Podcasts by The Baton: A John Williams Musical Journey

Episode 113 - Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny from 2023-07-12T00:01

The fifth Indiana Jones movie brought 79-year-old Harrison Ford back into the old fedora for another adventure involving a precious artifact that could spell doom if put into the wrong hands. Al...

Episode 112.5: While You Wait For Episode 113... from 2023-02-14T00:01

Looking for something to pass the time as you wait for episode 113 of The Baton? Since the next John Williams film score won't be released until summer 2023, there won't be a new episode of The ...

Episode 112 - The Fabelmans from 2022-12-22T00:01

Host Jeff Commings is back on The Baton to discuss what might be the final film collaboration between director Steven Spielberg and composer John Williams. The Fabelmans is Spielberg's semiautob...

Episode 111 - Epilogue from 2020-12-30T00:01

This is the final episode of "The Baton: A John Williams Musical Journey," and host Jeff Commings has invited one of the premier analysts of John Williams' music to talk about his extensive cata...

Episode 110 - The Rise of Skywalker from 2020-12-23T00:01

After a mind-boggling span of 42 years, John Williams closed out his involvement with the "Star Wars" film series with the score for "The Rise of Skywalker." Host Jeff Commings and cohost Pauliu...

Episode 109 - The Post from 2020-12-16T00:01

In what might be their final film collaboration, Steven Spielberg and John Williams worked together to give us a score for "The Post" that doesn't go full bore with the orchestra, using instead ...

Episode 108 - The Last Jedi from 2020-12-09T00:01

Rian Johnson took over for J.J. Abrams as director of the second film in the "Star Wars" sequel trilogy, titled "The Last Jedi." Johnson changed the tone and direction of the sequel dramatically...

Episode 107 - The BFG from 2020-12-02T00:01

Trombone player and music teacher Paul Wright makes his debut appearance on "The Baton" to defend the Steven Spielberg film "The BFG" and discusses with host Jeff Commings the intricate composit...

Episode 106 - The Force Awakens from 2020-11-25T00:01

When the news broke that Disney would be producing a new trilogy of "Star Wars" films taking place after the events of "Return of the Jedi," the logical choice was to have John Williams return t...

Episode 105 - The Book Thief from 2020-11-18T00:01

Host Jeff Commings and co-host David Kay discuss the quiet yet personal score for "The Book Thief" in this episode. John Williams lobbied hard to be the composer for this film after reading the ...

Episode 104 - Lincoln from 2020-11-11T00:01

John Williams only worked on one film score when he turned 80 years old, collaborating once again with Steven Spielberg for "Lincoln." The film marked the 40th year of Spielberg and Williams wor...

Episode 103 - War Horse from 2020-11-04T00:01

John Williams had the opportunity to return to the English style of music he loves so much, drawing on the influences of Ralph Vaughan Williams for his score to Steven Spielberg's film "War Hors...

Episode 102 - The Adventures of Tintin from 2020-10-28T00:01

Though John Williams didn't have a film score released in 2009 or 2010, he was working hard during that time on his next project, an animated film adaptation of the popular Tintin character, cal...

Episode 101 - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull from 2020-10-21T00:01

John Williams' 100th film brought him back into the world of Indiana Jones, this time writing music for our fedora-wearing adventurer's quest to find a mythical skull that has strange powers. Jo...

Episode 100 - Munich from 2020-10-14T00:01

Break out the confetti and party hats! The 100th episode of The Baton is here! And on this episode, host Jeff Commings talks about John Williams' haunting score for Steven Spielberg's "Munich," ...

Episode 99 - Memoirs of a Geisha from 2020-10-07T00:01

John Williams wanted to be the composer for the film version of the novel "Memoirs of a Geisha" long before a script was written or a budget finalized. He realized the opportunity to infuse Japa...

Episode 98 - War of the Worlds from 2020-09-30T00:01

Steven Spielberg had long wanted to do an alien invasion movie featuring very bad visitors to Earth, and he finally checked that off his list with "War of the Worlds." In telling the story, John...

Episode 97 - Revenge of the Sith from 2020-09-23T00:01

Host Jeff Commings starts this episode of "The Baton" with a not-so-great opinion about John Williams' score to "Revenge of the Sith," the final film in the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy. Can co-h...

Episode 96 - The Terminal from 2020-09-16T00:01

Though the movie and score for "The Terminal" might seem like a blip on the radar, neither Steven Spielberg nor John Williams approached this film any less seriously than their major successes. ...

