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From: JokerRecordings
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  • Oh my godddddddddd such awesome musicccccccccccccccccccccccccc­c... I swear, whenever someone mentions western music, THIS theme is always the first to pop into my mind. <3

  • This song makes me want to just go out and buy land...and lots of it.

  • @ronetteloverz And horses, don't forget lots of horses!

  • Great Western,Great Cast,Great Theme.

  • This is a stinkin' awesome theme song for a western. Brings back all kinds of great memories.

  • These theme is amazing! I love this soundtrack because of the film.

  • I play this when I masturbate

  • Dreadful performance. The triplets should be crotchets.

  • I canNOT be the only one who heard this on Captain Kangaroo, complete with scenes of American history, at least up to the moon landing, and (oh well) President Richard M. Nixon, the things you grow up with...

  • EPIC! 8DDD

  • @RichardElden,You are a BOOF-HEAD,this movie is a CLASSIC.

    

  • @MrAvalonman I don't know if the movie is any good....one of these days, I'm going to make a point of seeing it, just on the basis of its wonderful theme tune.

    But I *HAD* to reply to your comment simply because LOVE the epithet "BOOF-HEAD"!!! LOL!!!

  • @Milesco the film is awesome but make sure your in a film watching mood when u watch it, its a hell of a long film and dont expect many gun fights its not that type of western

  • @immortal750 Thanks for the tip!

  • The western themes set the tone for the movies themselves!

  • @RichardElden Conners played a slob.

  • Heeee Haaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • playing this in orchestra - those semi quavers on the flute are very hard indeed.

  • Great theme music. I thought the movie was good but not great. Terrific performance by Burl Ives. 50 years later when I was horseback riding in Montana, my first time in the West, this music was ringing in my ears.

  • @trajan75 I used to back pack the Wind Rivers in Wyoming with this on my Walkman. It made the struggle up Jackass Pass worth the trip.

  • A man's got to do what a man's got to do!

  • One of the truly great western themes that epitomsed the 60s and set the backdrop for epics such as How the West was won, Magnificent seven and of course the Big Country, all composed by masters at their craft and which collectively will never be matched.Music for the ages is probably too cliched but in this case applies in spades.

  • @compsecure77 This really IS the quintessential "western" theme, isn't it?

    (So much, in fact, that the Hidden Valley Ranch folks use a "soundalike" version in their commercials!)

  • Themes that try to sound innocent like this always fail. It's one of those things. Too many good composers hear something so innocent they want to make theirs innocent too. Like Conan The Barbarian theme tries to do it but does it well. This does it good too that's what is so good about themes like this.

  • I remember having read once where this music was voted the best opening-title music of any Western. This music is one of the best opening-title pieces full stop.

  • I loved both the movie and the theme music. The only thing that I didn't like was that Chuck Connors was one of the bad guys. When I was a kid 'The Rifleman' was one of my favorite shows and later on when The Big Country came on NBC Saturday Night at the Movies I hated seeing one of my favorite TV characters turn into a bad guy.

  • @ridgerunner721601 The Big Country is one of my all time favorite westerns...but I just hate the part Chuck Connors played. Being a kid and watching the Rifleman he was my hero.

  • @whiskeyify I know exactly what you mean. That's why I had mixed feelings when Buck Hannisey came up against Gregory Peck's character in the gun duel. In the back of my mind was "they should be going at it with rifles so that Buck can take him"...LOL. The mind sure plays funny tricks, especially concerning the old time westerns I love so much.

  • @ridgerunner721601 It seems that the movies had a tough time with vehicles for the bigger guys like Conners and Clint Walker.

  • @GeneRoberts1961 Very true. I remember in "The Dirty Dozen" Clint Walker played as Posey, who was the biggest but probably the nicest one of the Dozen. Remember Lee Marvin's character had a tough time trying to get Posey to show that he would be able to kill the enemy during combat.

  • @ridgerunner721601 One of my favorite movies...and a star-studded extravaganza. The only people missing were John Wayne, Kirk Douglas and Richard Widmark...oh..and Clint Eastwood.

  • @GeneRoberts1961 Yeah, mine too. I thought John Cassavetes kind of stole the show. He was my favorite one of the Dirty Dozen, although I did get a kick out of Donald Sutherland's dimwitted character doing a great job at pretending to be a general in the inspection scene. LOL

  • great movie . music is just wonderful.

