Vote for your favourite movie theme music of all time
Have your say in the Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame in partnership with Radio Times
Voting in The Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame is now closed. Don't forget, Classic FM are counting down the nation's Top 100 favourite movie scores of all time over the weekend - listen from Saturday 29 to Monday 31 August to find out how your favourite film scores fared.
For more information on the countdown to the winner this weekend, and for a peek at the Classic FM presenters’ favourite movie soundtracks, click here.
Radio Times is delighted to be partnering with Classic FM for its inaugural three-day Movie Music Hall of Fame. As Andrew Collins (RT Film Editor and Classic FM host) takes us through a selection across the decades in the list below, reminisce in some of the finest screen music ever and, more importantly, vote for your favourite.
The full list includes vital scores from across nine decades (see below for the Radio Times shortlist), from King Kong to Hans Zimmer’s pounding heartbeat for Dunkirk. Composers like John Williams, Bond inheritor David Arnold, Pixar favourite Michael Giacchino and the late Ennio Morricone have brought films to life. Whatever your taste, vote by following the instructions below. But if you don’t see your favourite here, head to the voting site at classicfm.com/moviemusic to see the full list, or if you think something is missing, suggest your own…
By voting, you will be entered into a prize draw for the chance to win £500, an iPad, or a Sony Sound Bar. To vote and for full terms and conditions, see How to Vote below.
And don't miss the chance to test your knowledge with our film music quiz, based on Andrew Collins' cryptic descriptions from the recent edition of Radio Times. Call yourself a movie expert? Have a go.
How to Vote
Read our 60 suggestions below then register your vote at classicfm.com/moviemusic. Tune in to Classic FM over the final weekend in August (Sat 29 to Mon 31) for the results and a countdown of the top 100 through to the winning film theme. If your favourite isn’t on the list you can elect it as your wild-card choice when you register your vote. Voting open from 9am on Tuesday 4 August to 11.59pm on Sunday 23 August. Voting open to UK residents, aged 18 and above.
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The Radio Times Shortlist
1930s
KING KONG Max Steiner 1931
Honorary first full-length symphonic film score; Austrian émigré made a monkey magnificent
MODERN TIMES Charlie Chaplin 1936
Musically adept, multitasking “little tramp” fills the silence with sounds of industry
THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD Erich Korngold 1938
Austrian founding father brings majesty and romance to Sherwood Forest
GONE WITH THE WIND Max Steiner 1939
Torrid plantation romance whipped into glorious Steiner melodrama affected in 20-hour shifts
1940s
CITIZEN KANE Bernard Herrmann 1941
Future Psycho iconoclast makes big impact with dance-filled Orson Welles classic
CASABLANCA Max Steiner 1942
The peak of Steiner’s “noir” years, he begged to drop As Time Goes By but was overruled
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE Dmitri Tiomkin 1946
Jingle bells and hot-toddy warmth in a musical Christmas card from Russian arrival
1950s
ALL ABOUT EVE Alfred Newman 1950
Battling Broadway belles Bette Davis and Anne Baxter ennobled by Newman ups and downs
SUNSET BOULEVARD Franz Waxman 1950
Unhinged Hollywood provides grist to Silesian Waxman's pitch-black mill
ON THE WATERFRONT Leonard Bernstein 1954
Stage titan Bernstein’s only straight orchestral score brings the bongos and paranoid brass
THE DAMBUSTERS Eric Coates, Leighton Lucas 1955
Flag-waving fly-past favourite to this day, played at the 2012 Olympics
VERTIGO Bernard Herrmann 1958
Queasily lit, sexually complicated Hitch classic taken to next notch by Herrmann
1960s
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN Elmer Bernstein 1960
A defining example of the shelf-life of a truly hummable signature
PSYCHO Bernard Herrmann 1960
Eerie score understandably thumbnailed for its terrifying “shower scene” stabs
LAURENCE OF ARABIA Maurice Jarre 1962
David Lean’s French talisman scores first Oscar of three with aromatic travelogue sweep
THE PINK PANTHER Henry Mancini 1963
Written to introduce live-action Panther franchise, cartoon epitome of swinging cool
GOLDFINGER John Barry 1964
Bold, brash, brassy, first of a dozen iconic espionage capers
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY Ennio Morricone 1966