Episode 95 - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban from 2020-09-09T00:01

Many John Williams fans sneered at the music for "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," mostly because the Maestro chose to almost completely scrap the musical ideas he created for the firs...

Episode 94 - Catch Me If You Can from 2020-09-02T00:01

John Williams capped off a marathon year of writing film scores with his Oscar-nominated composition for Steven Spielberg's dramedy "Catch Me If You Can." The score gave Williams the opportunity...

Episode 93 - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets from 2020-08-26T00:01

The demanding work schedule John Williams faced in 2002 meant he had to make a tough choice for his score to "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets." He asked composer/orchestrator William Ros...

Episode 92 - Minority Report from 2020-08-19T00:01

John Williams didn't have a lot of time to think about the score for Steven Spielberg's futuristic science fiction thriller "Minority Report," going right into the project almost immediately aft...

Episode 91 - Attack of the Clones from 2020-08-12T00:01

The 2002 film "Attack of the Clones" not only challenged John Williams with continuing the musical portrait he started with "The Phantom Menace" and closing the gap with the original "Star Wars"...

Episode 90 - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone from 2020-08-05T00:01

The 90th episode of "The Baton" highlights the return to the melodic theme composition styles that made John Williams famous in the 1970s and 1980s. With "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,"...

Episode 89 - AI Artificial Intelligence from 2020-07-29T00:01

John Williams' score to "AI Artificial Intelligence" has a cold and detached feeling for most of the film, mostly using synthesizers to depict the life of a robot boy who wants to become human. ...

Episode 88 - The Patriot from 2020-07-22T00:01

For the final time in his career, John Williams stepped in as replacement composer, this time for the Revolutionary War action film "The Patriot," starring Mel Gibson in a role very similar to t...

Episode 87 - Angela's Ashes from 2020-07-15T00:01

Though two composers had won Oscars for their scores on previous Alan Parker films, the director didn't reach out to them to write music for his first straight nonmusical drama in almost 10 year...

Episode 86 - The Phantom Menace from 2020-07-08T00:01

Fans were going crazy in anticipation of the return to the Star Wars galaxy with the release of "The Phantom Menace" in theaters. How would John Williams' score reflect that we are getting a lot...

Episode 85 - Stepmom from 2020-07-01T00:01

The story of John Williams' hiring to write the score for "Stepmom" has been the cause of rumor and hearsay for more than two decades, since the involved parties have never spoken publicly about...

Episode 84 - Saving Private Ryan from 2020-06-24T00:01

Just about everyone involved in the production of the World War II epic "Saving Private Ryan" was tasked with pushing the envelope in terms of what could be seen and heard onscreen -- except com...

Episode 83 - Amistad from 2020-06-17T00:01

With the beautiful mezzo soprano voice of Pamela Dillard and the stately trumpet playing of Tim Morrison in his arsenal, John Williams delivered a score for "Amistad" that feels like the Maestro...

Episode 82 - Seven Years in Tibet from 2020-06-10T00:01

Brad Pitt took on another foreign accent for his 1997 true-life drama "Seven Years in Tibet," telling the story of an Austrian mountain climber captured during World War II who takes refuge in T...

Episode 81 - The Lost World: Jurassic Park from 2020-06-03T00:01

The second half of 1997 felt like 1993 all over again, as Steven Spielberg and John Williams were working together on another dinosaur movie and another historical drama. First up was the sequel...

Episode 80 - Rosewood from 2020-05-27T00:01

When jazz composer and renowned trumpet player Wynton Marsalis was unable to write a score for "Rosewood" that suited director John Singleton, John Williams was brought in to compose music that ...

Episode 79 - Sleepers from 2020-05-20T00:01

John Williams collaborated just once with Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson, writing a different score for "Sleepers" than he had composed in just about any of his 77 previous films. The mus...

Episode 78 - Nixon from 2020-05-13T00:01

The 1995 film "Nixon" was the third and final collaboration between director Oliver Stone and composer John Williams. The film presents a fractured story of Nixon's rise from humble beginnings i...

Episode 77 - Sabrina from 2020-05-06T00:01

We've approached a new chapter in John Williams' career: the post-Golden Age era when the films he chose were not always of superior quality but still gave him the chance to write mostly memorab...

