Now it’s time to curate the SWDb community’s official top list of the best spaghetti western soundtracks. This one is for the movie buffs.
Awards process;
Nomination period until March 30: Nominate the 10 best soundtracks (what counts is how good the music/composition is, not how good the movie is it is used for!!!)
From the nominations we compile an official poll
The poll runs 30 days
We announce the best 20 spaghetti western soundtracks
Because I had the glorious idea of doing this, I’m starting off with the nominations with some diversity
judge the entire score, not just the opening title, we’re gonna do a separate top list for that
let’s do the world a favor and not just name the obvious ones
sometimes it is hard to tell if it is the composer or the conductor or both who deserve credit. let’s go with composer
everyone names 10 because there are so many movies and we need to weigh the best nominations, so if movie A is nominated by 20 users, it’s like it got 20 votes
nominate up to 10 titles, you can nominate less if you’re lazy
link all the movie titles to the appropriate SWDb page (good practise), where they haven’t been already
yes I nominated two more
Update: Now cast your votes below (up to 20) from all the titles that received at least 2 nominations, until May 3rd. Click here to get to the poll.
I’m redoing this list, I mean we are doing a top soundtrack awards. Best must go first despite what I like.
My top 10 are in bold. But I got 21 more just for giggles.
1. Once Upon a Time In The West : Ennio Morricone 2. The Good The Bad and The Ugly : Ennio Morricone 3. For a Few Dollars More : Ennio Morricone 4. Corri Uomo Corri : Bruno Nicolai 5. Il Mercenario : Ennio Morricone 6 Il Ritorno Di Ringo : Ennio Morricone 7 Da Uomo Da Uomo : Ennio Morricone 8 Per Un Pugno Di Dollari : Ennio Morricone 9 I Giorni Dell’ira : Riz Ortolani 10. L’ Ira Di Dio : Michele Lacerenza
11. I Lunghi Giorni Della Vendetta : Armando Trovajoli
12. La Resa Dei Conti : Ennio Morricone
13. Blindman : Stelvio Cipriani
14. Anda Muchacho Spara : Bruno Nicolai
15. Johnny Yuma : Nora Orlandi
16. Preparati La Bara Gian Piero, Gianfranco Reverebi
17. Il Grande Silenzio : Ennio Morricone
18. Indio Black : Bruno Nicolai
19. Gentleman Jo! : Bruno Nicolai, Ennio Morricone
20. Il pistolero dell’ave Maria : Franco Micalizzi, Roberto Pregadio
Honorable Mentions:
21. Il Grande Duello : Luis Bacalov
22. …E divenne il più spietato bandito del sud : Gianni Ferrio
23. Quella Sporca Storia Nel West : Franco Micalizzi
24. Una Pistola Per Ringo : Ennio Morricone
25. Nevada : Stelvio Cipriani
26. Il Mio Nome E Nessuno
27. Dio perdona… Io no! : Carlo Rustichelli
28. Gli Fumavano Le Colt… Lo Chiamavano Camposanto : Bruno Nicolai
29. Il Vigliacchi Non Pregano : Gianni Marchetti
30. Lo ammazzò come un cane… Ma lui rideva ancora : Daniele Patucchi
31. Arizona Colt : Francesco De Masi
1.Once Upon a Time in the West
2.For a Few Dollars More
3.Duck You Sucker
4.The Good The Bad & The Ugly
5.A Fistful of Dollars
6.The Great Silence
7.Face to Face
8.The Big Gundown
9.My Name is Nobody
10.Death Rides a Horse
My non-morricone list:
1.10.000 Dollari per un Massacro (music: Nora Orlandi)
2.Mannaja (music: Guido & Maurizio De Angelis )
3.Keoma (music: Guido & Maurizio De Angelis )
4.The grand duel (music: Luis E. Bacalov )
5.Johnny Yuma (music: Nora Orlandi )
6.Indio Black (Bruno Nicolai )
7.Inginocchiati Straniero… I Cadaveri Non Fanno Ombra! (music: Lallo Gori )
8.The Ugly Ones (music: Stelvio Cipriani )
9.Day Of Anger (music: Riz Ortanli )
10.Sabata (music: Marcello Giombini )
11.Una Nuvola Di Polvere… Un Grido Di Morte… Arriva Sartana (music: Bruno Nicolai )
12.Buon Funerale Amigos Paga Sartana (music: Bruno Nicolai )
13.Forgetton Pistolero (music: Roberto Pregadio )
14.Texas Adios (music: Anton Garcia Abril )
15.Django (music: Luis E. Bacalov )
16.They Call Me Trinity (music: Franco Micalizzi )
17.Django Strikes Again (music: Gianfranco Plenizio )
18.Matalo (music: Mario Migliardi )
Exactly. It’s either a list of the best soundtracks or it isn’t.
