Music That Matters: Top 50 Movie Symphonies (#37 Somwhere In My Memory by John Williams)

It's kind of strange that I'm writing about the latest entry on the countdown now which is related to a movie that came out to mass acclaim during the holiday season of 1990. The movie is Home Alone. I had figured Somewhere In My Memory was a traditional Christmas song that was used as the theme, but nope! John Williams once again working his magic! Williams wrote a beautiful piece of music that not only became a movie classic, but also a great Christmas melody that is usually sung by high school choirs and orchestras throughout the world each year during the holidays. Again, another Christmas song of value that you'll never hear on the radio instead of the usual holiday tunes. Instead we only get the Tran-Siberian Orchestra who must have an exclusive contract where only instrumentals from them can be played on national radio. John Williams wrote Somewhere In My Memory to run alongside the film and to set the overall mood to represent an innocent and nostalgic child stuck home alone for Christmas who realizes that he actually misses his family. The beginning of the tune sounds like something from the Nutcracker Suite, then about a minute and a half into the song, it becomes much smoother and beautiful. Williams also went against the grain adding a kids choir at the end of the song to add a new layer to the theme. The most memorable section of the song is probably at the end of the movie when Kevin's mom returns to the McAllister house to see her baby boy. She expects him to be furious, but Kevin gives off that innocent smile, and things are okay. And by golly, the rest of the family comes in a minute later. It's a Christmas miracle. Kevin then looks out the window to see his next door neighbor has taken his advice from earlier in the film and has reunited with his family. Always brings a smile to my face, probably because of Williams' genius adding to the moment. I actually didn't even know John Williams scored the movie until much later on. I assumed he only scored science fiction movies. Guess I wrong but remember, there was no internet back then!!

Ladies and gentlemen... You know this one! It's Somewhere In My Memory from Home Alone by John Williams