Episode 76 - Schindler's List from 2020-04-29T00:01

Host Jeff Commings presents his longest solo episode to date, discussing the Oscar-winning score to the 1993 drama "Schindler's List." It's 13 minutes longer than the amount of original music Wi...

Episode 75 - Jurassic Park from 2020-04-22T00:01

Host Jeff Commings counts the score to "Jurassic Park" as the gateway to becoming a John Williams fan, and he's joined by David Kay to talk about the aspects of the score that introduced a gener...

Episode 74 - Home Alone 2 from 2020-04-15T00:01

It was a natural and easy decision for John Williams to agree to write the score to "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" since the original film was so successful and garnered much praise for the Ma...

Episode 73 - Far and Away from 2020-04-08T00:01

John Williams had really hoped to take a break from film scoring in 1992. But when Ron Howard approached him about writing music for the tale of two Irish settlers in America, the Maestro could ...

Episode 72 - JFK from 2020-04-01T00:01

The story behind the creation of John Williams' score for Oliver Stone's "JFK" is just as compelling as the score itself, an eclectic mix of styles that included a percussion-heavy theme for tho...

Episode 71 - Hook from 2020-03-25T00:01

The journey to bring "Hook" to the big screen was a long one -- 16 years, to be exact. It started out as a Steven Spielberg project in 1985, and was to be a retelling of the classic story … with...

Episode 70 - Home Alone from 2020-03-18T00:01

John Williams planned to take a break from film scoring in the second half of 1990 to work on a concerto, but fate brought a screening of the comedy "Home Alone," and Williams could not resist t...

Episode 69 - Presumed Innocent from 2020-03-11T00:01

"Presumed Innocent" was a hot commodity in Hollywood, with several studios putting up big bucks for the film rights. Alan J. Pakula and Frank Pierson fashioned a decent film adaptation from a no...

Episode 68 - Stanley&Iris from 2020-03-04T00:01

John Williams had three film scores released in 1990, and each one presented different musical styles that continued to showcase Williams' ability to write music for any genre. He composed the s...

Episode 67 - Always from 2020-02-26T00:01

Steven Spielberg dipped into the romance genre with "Always," a remake of the 1943 Spencer Tracy film "A Man Named Joe." It seems like Spielberg rushed this film through post-production to get i...

Episode 66 - Born on the Fourth of July from 2020-02-19T00:01

John Williams' fifth foray into the war film genre was "Born on the Fourth of July," featuring a somewhat restrained score shortly after his work on "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." His sco...

Episode 65 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade from 2020-02-12T00:01

In what was believed to be the last film in the Indiana Jones saga, John Williams put together a quieter action score than what he wrote for the previous two films. "Indiana Jones and the Last C...

Episode 64 - The Accidental Tourist from 2020-02-08T12:00

After director Lawrence Kasdan was unable to agree on a musical style with composer Bruce Broughton, John Williams stepped in to write a delicate score that many John Williams fans often forget ...

Episode 63 - Empire of the Sun from 2020-02-08T00:01

The 1987 war film "Empire of the Sun" was Spielberg's attempt to make another "grown-up" film after his success with "The Color Purple." In a sense, Spielberg retained his youthful vision with a...

Episode 62 - The Witches of Eastwick from 2020-02-05T00:01

After missing out on the opportunity to have John Williams score "The Color Purple," Jon Peters and Peter Guber made sure to get the Maestro for "The Witches of Eastwick," which the two produced...

Episode 61 - SpaceCamp from 2020-01-29T00:01

The 1986 film "SpaceCamp" was a product of bad timing. Two months before its scheduled release, the real-life Challenger shuttle exploded, putting the future of the film in jeopardy. The produce...

Episode 60 - The River from 2020-01-22T00:01

Probably the least stressful thing for John Williams in 1984 was composing the score to "The River," which reunited him with director Mark Rydell for the fourth and final time. Williams employed...

Episode 59 - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom from 2020-01-15T00:01

Steven Spielberg has essentially disowned his work on "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," but host Jeff Commings and guest co-host Erik Woods are here to convince you of the marvels within t...

Episode 58 - Return of the Jedi from 2020-01-08T00:01

The schedule to compose and record the score for "Return of the Jedi" was pushed up about a month, leaving John Williams with much less time to draft music to close out the original trilogy. The...

Episode 57 - Monsignor from 2020-01-01T12:00

The 1982 film "Monsignor" is the first straight drama containing a John Williams score in eight years. Besides what host Jeff Commings calls "the most depressing love theme John Williams has eve...

