Are we talking soundtracks or musical scores?

Soundtracks:

Singles
The Devil's Rejects (I have a whole new respect for Freebird -- and I NEVER liked that song!)
Empire Music
The Lost Boys
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Six String Samurai
The Graduate

All I can think of at the moment.

Musical Scores:

Predator
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Beetlejuice
Star Wars
Halloween
Once Upon a Time in the West

...and now I'm drawing a blank.

Times Square (1980) Tim Curry and Trini Alvarado

Bad movie GREAT soundtrack:

"Same Old Scene"
by Roxy Music

"I Wanna Be Sedated"
by The Ramones

"Rock Hard"
by Suzi Quatro

"Babylon's Burning"
by The Ruts

"Life During Wartime"
by The Talking Heads

"Walk On the Wild Side"
by Lou Reed

"Dangerous Type"
by The Cars

"Innocent Not Guilty"
by Garland Jeffreys

"The Night Was Not"
by Desmond Child & Rogue

"Down In the Park"
by Gary Numan

"Pissing in a River"
by Patti Smith

"You Can't Hurry Love"
Performed by D.L. Byron

"Talk of the Town"
by The Pretenders

"Damn Dog"
Performed by Robin Johnson

"Your Daughter Is One"
Performed by Robin Johnson and Trini Alvarado

O' Brother
Kansas City

As  far as main titles? Jerry Goldsmith's Alien, Signs by James Newton Howard

Both pretty much set the standard as far as marrying music, image, and setting the tone for the film to follow.

Of course, William's Jaws

North By Northwest & Vertigo - Herrmann

Out Of Africa - John Barry

I don't know if it's my favourite, but this music video for "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIVh8Mu1a4Q&feature=related

'You're so cool' by Hans Zimmer that opens True Romance.

Hans Zimmer's track is a re-working of the theme to Badlands by Carl Orff but I much prefer Zimmer's version, it is a wonderful opening to a movie as I have ever seen (apart from maybe  Magnolia).


And speaking of Magnolia what about Aimee Mann's 'Save me' as sung by the characters during the movie - how cool is that?

Okay, this is gonna be strange. This piece is from an almost unanimously-hated film (I seem to be the only person who likes it).

I'm talking about -- wait for it -- Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers. Just check it out. You can't tell me it's not fucking epic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x8vlR4eRjE&feature=related

It almost sounds like The Thing's main theme. By far, the best score music in the entire franchise next to Carpenter's main theme. Sadly, this music only played in the unreleased P-Cut version of the film.

I thought Alan Howarth deserved at least SOME recognition for his work! He did a good job and it's a shame his score went to waste.

--Julio

Another one of my favourite soundtracks is Lalo Schifrin's score from Dirty Harry.
Both the soundtrack and the cinematography took what could have been a fairly standard cop movie to the next level.

Quoted Text

Quoted from Just_Initials Damn, thats a hard one... I'll just throw some out I've been hooked on lately, No Escape - Graeme Revell The Incredibles - Michael Giachinno Spirited Away - Joe Hisaishi PSO III (Let the Winds Blow)

I agree with you. It's so hard because there are so many good ones.

I'll just put forward these because they came to me, but I'm in love with everything; so I'm a poor judge.

Jesus Christ Superstar
Grease
Shrek
The Grinch
Does "Cats" count? That's theatre I guess, but I LOVE CATS!!!!

Right now I'm thinking:

The Way We Were

Because I'm hooked on Mem and thus:



I love her and I'm glad I remembered to bring her up now in this thread.

Sandra

"The Ghost and Mrs Muir" Music by Bernard Hermann - A real piece of Happiness

"Somewhere in Time" by John Barry

Cameron Crowe can be relied upon for a great soundtrack. Not surprising considering his background.

Clint Mansell, John Murphy are great and Alan Silvestri did a lot of work being mentioned here.

'There Will Be Blood' had a terrific score.

Let's be fair, there are so many great examples.

It's rare to see a great movie without a great musical accompaniment, however sparse it may be.

Music really does bring a movie soul.

Andrew

Quoted from Andrew Cameron Crowe can be relied upon for a great soundtrack. Not surprising considering his background.

Amen to that.  If there's one thing you'll get out of a Cameron Crowe film, it's a rockin' soundtrack.  

-Greg

I'd like to throw the Iron Man 2 soundtrack out there.  It's pretty much the closest thing to a "Best of" AC/DC compilation.

1. Shoot to Thrill
2. Rock N Roll Damnation
3. Guns for Hire
4. Cold Hearted Man
5. Back in Black
6. Thunderstruck
7. If You Want Blood (You've Got It)
8. Evil Walks
9. TNT
10. Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be
11. Have a Drink on Me
12. The Razors Edge (why doesn't "razors" have an apostrophe?)
13. Let There Be Rock
14. War Machine
15. Highway to Hell