Entertainment Weekly chooses the 100 Best Soundtracks of All Time (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

Personally, I thought Bernard Herrmann's score for "Citizen Kane" should have made the list. What a great score! And what about "The Big Country" or "The Great Escape???????
Crawdaddy
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[Edited last by Robert Crawford on October 09, 2001 at 02:11 PM]

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

I think a buncha kids selected many of the lesser titles on the list.
Speaking of missing, where are Laura(by David Raksin) and anything by Alfred Newman (The Robe, How Green was My Valley, The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Razor's Edge, Prince of Foxes, etc.)??

 

[Brad_W]

As I know my man Brad will be flamed for liking audience pleasers

LOL!
but, seriously... they're audience pleasers for a reason; they're good, epic scores. While they may be "mainstream" or the like, they're famous for a reason. Therefore, I think they should have been included in the list. Although the Transformers: The movie soundtrack was added just cuz I think Vince DiCola is more progressive and original than some and needs more recognition.
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[Rollo Lee]

9) Purple Rain (1984) - Prince

"That shit was so gay. 80's style."
"Never say an unkind word about The Time!!!"

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

I've noticed that Chariots of Fire was left off, as was The Big Chill. They probably should have been included.
This list is so horrible though. Am I to believe that Amadeus is only the 57th greatest soundtrack of all time? What, is Salieri's music so bad, it pulls the rank down that far?
Also, how can Star Wars and Jaws be so far down on the list? Those 2 films essentially re-invigorated the film score genre.
As for musicals like West Side Story and My Fair Lady they should probably not have been included. The music in those films was written for a different medium. The list should have been limited to music created for films.
I would have liked to have seen Superman - The Movie and Star Trek - The Motion Picture make the list.
Neil
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[Rob Willey]

Better than most top 100 lists in my opinion.
An EW Top 100 Soundtracks challenge ala the AFI challenge would provide some great viewing and listening.
Rob
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[MatthewA]

Mary Poppins? South Park? These people are unqualified to review dog fights, let alone film scores. Some of these soundtracks I've never heard of, but that Mary Poppins is ranked over Singin' in the Rain, Doctor Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, My Fair Lady, The King and I, Fantasia, and other much better ones makes this list invalid in my book. That it is from Entertainment Weekly makes it unsurprising.
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[Marc Colella]

I'd prefer they made a top 100 list of Original Score soundtracks, as opposed to soundtracks whose music comes from a compiliation of different artists.
With that, I think the original score for Magnolia is fantastic, and should be on the list. Jon Brion has really put together some beautfully paced and emotional music here.

 

[Adam_S]

I should have realized that the title soundtrack would result in a mishmash of score and song. Like other's have said the list would have been much more interesting if they'd separated the two. As it is the list only reveals

It's good to see that Entertainment Weekly knows just as little about film music as they do about film itself.

they begin with their obligatory beatles worship by ranking hard days night number one, because it's the beatles no one will argue it, including me (i've no wish to be THAT badly flamed)
then for the rest of the top ten they alternate between acclaimed classics (sound of music, wizard of oz, west side story, godfather) and cult faves (saturday night fever, superfly, graduate, and purple rain) thus satisfying no one.
they show their lack of technical knowledge of score by not ranking a really fantastic score higher.
then in the second set of ten they give obligatory nods to hitchcock, 2001, disney, adn gone with the wind, throw in a couple musicals and a few more cult faves (trainspotting, american graffitti) you've ended the first twenty nominations with only two really good original scores (gone with the wind, godfather), the key being original, of the top twenty, I'd probably only rank 2001 in the top ten (not being as familiar with psycho and vertigo though i've heard both are fantastic. and because i'm a straight score fan it'd be a ways down before i got to including musicals, and then the first one would be fiddler on the roof, which is, of course, not on the list.
moving on to the next ten...
the first thing i notice how star wars is excluded from the top twenty five, clever and sadly humorous, they clearly display their lack of technical knowledge about film score here, they rank star wars because it's so well known, but I feel that technially and emotionally Empire is the better score (John william's best in my opinion), there are so many great new themes, and incredible extrapolations of the theme base he built with star wars. but back to the list, another couple disney nods, our first westerns, nods to classics (Zhivago, singin') and the indy/cult faves again ( grease, pulp fiction), and of course a james bond flick to add in the mix.
but on the plus side, it is a strongly varied list, with perhaps cult favorites a bit overrepresented (i'm sure i'll have outcries over my definition of cult favorite, maybe i shouldn't have included the graduate in that class...) That said i was not very surprised to see that legends of the fall was not on the list, but i was a bit surprised at no horner, at the very least they could have put braveheart on there somewhere.

 

[george kaplan]

Well I'm not sure any list that they could come up with would get any less criticism. The things I'd fix on the list, others would consider making it worse and vice versa. A Hard Day's Night might not have a film score in the traditional sense, but it is without a doubt the greatest film soundtrack ever. And the inclusion of Vertigo, Godfather, 2001, The Magnificent Seven, Jaws and others is great.
Of course I disagree with a lot of it (where the hell is North by Northwest) but I think all things considered, it's not too bad.
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