Music That Matters: Top 50 Movie Symphonies (#50 Raiders Of The Lost Ark March by John Williams

A great score can elevate a movie to a whole different level. Whenever I watch a film, the most important thing to me besides the overall plot is the music. To me it's more important than the acting, cinematography, and effects. Seriously, what would movies such as Superman, Jaws, or Star Wars be without those legendary music compositions that accompany the films? Probably not as memorable! I'm a sucker for a good movie score, and am one of those morons that stays in his seat to watch the end credits mostly to check out who scored the movie. Over the past few years, I've been able to amass quite a collection of symphonic tunes from movies and I would like to share the best of them with you. Some of them are obvious, while others hopefully will bring back memories and prompt you to go out and download. You'll see a lot of composers such as John Williams, Elmer Bernstein, and Bill Conti repeated on my list. These three in particular are probably my three favorite composers of all time! I'll be counting down every few days from #50 to #1 of the best symphonic themes from cinema. Mind you that these are my personal favorites, many of which would be scoffed at by those supposed film noir critics. Enjoy!

#50 Raiders March by John Williams- If this were a list of the most important songs in movie history, The Raiders March would probably be higher. It has to be one of the most memorable movie themes of all time that even non-movie buffs recognize it. Now, I'll admit I'm not the biggest Indiana Jones fan. But I have always appreciated John Williams' theme for the Indiana Jones franchise. John Williams originally wrote two different pieces of music to be used as Indy's theme for use in the first film, Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Director Steven Spielberg liked both pieces and instructed Williams to include both together as one main theme. Those two pieces of music became the Raiders March. Williams received an Oscar nomination in 1982 for Best Original Score, but lost to Vangelis for Chariots Of Fire (you'll read about this soon!). Goes to show you that if this song is only #50 on my list, the other 49 songs have to be really out of this world!