The one surprising songwriting credit attributed to Steven Spielberg
Very few living filmmakers can claim to have had such a broad and enduring impact on cinema over the past century as Steven Spielberg. The insatiable creative opened his filmography in 1974 with The Sugarland Express; from here, he shaped his status as a crucial proponent in the so-called New Hollywood era alongside the likes of George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese.
Spielberg’s broad filmography spans from the fantastic wonder of Jurassic Park and The Adventures of Tintin to the jarring suspense of Jaws and Saving Private Ryan. While his movies vary so wildly stylistically and thematically, Spielberg maintains a crucial constant of spectacular cinematography and pinpoint casting.
Although Spielberg likes to stick mainly to his directional and scriptwriting duties, he’s appeared on the other side of the camera for occasional cameo appearances and even dabbles in music.
Another notable boon to Spielberg’s catalogue is a ubiquitously watertight soundtrack accompaniment. Through the years, he’s worked with esteemed composers such as Billy Goldenberg and Hans Zimmer, but most prolifically and memorably, Spielberg has danced to the tune of John Williams.
Williams has worked on soundtracks for Star Wars, Harry Potter, Saving Private Ryan, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Schindler’s List, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones and E.T., to name but a few of his startling career highlights. However, Williams’ major career break came with his second Spielberg collaboration, Jaws.
Fewer soundtracks are as iconic or instantly recognisable as the chilling pursuit of Williams’ orchestral Jaws theme. “I thought it was a joke when Johnny played that for me on the piano at his house,” Spielberg admitted. “He called me up, and he said, ‘I’ve got the theme for Jaws. Come over and listen to it on the piano!’
“I came running over to Johnny’s house, and Johnny sat down at the piano. Johnny was really excited to preview this for me, and he takes a couple of fingers – not all ten, just a couple because he didn’t need all ten – and he goes ‘Duh-duh… duh-duh’ [mimics Jaws music].”
“I started laughing! Because I knew Johnny had a sense of humour, but he’d never teased me before,” Spielberg continued. “I thought, ‘Oh, this is a new side of Johnny. We’ve only done one movie together before that, which was [1974’s] The Sugarland Express. Now he’s looser, and we’re buddies now, and now he can tease me.'”
“No, here’s the real music,” Spielberg expected Johnny to say. But Williams kept a straight face and said, “I’m serious! I’m serious!” as Spielberg recalled.
“Well, he did say, ‘You can’t be serious,'” Williams interjected. “And I said I think we’ll try it with cellos and basses in the orchestra.”
This iconic soundtrack is nothing new to movie fans, but what few are aware of is that Spielberg actually flexed his own musical muscles for the Jaws soundtrack. Born into a musical family, Spielberg learned to play the clarinet during his school years, which turned out to be rather useful when Williams found himself short of an amateur clarinettist while composing the Jaws soundtrack.
Early in the movie, a marching band performs in the tourist hotspot during the Fourth of July weekend celebrations. Although Williams had a host of professional musicians at his disposal, he wanted the local amateurs to sound authentic.
“It’s very difficult to ask these great musicians to play badly,” Williams explained in a past interview with Jon Burlingame. “[Spielberg] added just the right amateur quality to the piece. A few measures still survive in the movie.”
The local band can be heard playing in the clip below.
