"Put another dime in the jukebox, baby!"

With the Filmmusic Blog-a-thon in full swing I thought it was about time to add a few more songs to the jukebox widget here on Windmills Of My Mind and draft another post elaborating on my choices (the first post can be found here). Once again we've got a variety of different tunes that I think people will like. I know I do at least. So just sit, back, relax and enjoy these six pieces by six more great filmmusic composers.


1. Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky) - Along with Vangelis' Chariots of Fire this is probably the single most inspirational training song ever written for a sports movie (I dare you to listen to the whole thing without getting even a little pumped). Whatever else Bill Conti does, he will always be known as the guy that scored Rocky!

2. Love Theme from The Godfather - Who can forget Nino Rota's wonderfully sad theme for Coppola's classic gangster epic? Nevermind that Rota, because he reworked some melodies from a previous score, did not win the Best Original Oscar he deserved for it, as long as great filmmusic is celebrated his name (and this piece) will be remembered.

3. The Name's Bond... James Bond - From the end of Casino Royale, here's... Aw, heck! This one needs no introduction. Like Henry Mancini's "Pink Panther" theme, it speaks for itself.

5. North By Northwest Overture - Establishing the tone perfectly for the thrilling adventure that was soon to follow, the great Bernard Hermann composed this fast and furious main title for Hitchcock's most action-packed film.

4. The Council of Elrond - A conversation with a fellow film blogger on the quality (or lack thereof) of Howard Shore's scores for the Lord of the Rings movies prompted me to post this one. Combining three of the film's major themes (the Rivendell theme, the Shire theme and the Fellowship theme) with a liltingly beautiful solo by the ethereal Enya, this heartbreakingly lovely, and yet still grand and majestic, piece is one of my favorite cues from the first film.

6. The Colonel Bogey March - Composed by Malcolm Arnold for David Lean's brilliant Bridge on the River Kwai, here's one of the most memorable military marches for any war movie to send us off in style.


That should be enough to get us through the blog-a-thon. I'll post more again later. Toodles for now!