Episode 56 - E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial from 2020-01-01T00:01

Year Two of "The Baton" is here! And there is no better way to kick off the second half of this journey through John Williams' film career than with a discussion of "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial."...

Episode 55 - Heartbeeps from 2019-12-25T00:01

We're closing out the first year of "The Baton" with another of John Williams' lesser-known works. "Heartbeeps" was a massive flop at the box office, but has some charms that were greatly helped...

Episode 54 - Raiders of the Lost Ark from 2019-12-18T00:01

Of all the big decisions Steven Spielberg and George Lucas had to make on their first film collaboration, "Raiders of the Lost Ark," picking John Williams as composer was probably the easiest on...

Episode 53 - The Empire Strikes Back from 2019-12-11T00:01

Host Jeff Commings counts John Williams' score to "The Empire Strikes Back" as his all-time favorite, as does guest co-host Jim Nova. The two analyze the amazing Imperial March and its chord pro...

Episode 52 - 1941 from 2019-12-04T00:01

Was Steven Spielberg's "1941" an elaborate prank to see how far he could go with making movies, or did he really set out to make a genuine comedy? It appears to be the latter, though there are n...

Episode 51 - Dracula from 2019-11-27T00:01

John Williams' final foray into the horror genre was the 1979 version of "Dracula," with Frank Langella reprising his Broadway role to great effect. The movie goes for romantic overtones instead...

Episode 50 - Superman from 2019-11-20T00:01

The 50th episode of "The Baton" is here! And what better way to mark the occasion than a discussion of one of the most popular film scores in history.

Possibly the only part of making "Su...

Episode 49 - Jaws 2 from 2019-11-13T00:01

John Williams made his first foray into sequel territory with "Jaws 2," writing a score that gave us brief reprises of his iconic shark theme but relied mostly on a different tone throughout. Mo...

Episode 48 - The Fury from 2019-11-06T00:01

John Williams had an unusual assignment for his first score of 1978: Write a score for "The Fury" exactly as the late Bernard Herrmann would have composed it. Williams agreed to do so out of hon...

Episode 47 - Close Encounters of the Third Kind from 2019-10-30T00:01

John Williams closed out 1977 on top of the pyramid in Hollywood. He was involved in two of the three highest-grossing films in the United States, and wrote scores for them that brought more att...

Episode 46 - Star Wars from 2019-10-23T00:01

This episode of "The Baton" is all about "Star Wars" and its monumental score by John Williams. Settle in as host Jeff Commings talks with Sir Clive Gillinson, who played cello on the original 1...

Episode 45 - Black Sunday from 2019-10-16T00:01

John Williams closed out a very busy 1976 with his compositions for the score to the thriller "Black Sunday," which would get a delayed release until spring 1977. Host Jeff Commings is joined by...

Episode 44 - Midway from 2019-10-09T00:01

John Williams got back into the war genre with the film "Midway," writing just 32 minutes of score for a 132-minute film. In this case, most of the movie features battle scenes that producer Wal...

Episode 43 - The Missouri Breaks from 2019-10-02T00:01

"The Missouri Breaks" is arguably the worst film to feature a John Williams score ... at least up to that point in his 17 years as a film composer. Though it starred Oscar-winning actors Marlon ...

Episode 42 - Family Plot from 2019-09-25T00:01

What do you do after you've composed the most famous movie score of all time? In the months after working on "Jaws," John Williams had three film scores to tackle for films to be released in 197...

Episode 41 - Jaws from 2019-09-18T00:01

How can two notes make people so fearful of going into the ocean? That's what John Williams did with his iconic score for the 1975 blockbuster "Jaws." Host Jeff Commings is joined by Jeff Owens ...

Episode 40 - The Eiger Sanction from 2019-09-11T00:01

John Williams and Clint Eastwood worked together only once, for the mountain climbing film "The Eiger Sanction." Host Jeff Commings is joined by Brian Martell, who counts this film score as his ...

Episode 39 - The Towering Inferno from 2019-09-04T00:01

John Williams closed out his stint in the disaster movie genre with a bold and effective score to "The Towering Inferno." Williams starts us off with urgent opening music, then settles down as t...

Episode 38 - Earthquake from 2019-08-28T00:01

Very few John Williams fans put "Earthquake" in equal regard as "The Towering Inferno," the other disaster movie that Williams scored in 1974. The "Earthquake" score feels very much like "The To...

