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High 5 – John Williams Scores…Besides Superman

January 21st, 2014 . by Tim Babb (TANcast's #1 Host/Editor Fan)

I’ve decided to try and do more of these High 5 blogs since we’ve pretty much abandoned this feature on the podcast. (Mostly because it makes the editing of the episodes take 3 times longer and Tim don’t play dat)

So it’s no secret that I’m a fan of the Music of Mr. John Williams. But if I do a High Five list of his film scores we all know what score I’d have at number 1. So for this I’ll pretend I’m Zack Snyder and I’ll ignore the amazing music from Superman and pick my five favorites from the rest of Williams’ amazing catalog of awesomeness.

5) Jurassic Park

I’ve only rediscovered this one in the past few years thanks, in no small part, to the Goldentusk’s video where he put lyrics to the song. This score has two halves that I love…the slow sweeping score and then the bombastic fanfare. Love them both. Hold on to your butts indeed!

4) Harry Potter

It’s somehow dark and light at the same time. It captures the dark side of the wizard world but also the heroic side of Harry. Brilliant. (Also, it kinda reminds me of Christmas for some reason. I don’t know why. Something about the tinkling at the beginning…but it’s certainly not a bad thing)

3) Jaws

Come on! No list is complete without this. So simple but so forbidding. Just humming this at the beach is sure to freak people out.

2) Indiana Jones

Now days, I’m usually humming or whistling the Superman theme. Not really on purpose, it’s just sort of the default song in my head. But in that gap after Superman Returns and before Man of Steel, the Indiana Jones theme was the one I was constantly whistling. When this is the soundtrack to your life, it’s like your life is one big adventure. Besides the awesome main theme (above), I love the map room music as well as the music during the tank chase in Last Crusade (can’t find it on YouTube, sorry. and also, yes, I’m counting all movies in a film series). I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that all of those themes can be heard on the ride at Disneyland. Speaking of John Williams music heard at Disneyland…

1) Star Wars

Was there any doubt? Again, I’m lumping all 6 movies together here…there are SO MANY great music moments. Of course you have the main theme, the force theme (above), the Imperial March, and the Duel of the Fates from Episode 1. That last one really floors me. John Williams was under the impression that George Lucas wanted to make another good movie and wrote a piece of music that far outclasses the movie it’s stick inside of. You know what? I even like the “Yub nub” song from Return of the Jedi. Yeah, I said it, DEAL WITH ME!

Also, Williams wrote the music for the Cantina Band. Which I can’t find on YouTube. Isn’t that weird? The rest of the Star Wars soundtrack is plastered all over YouTube, but for this one track, I can only find covers. So here’s a cover by Scott Aukerman and Paul F. Tompkins at a live Comedy Bang Bang. It’s horrible quality, but I love Paul F. Tompkins.

PS – did you notice that I had E.T. in the graphic for this list but then I didn’t put it on the list. BOOM! You just got Babbed!

3 Responses to “High 5 – John Williams Scores…Besides Superman”

  1. Andrew, TANcast's #[square root of -1] Australian fanNo Gravatar Says:

    Who got Babbed? I got Babbed.

  2. EmmaNo Gravatar Says:

    Great list! David (my 11 year old) got an itunes gifts card, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that he chose to download music from the piano guys and John Williams, mostly Star Wars.

  3. DeanNo Gravatar Says:

    1) Cannot hum Indiana Jones main theme without hearing TANLaughs lyrics in my head
    2) YUB NUB???… for fk’s sake, Babb…

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