Amidst a great soundtrack of pop classics -- Chuck Berry's "Run Ruldoph Run," Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," The Drifters' "White Christmas" -- Williams' score is the magical holiday glue that holds "Home Alone" together.
Williams' third Oscar-winning score was voted by the AFI as the single greatest movie score ever written. How can you argue? Between the rousing "Main Theme" to Darth Vader's "Imperial March," the "Star Wars" soundtrack is impossible to beat.
The happiest accident was that the mechanical shark didn't work. Spielberg improvised, allowing Williams' horrific score to stand in for the shark's point of view. Winner of the Academy Award and voted the AFI's No. 6 greatest movie score of all time, you can still hear kids humming it at the beach every summer.
Williams' fifth and final Oscar winner tugged at our heartstrings to express the gigantic horror of the Holocaust. Not only is it one of the greatest movie scores, it may also be one of the finest pieces of instrumental "classical" music ever composed.
John Williams' fourth Oscar-winning score sent us soaring across the moon with a lovable alien in our bike basket. It was also recently voted the AFI's No. 14 greatest score of all time.
Harrison Ford turned Indiana Jones into a household name, but it was John Williams who made him legendary. The horns can be both adventurous and mysterious, from the famous "Raiders March" to "The Miracle of the Ark."
What's more beautiful: the piano-based "main theme" or the rousing trumpets of "Welcome to Jurassic Park"? Here in the Top 6, we've now entered the phase where any of the remaining scores could make a case for No. 1.
The film's entire alien mystery plot is based around five music notes that allow mankind to communicate with extra terrestrials. Williams may have won the Oscar if he wasn't going up against himself for "Star Wars."
The theme has become so popular -- played in theme parks, highlight reels, "Seinfeld" finales -- that many forget it first came from "Superman: The Movie."
Thirty-three years after his first Oscar nomination, Williams worked his spell on a new generation of fans, who anxiously awaited the theme each time it played in the opening credits.
Just the right blend of somber and patriotic, Williams' choir-backed score transported us to Omaha Beach and reminded us of the ultimate sacrifice.
Williams' enchanting score for Steven Spielberg's "Hook" became even more famous when it was used in the trailer for Tim Burton's "Nightmare Before Christmas."
The first of five Williams scores to actually win the Oscar, "Fiddler on the Roof" featured a fun score that didn't take itself too seriously. It's one of those musical scores that just makes you smile.
Three years before "Jaws," Williams took to the sea with "The Poseidon Adventure." You can hear a bit of "Jaws" in the start as Williams layered the soundtrack of one of the 1970s' biggest disaster movies.
It may not have matched James Horner's score for Mel Gibson's "Braveheart," but Williams' gorgeous violins and colonial woodwinds transported us in time, earning yet another Oscar nomination.
The sci-fi wonders of pre-crime were captured in the strings of Williams' Oscar-nominated score.
Two years before "JFK," Williams collaborated with Stone on "Born on the Fourth of July." The result was the opposite of the patriotic fervor George M. Cohan lent to "Yankee Doodle Dandy."
"JFK" was the second-best score Williams did in 1991 -- after "Hook" -- but it gave Oliver Stone's historical drama the weight it deserved.
The film boasted an array of stars -- Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, O.J. Simpson -- but John Williams' score was the most important supporting character.
Steven Spielberg's tale of a robot Haley Joel Osment got mixed reviews, but John Williams' Oscar-nominated score was a unanimous success.
AP
Jason Fraley, WTOP film critic
WASHINGTON – Forty-seven Oscar nominations. Five wins. One “instrumental” career.
John Williams is the “superman” of movie music.
He came to D.C. this week to conduct his “Olympic Fanfare and Theme” at the Capitol Fourth celebration on Independence Day.
Saturday, the National Symphony Orchestra will perform some of his most famous themes at a special show at Wolf Trap.
Click here for ticket info.
How many John Williams themes do you know? You may be surprised.
Check out the gallery to the right for my Top 20 John Williams scores of all time.
Read more from WTOP Film Critic Jason Fraley by clicking “Fraley on Film” under the “Living” tab above, following @JasonFraleyWTOP on Twitter, and checking out his blog, The Film Spectrum.
(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)
