Music plays a crucial role in all of our favorite movies and TV shows and most of that music has been written by incredible composers like John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Elmer Bernstein, and many, many more, even the ones not named Williams or Zimmer. But what is each composer's best work? That's hard to pin down and opinions will always vary, but here are a few choice examples of what is the best work by some of Hollywood's best composers.
James Horner - Titanic
Tragedy struck on a June day in 2015 when composer James Horner was killed when the plane he was flying crashed. Luckily Horner left a legacy of amazing soundtrack work that includes Aliens, Glory, Patriot Games, Braveheart, and other award-winning compositions. However, his most famous, for which he won an Academy Award, has to be Titanic.
Ramin Djawadi - Game Of Thrones
Even early in his career, Ramin Djawadi was producing some epic scores. Like, for example, his score for the original Iron Man in 2008. In 2011, however, he created his masterpiece, the theme song and score for Game Of Thrones. Few theme songs in history have been more epic, completely befitting the show.
Bill Conti - Rocky
One of the most famous movie scores of all time has to be from Rocky. Admit it, you are singing it to yourself right now. Not only has it been used in many of the Rocky franchise movies, but it's also been heard countless other times in other media. Nothing gets you psyched up quite like this great score by Bill Conti.
Trent Reznor And Atticus Ross - The Social Network
Trent Reznor, like other great film composures started in rock n roll. Nine Inch Nails sold millions and millions of records before Reznor teamed up with Atticus Ross and began scoring films. His first, and still his best (though they are all great) has to The Social Network.
Ennio Morricone - The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
Few composers are as iconic as Ennio Morricone. His theme for The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly is just one of many scores he wrote over his long career. While they are all great, it's this one that stands out not just for it's use in the movie it was written for, but for all the other times we've all heard elsewhere.
Henry Mancini - The Pink Panther
This was a tough one for me because Henry Mancini has a few bangers. The theme of the TV show Peter Gunn is one, and "Moon River" from Breakfast at Tiffany's is another. When all is said and done though, it's tough to argue that the theme to The Pink Panther isn't the most iconic of all his wonder works.
John Carpenter - Halloween
John Carpenter not only directed a slasher film classic with Halloween, but he's also responsible for the eerie theme song that has become a classic of its own. It's not the only great score Carpenter has written for one of his movies, in fact, he's scored most of them. Escape from New York is another standout, but none have come close to the cultural impact of Halloween.
Elmer Bernstein - The Magnificent Seven
No one could compose an epic score quite like Elmer Bernstein. If you want something that sounds patriotic, or triumphant, Bernstein is your man. Whether it's a comedy like Stripes, or a blockbuster like The Great Escape, or a Western like the original True Grit, Bernstein could di it all. His most famous, though, comes from one of the best Westerns of all time, The Magnificent Seven from 1960.
Hans Zimmer - Gladiator
Hans Zimmer is one of the all-time great film composers and there are a number of his scores that people might argue belong here. For me though, there is no question what score sits above them all. The music in Gladiator is just perfect in every way. It pings every emotion the movie does wonderfully.
John Williams - Star Wars
Raiders of the Lost Ark. Jurassic Park. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Superman. Harry Potter. Do I need to go on? John Williams stands alone when it comes to the most moving, most famous, and most iconic scores. One score, however, stands above even those legendary works of music. Stars Wars simply wouldn't be the same without the music, full stop.
Nino Rota - The Godfather
Francis Ford Coppola has talked about the influence of legendary Italian director Federico Fellini so it makes sense that he would seek out the composer of the scores of many of Fellini's films. Most of Nino Rota's impressive scores were for Italian movies, but his music for both The Godfather and The Godfather Part II are his most famous, and for good reason. There are many reasons both movies are universally considered two of the best movies ever made, and the music is certainly one of them.
Max Steiner - Gone With The Wind
As one of Hollywood's first major composers, Max Steiner was nominated for a jaw-dropping 24 Oscars, and won three. Oddly, one of the ones he didn't win for is now unquestionably his most famous, the score for Gone With The Wind.
Alan Silvestri - The Avengers
There are a lot of choices with this entry. Personally, my Gen X nostalgia makes my favorite Alan Silvestri score the one from Back To The Future. Of course, there is also Forrest Gump and more recently, Ready Player One, in which he even included a bit of Back To The Future as one of the many easter eggs in that movie. However, when you are responsible for the score of some of the highest-grossing movies of all time with The Avengers movies, that one has to go at the top of the list.
Wendy Carlos - The Shining
Though she's only done a limited amount of soundtracks, avant-garde electronic artist Wendy Carlos has a 100% rate. Tron, The Shining, and A Clockwork Orange are the only films she's written the music for and while it's a tough choice, I put The Shining on this list.
Lalo Schifrin - Mission: Impossible
Argentinian Lalo Schifrin could be described as the "coolest" composer in Hollywood, based on his body of work. Movies like Cool Hand Luke, Bullitt, Dirty Harry, Enter The Dragon, and many others, all contribute to the cool actor. He's also been sampled widely in hip-hop and trip-hop. None of his many award-winning scores can compete with the theme to Mission: Impossible which he wrote for the TV show in the '60s and has become ubiquitous in pop culture.
