Star Wars and Kings Row soundtrack comparison

[purefx]

As a Korngold, I've certainly heard this comparison and they do in fact share a similar style. Then again most modern composers are building upon the beginnings of epic movie scores around his time as well as Steiner and some others. John Williams is a fantastic composer in his own right and has repeatedly credited his influences. Nice video interesting to see the m flow into each other.

[BarnabasFrid]

um... ya covered up Claude Rains' name, ding dong!

[hulkmeister23]

I've never even heard of King's Row, what is it about?

[TheDejael]

I noticed this years ago, when I purchased the classic LP album of soundtrack music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold by Charles Gerhardt on RCA Victor Records, and he had "KING'S ROW" (1942) on it. I recognized the theme from STAR WARS right away! John Williams is one of my favorite film composers, so I suppose, in this instance, he can be forgiven for his blatant "borrowing" of Korngold's theme. I love both of them.

Also, Williams "borrowed" a passage from Ravel's "Daphnis and Chloe" for CE3K.

[bobbya16]

There is more of a similarity between Kings Row and a movie called 8 Seconds...its a movie about a rodeo star....listen to both soundtracts ...

[MozesDackerman39]

Dnload the audio from this clip at soundnabber doht cohm.

[MichaelJacksonFan000]

Haha...Good one.

[Concreteowl]

Someone should do a similar comparison with Born Free

[chikito72]

Ridiculous comparison

[ThePiano1991]

I love it! haha

[thesun3134]

The second part sounds more like Superman the movie!

[tallpaul521]

@thesun3134  You're right. I've always said that.

[Nexus52085]

the second theme from King's Row sounds more like the latter part of the superman theme rather than the star wars imperial theme.

[8Zeitgeist]

they sound alot the same

if you cant hear that your deaf

i have just not heard of this kings row movie

i must watch...

[GWStreicher]

Haha, very cleverly edited.

[poliquasar]

Dejanos escuchar mas de tres notas seguidas para que podamos compararlas!

If you only compare 3 or 4 notes we can't compare apropiately!

After watching the video I still don't know if those soundtracks are similar.

[JairCrawford]

That's exactly the thing. I listened to another vid that has the sections of each score in whole to compare. The first 5 notes of each theme are the same, after that it's all different. And the second theme comparison is just a similar rhythmic pattern. I consider both pieces to be unique.

[stefansmith]

I must point out that I was not attempting to make a side-by-side comparison with this video. I just wanted to see what it would sound like to splice the two scores together, see if the themes were still recognisable. And I think they are, but you are entitled to your own opinion, of course ;)

[sixnotewonder]

Actually studied this for my dissertation...and im afriad folks, they are very very much the same....

[thesun3134]

@sixnotewonder oh your some sort of genius are you? Everyone already knows this. Williams admitted that this is what George Lucas asked for!!!

[dinersfoodbil]

@sixnotewonder I'm afraid you know nothing. There are no similarities whatsoever. I hate to break that fact to you.

[frozo33]

Theme 2 comparison is a strrrrrreccchhh...

[plastique45]

No, it's exactly the same, it's just sped up with a percussive rhythm accompaniment in the Star Wars cue.

[charlieladder]

I'm actually watching King's Row now on TCM and remembered reading the critiques comparing the scores but other than the same 2 or 3 introductory notes and a general modern, Wagnerian ebullience to the music, there's not a lot of similarity.

I'll go out on a limb : Korngold was great. Williams is even better.

[haveatomato]

LOL! this was funny.

[darknipple]

This was actually mentioned in The Star Wars Vault. Yes, the scores do have some incredibly similar parts, but no it is technically not plagiarizing, and Williams does give tribute to Korngold.

[SeeItAndBelieve]

Wow, thank you for this video. I just got done watching "Kings Row" for the first time and was obsessed with hearing "Star Wars" and "Superman" throughout!

Has John Williams ever acknowledged the comparison/tribute?

[grabit1]

Interesting question. No faulting John

Williams at all, but I also wonder what inspiration Williams had (because it's obvious.)

P. S. I wonder how Williams would have scored Ronald Reagan waking up to exclaim, "Where's the rest of me?"

[SeeItAndBelieve]

I have mixed feelings about "Kings Row." It was entertaining, but quite melodramatic. How much more could have happened in its two hours?

I really like the movie music of John Williams, but many of his themes sound similar. The late Jerry Goldsmith seemed to have a little more range, but I'm no expert on the subject!

[WisdomWithin]

Williams' theme for "Born on the Fourth of July" really showed his talent. Oliver Stone was very impressed -- until the music for JKF set an even higher standard!

John Williams rules!!!!

[kubemaster]

Actually theme 2 is better compared to the original Superman theme. Check it out. Mr. Williams went back to the Korngold well (so to speak) and used Kings Row as a reference for Star Wars and Superman. :)

[rubisco1981]

Please could you post the complete King's Row opening as a separate video?

[stefansmith]

Just search for:

"Kings Row" (1942) Part 1

[rockgor]

Yup, zactly the same. So was Wiliams paying a tribute to Korngold?

A lot of Korngold's non-movie music has been put out on CDs in the last couple decades. Operas, concertos, songs, symphonic...I still like his movie music best.

Won two Oscards. For me our greatest and most consistent movie composer.

He is buried in the Hollywood Forever cemetery right behind Paramount studios.

Thanks for posting.

[spacepatrolman]

HIS SYMPHONY TAKES UP 2 SIDES OF AN LP