Episode 37 - The Sugarland Express from 2019-08-21T00:01

We've reached a monumental point in John Williams' film scoring career. It's the film "The Sugarland Express," the first collaboration between the Maestro and Steven Spielberg. Yes, the film sho...

Episode 36 - Conrack from 2019-08-14T00:01

The first of four films in 1974 for John Williams was the little-seen drama "Conrack," which brought John Williams back to the classroom for the fourth time and reunited him with "Pete 'N' Tilli...

Episode 35 - Cinderella Liberty from 2019-08-07T00:01

Join host Jeff Commings and guest co-host Chris Hatt as they examine the 1973 drama "Cinderella Liberty." Hatt counts this as one of his favorite John Williams scores, simply because the music e...

Episode 34 - The Paper Chase from 2019-07-31T00:01

Though "The Paper Chase" was famous mostly for the Academy Award-winning performance of John Houseman, the score by John Williams deserved some recognition at the time. Though not his best effor...

Episode 33 - The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing from 2019-07-24T00:01

"The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing featured Burt Reynolds, the number one movie star in the world, in a romantic Western action film that had troubles during shooting and in postproduction. Michel L...

Episode 32 - The Long Goodbye from 2019-07-17T00:01

John Williams and Robert Altman collaborated one more time, for the crime drama "The Long Goodbye." Unlike their work on "Images," Altman did not give Williams as much creative license. Williams...

Episode 31 - Tom Sawyer from 2019-07-10T00:01

John Williams' final foray into movie musicals -- aside from the scrapped idea of making "Hook" into a musical -- was 1973's "Tom Sawyer," which paired him with the successful songwriting pair o...

Episode 30 - Pete 'N' Tillie from 2019-07-03T00:01

John Williams wrapped up the year 1972 with the drama "Pete 'N' Tillie," a major departure from the other three scores he wrote for films that year. It was much quieter, focusing on a simple pia...

Episode 29 - Images from 2019-06-26T00:01

We've arrived at the score in John Williams' career that sounds pretty much like nothing he had ever written -- and almost like nothing he will write as his career evolves. The collaboration wit...

Episode 28 - The Poseidon Adventure from 2019-06-19T00:01

John Williams reteamed with Irwin Allen for the 1972 action film "The Poseidon Adventure," a risk-taker of a movie that worked out well for everyone involved and officially created the disaster-...

Episode 27 - The Cowboys from 2019-06-12T00:01

John Williams returned to the Old West -- and returned to working with director Mark Rydell -- for the 1972 film "The Cowboys." Once again leaning on Aaron Copland's template for Americana-tinge...

Episode 26 - Fiddler on the Roof from 2019-06-05T00:01

The 1971 film version of "Fiddler on the Roof" was a massive undertaking for John Williams as music supervisor, taking on a beloved Broadway musical that needed to be expanded for the big screen...

Episode 25 - Jane Eyre from 2019-05-29T00:01

John Williams' final television project in the 1970s teamed him with director Delbert Mann again, this time for "Jane Eyre." Williams composed this score while on a break from working on "Fiddle...

Episode 24 - Story of a Woman from 2019-05-22T00:01

The US-Italy co-production "Story of a Woman" is perceived as the Holy Grail of John Williams movies. Very few people have seen it, and many will do almost anything for a glimpse at this romanti...

Episode 23 - The Reivers from 2019-05-15T00:01

If not for some divine intervention, John Williams might not have written one note of music for "The Reivers," and he might not have become the celebrated composer he is today. Host Jeff Comming...

Episode 22 - Goodbye, Mr. Chips from 2019-05-08T00:01

Before John Williams came onboard to work on the music for "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," the film had gone through so many years of turbulence. But Williams' involvement was one of the reasons why the f...

Episode 21 - Daddy's Gone A-Hunting from 2019-05-01T00:01

The 1969 film "Daddy's Gone A-Hunting" should have been released as a B-movie, but with "Valley of the Dolls" director Mark Robson helming the film, it was viewed as a surefire hit. It turned ou...

Episode 20 - Heidi from 2019-04-24T00:01

A few years after he decided to leave a lucrative career writing music for television, John Williams returned to the small screen in 1968 with "Heidi." Though the film is infamous now for its in...

