world". The ambience coming out of all the speakers is great then when he takes the ring off, that is a nice rapid transition in the soundtrack. Reminds me of Saving Private Ryan in the beginning when they are getting off the lander and you see from the perspective of the main character as he is under the water in all that silence, then he surfaces and is totally bombarded with all of that noise.

I'm delighted that LOTR:FOTR is getting Howard Shore the awards and recognition he's long deserved. But to me the finest score he ever wrote (and in some ways my favorite film score) is Silence of the Lambs. You would never listen to it alone; it's so integrally woven into the film that it's like the performances or the cinematography -- it disappears into the whole. That's not the kind of achievement that wins Oscars or makes top 10 lists, but it's something few have accomplished so thoroughly.

M.

I personally would have put Goldfinger above some of the other John Barry soundtracks here.

Where did this list come from? (link?)

FOTR might be the best score in a while (based on pop culture acceptance), and I see Gladiator in there as well (previous holder of said title). But comparing it with long-lived favorites is a bit ridiculous...time will place it in context. I prefer FOTR to most other titles on the list, and I think it's INCLUSION is well-deserved, but perhaps not it's placing. As for Horner and missing scores, Glory is still my favorite of his, and it too is missing.
That said, FOTR has gotten the lion's share of my listening time, even in recent weeks. It IS the real deal
Take care,
Chuck

My favorite movie soundtracks are:

1) O Brother, Where Art Thou?
2) Star Wars (excellent, classic!)
3) Prince of Egypt

Any list that doesn't include The Last of the Mohicans doesn't have any credibility in my book. Quite simply, one of the most beautiful and amazing scores ever written.

Last of the Mohicans is good although it's repetitive.

LOTR is a wonderful score but I agree that it's number one because it is newer. Star Wars or Empire Strikes Back should be number 1 IMO. I think Zimmers "A Thin Red Line" socre should be on this list as well.

I enjoy the LOTR:FOTR score, but it is nowhere near my favorite. I wish at least one of the following would have appeared somewhere in that list:

1.) Total Recall (Jerry Goldsmith)
2.) Conan the Barbarian (Basil Poledouris)
3.) The Omen (Jerry Goldsmith)

I'm sorry, but Curtis Mayfield's "Superfly" isn't even on there, so that invalidates the whole list.

Would you call '2001' a score? The film wasn't scored, but pre-existing music added. It's terrifically incorporated, but not what I would call a score.

The list skews far to much to the recent work leaving off mounds of superb work by Tiomkin, Steiner (he has lovelier scores than GWTW), Herrmann and others.

Yep good list, I got it from one of our daily newspapers, I loved the Lord of the Rings score but I wouldn't place it as greatest film score ever.

I don't have one absolute favorite soundtrack, I would give equal top positions to about 20 of my favorites, including Howard Shore's magnum opus.

Sad to see Jerry Goldsmith not represented, he has composed many great scores.

Also I would think Basil Poledouris incredible music for Conan The Barbarian should have been in that list, in the top 10.

Well one thing we know about the 52,000 listeners: subtlety is not their byword.
Its hard to take a list that has nine scores by John Williams and none (for example) by Bernard Herrmann very seriously.
Further Richard Strauss did not write the soundtrack for 2001. Portions of Also sprach Zarathustra, which he composed, were used, as were the works of several other composers, among them Johann Strauss, who composed The Blue Danube, portions of which were also used in the film. Pleased as I am to see Richard and Sergi, as long as composers of non-original music were included, I am surprised that Wolfgang was not on the list. Or would that be because the original music for Amadeus is credited to John Strauss?
Understanding that best lists generate discussion, and there are some good soundtracks on the list, this list proves that 50,000 listeners can indeed be wrong.

Wait a minute - no Herrmann, no Goldsmith, no Rozsa, no Alfred Newman? And three scores by the James ("anvil-clanker") Horner? Did a bunch of tin-eared 14-year-olds make up this list?