Howdy! It is time to wrap up Western Week, to say adios to our favourite westerns, mount on our horses and ride into sunset – for the time being. Oh ok, until tomorrow.
We hope you had a great time this week – we sure did preparing it. So much so, we have decided to have other Appreciation Weeks from time to time.
Meanwhile, we leave you with the best songs from the Westerns we love – we are pretty sure you will know at least 90% of these songs!
We will start with the one and only Ennio Morricone, Italian composer, responsible for some of the best known film scores out there from Cinema Paradiso, The Mission and The Untouchables to the Westerns directed by Sergio Leone most notably The Good, the Bad and The Ugly:
And Once Upon a Time in the West (Ana’s personal favourite Western movie and Western Soundtrack – this song is AMAZING)
Another one that we love is the score from The Magnificent Seven by Elmer Bernstein, if you haven’t watched the movie , you will remember this one from the Marlboro commercials!
From the movie Johnny Guitar, featuring Joan Crawford as a tough Saloon owner who is helped by the hero Johnny Guitar to clear her name when she is accused of murder. The title song is by Peggy Lee:
Time for some good old time fun with Seven Brides for Seven Brothers – a Musical Western, amazingly choreographed by Michael Kidd and with great songs by Saul Chaplin and Gene de Paul
And who does not know Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on my Head, by Burt Bacharach from the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The song won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1969.
More recently, in Kill Bill a modern day Western by Quentin Tarantino, we had the Song Bang Bang (my baby shot me down) in the version with Nancy Sinatra . A bit of trivia : this song was written by Sony Bono and it was Cher’s greatest hit of the 1960s!
That’s all folks!!!
P.S. Maybe not all. Since we are talking great Western soundtracks, I have to post this one too. OK, technically it is not a Western per se, but it is a Country song from a great Country movie, Tender Mercies. A movie from 1983 with Robert Duvall playing a recovering alcoholic country singer/writer who is trying to get back on track. In the movie he goes to a club to see his ex-wife and ex-songwriting partner and she is singing this song – Over You. The song was nominated to an Oscar that year and both in the movie and in this clip it is performed by Betty Buckley:
Hasta la vista babies!
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9 Responses to Western Week: The Soundtrack
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I didn’t know that Raindrops song was from Butch Cassidy! Look what a person learns on Western week.
I love that you included the song from 7 Brides for 7 Brothers. Of course, as soon as I saw the title of your post the fist name that popped into my head was Ennio Marconi. He is amazing. I particularly love his music from The Mission.
The one song that is total “western” to me (although, I don’t think it was ever in a movie) is Aaron Copeland’s Hoedown. Sadly, it alos always reminds me of the beef commercial.
I love Oklahoma! I have seen that movie too many times too count!
And what about Bonanza and Rawhide?
Mmmm…Magnificent Seven theme. Classic. I to remember playing it in high school band.
What about Aaron Copeland’s Rodeo suite? Not actually used in a western per se, and probably best known for the “Beef…it’s what’s for dinner” commercials, but that’s a great and classic American western piece.
That was supposed to be “I remember playing it…” – no “to” in there and certainly not a misspelled “too.” Sorry – editing cap has gone off for the night.
Hee! No worries Kate. I hate that feeling, seeing a comment or a post go up and then later noticing a misspelled word or gramatical error :p
Good call on Aaron Copland–wasn’t he a mentor for Elmer Bernstein? Definitely a classic American composer.
Tender Mercies! Love that film. Great post. Maybe you can tackle the Japanese/Kurosawa versions next.
–badmamajama
Leonard Bernstein was a friend and protege. Apparently Leonard and Elmer weren’t related (I had to look that up.)
Leonard was friend to and protege of Copeland, I mean…god, I’m blaming it on the medication