Late, lamented Italian experimentalist rewrote western manual with twangy guitar, coyote and ocarina
1970s
THE GODFATHER Nino Rota 1972
Matched Morricone with 150 scores, but Rota’s old-country lament lingers
THE STING Marvin Hamlisch 1973
Ragtime makes brief comeback for Redford/Newman Depression-lifter
CHINATOWN Jerry Goldsmith 1974
Sexy, sultry trumpet is the star of Goldsmith’s sunbaked 30s noir
JAWS John Williams 1975
Dur-dum, dur-dum
STAR WARS John Williams 1977
Williams channels Holst and afore-listed Korngold with big motifs for a big saga
SUPERMAN John Williams 1978
A good 70s cemented into immortality with JW’s airborne comic-book flourish
ALIEN Jerry Goldsmith 1979
Spare, minimalist space opera with that unnerving “cuckoo” signature
1980s
CHARIOTS OF FIRE Vangelis 1981
For period 1924 Olympics set drama, Greek keyboard god breaks the rules
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK John Williams 1981
A call to arms from Saturday morning cinema clubs everywhere
BLADE RUNNER Vangelis 1982
Further ambient mood-board synth, this time throwing forward to future
ET John Williams 1982
Whistle Williams’s theme right now – you’ll feel better
OUT OF AFRICA John Barry 1985
007 man stretches wings across Kenya; delivers widescreen romance
THE MISSION Ennio Morricone 1986
Robbed of first non-honorary Oscar by Round Midnight, this defines the decade
1990s
THE PIANO Michael Nyman 1993
Mid-19th century romance between mute and illiterate revolves around upright Joanna
JURASSIC PARK John Williams 1993
Necks automatically crane upwards when we hear this awe-striking symphony
SCHINDLER’S LIST John Williams 1993
An emotional pause, every time, for Spielberg’s turning-point movie
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION Thomas Newman 1994
Newman dynasty (Alfred, Randy, David) spawns Thomas’s complex prison break
APOLLO 13 James Horner 1995
Late crowd-pleaser summons patriotic fervor with orchestral lift-off
BRAVEHEART James Horner 1995
Lorryload of Irish pipes and whistles pulls up to Abbey Road
EMMA Rachel Portman 1996
First female composer to win an Oscar for delightful, lively reels
INDEPENDENCE DAY David Arnold 1996
A man from Luton shows the world how to summon an apocalypse
TITANIC James Horner 1997
More whistles echo Celtic steerage jollity before ice stops play
WILDE Debbie Wiseman 1997
Imperious, cello-downbeat inner workings of Oscar Wilde bring him to doomed life
AMERICAN BEAUTY Thomas Newman 1999
Truly original percussive experimentalism heralds the coming decade
2000s
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON Tan Dun 2000
Sparse flute, insistent strings, Dun creates an18-Century epic for all
GLADIATOR Hans Zimmer 2000
Hans Zimmer on storming form, mixes afterlife, battles and emotion
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING Howard Shore 2001
Its leitmotifs last for the entire trilogy; an actual meisterwork about elves
HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE John Williams 2001
Chimes and tinkles let light in on magic, before JW whisks us away
THE AVIATOR Howard Shore 2004
Howard Hughes biopic blends JS Bach and Tchaikovsky into Shore’s Hollywood tragedy
LADIES IN LAVENDER Nigel Hess 2004
Gorgeous, beloved suite conjures 1930s Cornwall in strings
ATONEMENT Dario Marianelli 2007
Rich, moving paean to the winds of war, echoes Dunkirk beach profoundly
AVATAR James Horner 2009
Wonder and bioluminescence combine in Horner’s most complete world-builder
UP Michael Giacchino 2009
Pixar fable about love and loss soon aloft like house on balloons
2010s
INCEPTION Hans Zimmer 2010
Bombast set aside to make room for esoteric layering
GRAVITY Steven Price 2013
Airless setting, thundering action momentum from Oscar-bagging Price
INTERSTELLAR Hans Zimmer 2014
More space-is-awesome endeavour played against human fragility
CAROL Carter Burwell 2015
Gentle emotional rollercoaster in 1950s New York for star-crossed love
FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD Craig Armstrong 2015
Agriculturally infused 1870s soap opera allows hearts to sing
JACKIE Mica Levi 2016
Boldly iconoclastic, ad-jingle approach to plight of JFK widow
DUNKIRK Hans Zimmer/Benjamin Wallfisch 2017
Initially subconscious score behind Dunkirk evac heaves into Elgar-esque salute
MOONLIGHT Nicholas Britell 2016
Sexual secrets plays out against Floridian shore in Britell’s woozy score
JOKER Hildur Gudnadottir 2019
Echo-chamber introspection from searching Icelandic star-in-waiting
Remember, you can cast your vote for your favourite film theme at classicfm.com/moviemusic.
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