Monty Norman - James Bond
John Berry is the man most famous for the music in James Bond, but he didn't write the theme. That bit of genius came from Monty Norman, who scored the first Bond film, Dr. No. Later, Barry would claim to have written the theme that has been used in every Bond movie since the beginning, but it was Norman all along (though Barry did rearrange it).
Howard Shore - The Lord of The Rings
Howard Shore's career started in television when he was the first musical director on Saturday Night Live for the first five seasons. He later moved into film scores and while he's had a number of fantastic ones, it's his work in the Lord Of The Rings series that earned him three Academy Awards.
Thomas Newman - The Shawshank Redemption
Composer Thomas Newman got his first big break in movies when he worked alongside John Williams, conducting some of the music Williams wrote for Return Of The Jedi. He must have learned a lot, as he's been one of Hollywood's most in-demand composers ever since. His best work has to be the emotional score for The Shawshank Redemption, one of the many reason reasons that movie is considered one of the best films of the '90s.
Morton Stevens - Hawaii Five-0
Hawaii Five-0 was one of the hippest shows on TV in the late 1960s and that was in large part due to the super cool intro and the theme music by Morton Stevens.
Mike Post - Law & Order
Admit it, your humming the theme to Law & Order right now. It's okay, we all are. Mike Post, wrote the incredibly catchy theme song and is also responsible for some of the most memorable theme songs of all time, including Hill Street Blues, Magnum, P.I. and LA Law, among others. Still, it's this one that most people think of first.
Danny Elfman - The Simpsons
How do you pick just one Danny Elfman score? The answer is, you don't, you go with one of the most recognizable TV theme songs of all time with The Simpsons. Sure, you have the Tim Burton Batman score, or the music from Pee Wee's Big Adventure, or any other number of legendary Elfman scores, but come on, it's The Simpsons!
Bernard Herrmann - Psycho
When you have something like the score to Citizen Cane on your resume, but it's not your most famous work, you are definitely doing something right. Bernard Herrmann worked with many of the best directors in Hollywood's Golden Age, and none more so than Alfred Hitchcock. Herrmann's score for Psycho is one of the most iconic ever put on film.
Harold Faltermeyer - Top Gun
This one came down to two choices, the theme song to Beverly Hills Cop, called "Axel F" and the opening theme to Top Gun. In the end, the soaring guitars and dramatic beat from Top Gun won out as my choice for the great Harold Faltermeyer. His score for Fletch also deserves a nod.
Alfred Newman - How The West Was Won
Full disclosure, the most famous piece of music Alfred Newman ever wrote is the intro/fanfare that accompanies the beginning of all 20th Century Fox movies. Setting that aside, his second most famous work is the iconic score for How The West Was Won, which has been used all over pop culture for years.
Maurice Jarre - Lawrence Of Arabia
Maurice Jarre's most famous works probably depend on what generation is making the choice. Over his incredible career, which stretched out over five decades, he wrote the scores to movies as diverse as Doctor Zhivago, Ghost, and Dead Poet's Society. However, his score for Lawrence of Arabia is the choice here, for obvious reasons. It's as epic as the movie is.
Anne Dudley - The Full Monty
There is no question that the world needs more soundtracks from female composers and Anne Dudley is example A1 in the argument for that. Her work, from American History X to The Crying Game and beyond has been uniformly great. She is also one of the few women to win an Oscar for one of her scores, for 1997's The Full Monty.
Alexander Courage - Star Trek
Alexander Courage might not be the biggest name on this list, but he's responsible for one of the most famous and most-played theme songs of all time. Courage, in addition to other TV work and some movie work, composed the theme song for the original Star Trek series in the 1960s and his music has been used, at least in part, for basically all the Star Trek movies and TV shows.
James Newton Howard - The Hunger Games
James Newton Howard's first movie score was for the cult-classic version of Dune from director David Lynch. He's written dozens of scores since, and while all are great, I'm partial to his work with the Hunger Games trilogy. The music has to be pretty diverse with that story and the score succeeds in every way.
Randy Newman - Toy Story
We all have a friend in Randy Newman. Though he first became famous for his sardonic singer/songwriter work in the 1970s, for many people, he's first known for his work on the Toy Story franchise, including the song "You've Got A Friend In Me" in addition to the scores.
Quincy Jones - Sanford & Son
Quincy Jones is first and foremost known for his incredible music production for the likes of Michael Jackson and other pop stars in the '70s and '80s. But did you know he also wrote the theme song to Sanford & Son? It's an all-time banger of a theme song that people still love to listen to 50 years after the show debuted.
A. R. Rahman - Slumdog Millionaire
Bollywood legend A. R. Rahman isn't as well known in the Western world as he is in his home country of India, and so while I'm sure there are pieces of music by Rahman that are more beloved in India, I have to go with one of his scores I love from Hollywood, which comes down to a choice between Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours. While the latter was nominated for an Oscar, the former won one, to go with all the Oscars Slumdog Millionaire won that year.
Rachel Portman - Theme To Chocolat
Rachel Portman became the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Score for Emma in 1996, but her best work came in 2000 for her score to Chocolat starring Johnny Depp. She was nominated for it but missed out when she lost to composer Tan Dun for his work in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