  • I never saw the movie but recall this theme tune so well. Such a great tune

  • @murraybott You MUST see this Movie - an ALL time classic

    Music, directing sets acting scenery morality story ....OH yes

    The BIG COUNTRY How good is that movie - Timeless

    Goosebumps and then some

  • goose bumps and tears of joy from our blessed youth!!!

  • @vulcan1429 That's not just a figure of speech -- this tune REALLY DOES give me goose bumps.

  • The best of the west(erns) - superb theme and a great storyline with great actors ~ and charlton heston ;0)

  • They certainly knew how to compose theme tunes back then.

  • I remember when I was a kid, we went on a trip to Arizona, and I made my dad play this over and over as we drove through the mountains. :3

  • @xXRadiumHawkXx My mother played this song all the time as we drove everywhere. Even to the local store. So excellent.

  • Epic !

  • I will never forget the opening scene of The Big Country. This wonderful theme came on and I sat mesmerized throughout the entire film. This is one of the great music themes which endures to this day.

  • @retteech It had that effect on me too,This is must see movie.

  • this is the alarm tone to wake chuck norris in a morning

  • I'm playing this. it get straight semiquavers all the way through, major work for a clarinet player!

  • am i wrong for liking most western movie themes more than i like the movies themselves?

  • @Putaspellonyou

    only as wrong as beethoven was when he wrote Wellington's Victory, which should have been the theme for the greatest Western ever

  • I'll shoot you if you fool with my "Big Muddy"!!!!

  • I think that the music of the old classic western movies is probably the best movie music ever written.

  • Magnificent 

    Thanks

  • 1 person doesnt live in the big country

  • Elmer Bernstein was a genius sadley missed, thanks for the music he left us all to enjoy.

  • @goofysmick - He is indeed, but he didn't actually write this - Jerome Moross did.

  • @thistleinfotech Well I stand corrected, thankyou. and thanks to Jerome Moross.

  • One of the best Western theme music ever.I always dream also driving through route 66 from New York to Los Angeles via Santa Fe(cattle trail).But for now I am in rainy wintry London.

  • I was sure it was Elmer Bernstein. Thanks for posting. Just spent a happy Saturday morning hour watching the breathtaking vistas in this film on TCM. Nothing like the West... I just want to RIDE INTO THE SUNSET (with this music on my iPod)!!!!

    Thanks.

  • lol you guys are funny your slaves to your boss you will never have 3 hours to stop working and drive a vehicle your not celebrity's you cant do what you want you answer to your boss

  • @aslanofprovince - I am so sorry for you. You need to move to AMERICA.. we spend 3 hours a day just DRIVING to work! Across some of the most breathtaking scenery around.

  • @electrasong Ha ha, sounds awesome, man. To be fair, some of our english scenery is quite nice. Not as big though :)

  • great music great movie forever

  • This has to be the best movie sound track ever. As I grow older, this (main title theme) more and more becomes my favorite selection from the entire track but originally the one I liked best was "The Welcoming."

  • @ronetteloverz...haha great comment mate....makes me feel like renting a tractor and cruising Route 66,take maybe 3 months off work!!!

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  • Whenever I hear unfavourable criticism of the USA, I think of this music and restore my belief in that country. Rhapsody in Blue and the Superman theme have a similar effect. Yes, America gave us sugary bread, junk food and all kinds of useless crap, but they put man on the moon and produced spine-tingling music like this.

  • @Chubwinkler As an Anglishman, I have no fear in saying that America and Americans have done some bloody stupid useless stuff. However, I love the idea of America, the spirit of freedom which inspired the constitution, and I get tingles when I listen to this kind of music. Particularly Aaron Copland's stuff, I think Fanfare for the Common man and Appalacian spring are some of the most emotive pieces of music out there.

  • @93tomb Crap, I mean Englishman lol.

  • @93tomb I think perhaps Aaron Copland's music does for English ears what Sir Edward Elgar's music does for American ones. You can hear Copland's influence in this theme, but not so much that it sounds derivative.

    Peck and Heston may have gotten top billing, but the real co-stars of "The Big Country" were Burl Ives and the wonderful soundtrack of Jerome Moross.

