John Williams’ awkward first date with Steven Spielberg: “Like going with a teenager”
Few composers have found as much success as John Williams, who has defined Hollywood with his iconic and deeply cinematic scores. Without the influence of Williams, it’s hard to imagine what modern soundtracks might sound like – his work has truly shaped the course of mainstream cinema’s approach to music.
Williams’ first score came in 1958 with the film Daddy-O, but the 1960s saw him work with some sizable names like Frank Sinatra (None but the Brave) and William Wyler (How to Steal a Million). Over the next few years, Williams’ presence increased significantly, and his compositions could be heard in movies like the iconic Sharon Tate vehicle Valley of the Dolls, which earned him an Academy Award nomination, as well as an array of movies like The Poseidon Adventure, The Long Goodbye, and Cinderella Liberty.
The early 1970s, however, marked his first collaboration with Steven Spielberg, who would become one of his most frequent collaborators. The pair just seem to know what they need from one another, and this understanding was solidified on The Sugarland Express, Spielberg’s third film. Evidently, the director was impressed with Williams’ score and subsequently invited him to work on the soundtrack for Jaws, which would become a worldwide hit.
Jaws was such a huge phenomenon that beach attendance across the United States reportedly decreased that year, but the fear that the movie inspired in audiences might not have been so effective without Williams’ recognisable score, which is unbelievably tense.
The soundtrack won Williams multiple awards, including an Oscar and a Grammy, proving his brilliance as one of cinema’s most vital composers. He continued this winning streak with other huge projects like Star Wars and Superman, but Williams never failed to return to Spielberg, and he has since scored almost all of his movies.
Thus, we can credit Williams for classic scores like Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, and Schindler’s List. However, it’s interesting to hear Williams describe his first time meeting Spielberg – it seems as though the composer struggles to comprehend the fact that he would go on to work with him on countless successful blockbusters.
Williams recalled to The Los Angeles Times, “Steven took me to a very fancy restaurant in Beverly Hills for lunch, in the days of these martini lunches. It was like going with a teenager who had never ordered wine before and didn’t quite know what to do with the silver. He was so young, a little older than my children but not a whole lot. And seemed to know more about my music than I did. He would sing third themes from some remote western.”
Spielberg was obviously delighted to be meeting a composer who had already been working in the industry for several decades, especially on films that had inspired him. In the same interview, the director heralded Williams as “much more of a chameleon as a composer”, adding, “He reinvents himself with every picture.”
Now, Williams is one of the most iconic composers in film history, and while he has accomplished lots of impressive feats outside of his work with Spielberg, such as the Star Wars score, it’s his frequent collaborations with the director that have truly solidified his genius.