Episode 19 - Valley of the Dolls from 2019-04-17T00:01

The 1967 film "Valley of the Dolls" was, on the surface, like any other assignment John Williams had in his early film scoring career. His task was to adapt music from five original songs by And...

Episode 18 - Fitzwilly from 2019-04-10T00:01

During a break in recording the score for Valley of the Dolls (the subject of the next episode), John Williams decided to take on a comedy film starring Dick Van Dyke fresh off his eponymous TV ...

Episode 17 - A Guide for the Married Man from 2019-04-03T00:01

After composing scores to five films in 1966 -- and writing music for a failed TV sitcom -- John Williams had only three films on his plate in 1967. On the surface, they would turn out to be no ...

Episode 16 - Not With My Wife You Don't from 2019-03-27T00:01

John Williams' final film score of 1966 wasn't his best work of the year, but it does contain some decent moments, including music for a bar fight and a decent love theme. His collaboration with...

Episode 15 - Penelope from 2019-03-20T00:01

Natalie Wood is the star of "Penelope," but the film puts so much more focus on Edith Head's costumes that it takes away from the flimsy and uneven plot. John Williams manages to compose a very ...

Episode 14 - The Plainsman from 2019-03-13T00:01

Universal Pictures had two Westerns released in 1966. After the box office flop "The Rare Breed" came another underperformer, "The Plainsman." John Williams, nearing the end of his contract with...

Episode 13 - How to Steal a Million from 2019-03-06T00:01

The Audrey Hepburn art caper comedy "How to Steal a Million" was a turning point in John Williams' career, at least in the eyes of the composer himself. Host Jeff Commings explains why Williams ...

Episode 12 - The Rare Breed from 2019-02-27T00:01

Did you know that John Williams wrote music for Westerns? The first one was the James Stewart vehicle "The Rare Breed," which features a bull named Vindicator and a sort-of British accent from M...

Episode 11 - John Goldfarb Please Come Home from 2019-02-20T00:01

Technically, John Williams' follow-up to "None But the Brave" is a war film, as it deals with the U.S.-Soviet animosities during the Cold War, but it really is nothing more than pure slapstick c...

Episode 10 - None But the Brave from 2019-02-13T00:01

John Williams' first war film is "None But the Brave," a misguided directorial debut by Frank Sinatra. Despite the bad acting and preachy plotline, John Williams is able to write a very ambitiou...

Episode 9 - The Killers from 2019-02-08T00:01

It's John Williams' birthday, and we're celebrating with a special release of this episode of "The Baton." The film itself is nothing really special, though we get some pretty dramatic acting fr...

Episode 8 - Gidget Goes to Rome from 2019-02-06T00:01

John Williams is back in comedy territory for "Gidget Goes to Rome," the third and final film in a trilogy about the Southern California girl who gets in a mess wherever she goes. This time, it'...

Episode 7 - Diamond Head from 2019-01-30T00:01

The first of two films that John Williams would score in 1963 took him back to dramatic territory, specifically the lush locales of Hawaii in the Charlton Heston film "Diamond Head." There wasn'...

Episode 6 - Bachelor Flat from 2019-01-23T00:01

The year 1962 was a big one for John Williams, earning his first Grammy and Emmy nominations for his work on TV shows. But his gaze never left the movie theater, and he contributed a fun and ear...

Episode 5 - The Secret Ways from 2019-01-16T00:01

John Williams' fourth film score, for the movie "The Secret Ways," does its very best to turn a very bad film into something watchable. Williams succeeds in many places, coloring in darkly-filme...

Episode 4 - Because They're Young from 2019-01-09T00:01

We've got another teenage drama for you on this episode: "Because They're Young." It's a bit more dramatic than John Williams' first foray into the teenybopper genre, Daddy-O, with Dick Clark in...

Episode 3 - I Passed For White from 2019-01-02T00:03

The second film in John Williams' filmography is about as different from his first as you could get. The film "I Passed For White" tried very hard to be taken seriously, but is sheer melodrama i...

Episode 2 - Daddy-O from 2019-01-02T00:02

Let's start this journey through the career of film composer John Williams with his first-ever score for a feature-length film. The 1959 B-movie "Daddy-O" was not the blockbuster that Williams w...

Episode 1 - Prologue from 2019-01-02T00:01

Welcome! This is a podcast unlike any other. We're going on a journey through the 60 years of film music written by the legendary John Williams, considered by just about everyone to be the great...