The five best movie theme songs that you’ve never heard of
Some movie themes are so unmistakable that you don’t even have to have seen the film to recognise the piece that accompanies its title sequence, and that’s the sign of a good soundtrack: to be able to identify it even when it is severed from the movie it was made for.
We all know the Jaws theme, and then of course you’ve got Jurassic Park, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Titanic, and the list goes on, where they have become so well-embedded in popular culture that they take on a life of their own, really reflecting just how important music can be as an accompanying force within the cinematic realm.
However, there are so many films out there, good and bad, which have been blessed with beautiful themes, and naturally, only so many of these have actually got the recognition they deserve. There is a goldmine of awe-inspiring movie themes out there, though, you just have to know where to look.
So, from rarely-seen nunsploitation movies to gorgeous giallos, here are five movies featuring terrific theme songs you’ve probably never heard before.
Five best movie theme songs you might’ve missed:
‘The Nun and The Devil’ -Domenico Paolella (1973): Theme by Piero Piccioni
Nunsploitation movies are a unique product of erotic cinema’s love of pushing boundaries as much as possible. If you want to explore forbidden desire, then where better to set your film than a convent built on the foundations of celibacy? Domenico Paolella’s The Nun and The Devil isn’t exactly a masterpiece in that regard, but it gave us a great soundtrack from one of the country’s most astounding musical minds, Italian composer Piero Piccioni.
He made many great soundtracks in his time, but his work on The Nun and The Devil is hardly known, perhaps because the film faded into obscurity, yet the theme for the movie is a treat, with gentle flutes teasing a dramatic and potentially romantic story. There’s a slight regalness to it, although when the pace slightly slows down, we’re alerted to the potential dangers at bay; after all, this is a film where the devil plays a key part as much as the nuns.
‘The Cat o’Nine Tails’ – Dario Argento (1971): Theme by Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone lent himself to many horror scores throughout his career, and one of these was Dario Argento’s The Cat o’Nine Tails. With his signature flute sounds and the lyric-less hum of a female voice, the theme for the 1971 giallo is a beautifully underrated piece from the Italian master. Best known for the likes of western epics such as The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and Once Upon A Time in the West, and despite being really brilliant, Morricone’s horror scores often fly under the radar.
Here, he takes a gentle approach, and there’s a melancholic sensibility present rather than outright horror, though it’s plenty evocative, bleeding with warmth and a sense of longing. It makes for a pretty unforgettable opening, and while Argento wasn’t pleased with his movie, he can surely deny the beauty of this piece.
‘Blood and Black Lace’ – Mario Bava (1964): Theme ‘Atelier’ by Carlo Rustichelli
One of the greatest opening themes in horror history belongs to Blood and Black Lace by Mario Bava, in which we’re shown colourful mannequins illuminated in shades of neon against a dark background, with the characters placed in between. It’s stylish yet haunting, with the mystery that defines the film immediately established in the unnerving scene, where characters avoid the gaze of the camera, holding still as they become mannequin-like themselves.
It’s a fantastic Italian horror that certainly not enough people have seen, and because of that, many people will be unfamiliar with the terrific theme that plays over this sequence. Composed by Carlo Rustichelli, there’s an exoticism to the track which suits the fashion theme of the movie perfectly, making you want to move swankily through some flashy party draped in velvet and diamonds.
Bilitis – David Hamilton (1977): Theme ‘Bilitis’ by Frances Lai
The French erotic drama Bilitis might not be the greatest film out there (how much of it is simply male-gazey softcore porn is another question entirely), but it certainly possesses a fantastic theme song courtesy of Frances Lai. Laden with soft synth sounds, there’s a tender eroticism that flows through the track from the French-born composer that creates a rather wistful, reflective atmosphere.
The 1977 film is shot with the hazy lens that defined much erotic photography of the period, which makes sense when you consider that it was directed by controversial photographer David Hamilton (although to be fair, feminist filmmaker Catherine Breillat did have a hand in penning it). It’s certainly a movie of its era, but its saving grace is undoubtedly its mesmeric soundtrack, and especially its nostalgic opening theme.
Berberian Sound Studio – Peter Strickland (2012): Theme ‘The Equestrian Vortex’ by Broadcast
When British filmmaker Peter Strickland made Berberian Sound Studio, he took his love for giallo and turned it into something much more confusing. The film sees Toby Jones play a sound engineer whose understanding of reality becomes unstable while working abroad on a horror film, and scoring this descent is the enigmatic English band Broadcast, known for their work in the realm of hauntology, to make one of the most criminally underrated soundtracks of the 21st century.
Whether championing the unnerving sound of a distressed goblin or offering an evocative, echoing soundscape, Broadcast conjures up a world that feels utterly dreamlike, that is sometimes bordering on the nightmarish. With the theme song, ‘The Equestrian Vortex’, it feels like you’re being sucked into this alternative reality, and as the song slows to allow for haunting organ sounds, you feel like you’re going to have to claw your way back out of the track to find a figment of sanity.