Nope, don’t agree. Non-obvious soundtracks will be featured highly anyway simply because there aren’t twenty immediately obvious soundtracks, but if we’re actively disqualifying soundtracks on the basis of their being already popular, then I move that we expunge the Dollars trilogy, Django and OUaTitW from the official movie top twenty on the same grounds, free up five spaces on the chart for five less obvious pictures. Let’s do the world a favour!
Anyways:
Cemetery Without Crosses (I really dislike the Scott Walker main theme but the rest of the score is beautiful)
Some of these might change; I need to return to a few soundtracks for a refresher (there are a good half-dozen which I would’ve swore were going to make it and haven’t, somehow).
Only selecting 10 is torture And yes my list is filled with Morricone but I honestly didn’t do it on purpose. There are 30-40 scores that could as easily have made the list.
I understand where you’re coming from. But for me Morricone just dominates the list, and to be honest, I felt like I had to drop the big four to give some other equally amazing scores a chance.
Also I noticed you put Un Dollaro Tra I Denti in you list. Can I ask your reasons for including it in the top 10? I’m just curious is all.
In no strict order:
Preparati La Bara
The Great Silence
Return of Ringo
Once Upon a Time in the West
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
For a Few Dollars More
Tepepa
Gui La Testa
Death Rides a Horse
The Big Gundown
Very honourable mentions:
The Mercenary
Have a Good Funeral, My Friend
A Stranger in Town
The Stranger Returns
My Name is Nobody
A Fistful of Dollars
Keoma
A Man Called Blade
Face to Face
Companeros
Ah yes but we could ironically if enough people did, that end up without Morricone being nominated at all. Still, despite adding a lot of Morricone to my list there are still 4 non-Morricone. If we get enough people nominating we will end up with plenty of scores to choose from eventhough everybody nominate 4 or more of the same Morricone scores.
I nearly just rewatched Un dollaro tra i denti. It was one of the first non-Leone westerns I watched and I just think the score beautiful and spartan and very fitting to the movie. I might as well have chosen one of 30 other scores. As I said I find this discipline torturous
True, I’ve actually given it some thought and I think maybe I should re categorize my top 10 to rightfully include Morricone, I’m honestly letting my love for the other composers cloud my judgement here.
Also I’m glad that you threw in a such a different score. Benedetto Ghiglia definitely turned out some interesting scores, and it’s nice to see him get recognized. Un Dollaro Tra I Denti and Adios Gringo were among the best of his works in my opinion. I’d rate Un Dollaro Soltanto (the chorus version of I Falso Soldato) as my favorite piece of the soundtrack.
I’ll be honest though, while I do love the score very much, and while it is very fitting to the movie. I’m not a fan of how much repetitive the score is. After listening to the Japanese release the main theme (Il Bandito Messicano) is presented without much variation, and dominates the films score. It is possibly a factor of how quick the film was made though. But I lament that the score could have been much greater with the addition of yet more I Cantori Moderni.
Maybe it would be a good idea (to avoid tactical nominations) that we agreed on considering some scores as prequalified. Like ten films, e.g. Leone’s films, The Great Silence, The Big Gundown, Django, Day of Anger and The Long Day of Vengeance. Even if they are not everybody’s choice, they will all surely make it to the poll anyway. And then the twenty or thirty most nominated. So it will be a poll where we chose twenty out of thirty or forty.
And yes my list is filled with Morricone but I honestly didn’t do it on purpose. There are 30-40 scores that could as easily have made the list.