Star Wars’ well-known music has been voted the best film theme of all time in a new poll.
Composer John Williams’ music for the 1977 space opera Star Wars: A New Hope took more than 20% of the votes in the RadioTimes.com and BBC Music Magazine survey.
And the composer himself dominated the leaderboard in the poll, with six of his renowned movie themes appearing in the top 10.
Howard Shore’s The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring theme (2001) came second.
It was closely followed by another of Williams’ works, the theme of 2001’s Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone (Hedwig’s Theme), and he also took fourth place with the Jurassic Park (1993) music.
Fifth place went to Ennio Morricone’s music from 1966 film The Good, The Bad And The Ugly and Williams made another appearance in sixth for Indiana Jones film Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981).
Williams’ famous Jaws (1975) tune was seventh, ahead of Nino Rota’s music from 1972 mob drama The Godfather.
The top 10 was rounded out by the theme from 1978’s Superman: The Movie (Williams) and Klaus Badelt’s music from Pirates Of The Caribbean (2003).
RadioTimes.com editor Tim Glanfield said: “Immediately recognisable, full of drama, excitement and hope, the original Star Wars theme is as seminal in film music terms as Star Wars: A New Hope was cinematically.
“Synonymous with a movie franchise that has spanned five decades, it looks set to continue delighting fans for generations to come and is a worthy winner of our poll.
“With his film theme tunes featuring an incredible six times in our top 10, composer John Williams has demonstrated over a 60-year career his uncanny ability to connect emotionally with audiences and to imbue the work of some of the world’s best filmmakers with added significance.”
Oliver Condy, editor of BBC Music Magazine, added: “That the top 10 would feature Williams was inevitable, given the quality and popularity of his work, but the fact his themes took six of those 10 places truly marks him out as the master of movie melodies.”