  • All I can say is that I love this music!! Fantastic....and for one reason or another beyond my control I have never seen the film through!!!!

  • THIS HAS GOT TO BE MY ALL TIME FA\VOURITE FILM THEME TUNE (HAVE LOVED IT FOR OVER 40 YEARS)ONE I NEVER GET TIRED OFLISTENING TO. WISH THEY HAD PLAYED THE FULL VERSION AT THE END OF THE FILM (AS WELL AS THE BEGINNING)

  • What a great song!!! I remember when the group YES combined this song with a Richie Havens song, "NO OPPORTUNITY NECESSARY, NO EXPERIENCE NEEDED". Give it listen some time on YouTube.

  • This is a classic score that reeks of the West in alll its glory. From the revolivng violins, to the blasting brass and the fading ending. Jerome Moross really captured the spirit of the Western states when he wrote this one. Makes one wannna get out and RIDE!

  • This music makes me wish I could see the west before it was settled. Must have been something to see.

  • A top notch theme tune for a very run of the mill western.

  • @clnewcombe You have good taste in movie themes but weak taste in movies.

  • @jeffsor47 Agreed.

  • One of the best scores ever written for one of the best westerns ever made. I first saw it as a kid when my mother took me to the theater.

    A stellar cast most of whom are no longer with us. Burl Ives was at his best and stole every scene he was in. Jean Simmons was gorgeous, as was Carol Baker playing the spoiled rich girl. And who could forget Chuck Conners in a most non-"The Rifleman" role as the slimy Buck Hannasy.

    BUCK HANNASY: "You wanted me Pa?"

    RUFUS HANNASY: "Before you was born I did."

  • @tomnanD3 Yes,I loved it when Chuck "Buck" Connors comes into the house and asked " Did you want me,Pa? " and Burl Ives said " I did before you were born. " As big a rat as Buck was,I actually felt sorry for him in that scene.

  • @tomnanD3 LOL....I know. I grew up a big fan of shows like The Rifleman and it was hard to imagine Chuck Connors in the role of a bad guy. Also, I found it ironic that Chuck Connors and Charlton Heston's characters were enemies in the movie, but in real life they were a lot alike and were two of the most respected actors of their era. And no matter what Buck Hannasy did, I always had the hero Lucas McCain in the back of my head so it was hard to be completely against Buck.

  • I love the movie, the music, the story and the country where it is was filmed...

  • I love the movie, the music, the story and the country wher is was filmed...

  • This is good...

    But give me Bernstein's Magnificent 7 any day of the week.

  • this is one of my best ever western themes by jerome moss.

  • Great theme, but more subdued that M7 theme.

  • Music like this reminds me that I'm proud of my American heritage. In this age, it's sometimes easy to forget that. Oh, how America has changed!

  • @parapluiesdechebourg AMEN to that Bro!! I was 9 when I saw this in a real theatre. The theme musick gave me goose bumps then and it still does now. Times were simpler then, eh!

  • @usm7j Thank you for your warm comment! What an experience it must have been to see it in the theater! I'm only 22 so I can only wistfully watch the old movies and envy your generation. People were different back then: they were made of stronger stuff, I think.

  • Hey Arnold!

  • I love MR.PECK!!!!

  • This music makes me want to drive a combine over the horizon...

  • @ronetteloverz

    I want to touch your corn head

  • @ronetteloverz Or a wagon train....

  • @ronetteloverz Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaa­aaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwww!!!

  • the best musical score in a western film......ever!

  • @cafra1707

    It's great, but I rate Call of the Faraway Hills (SHANE) and The John Dunbar theme from Dances with Wolves above it.

  • @Baskerville22 i do not agree..but suit yourself.

  • @cafra1707 How the West was Won and the Magnificient 7 rank right up there as well!

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  • Fantastic music from a great movie.

  • A fantastic theme! So dynamic it was huge in making the movie work, and to be so memorable.

  • if you close your eyes and listern you are there imagine the hills etc. magic.

  • I was at a very impressionable age when I first heard this music...I was  9 years old! This haunting melody has stayed within my subconscience for 52 years, (lmao). So glad YouTube has it...I'm enjoying this composition once aagain, THANKS

  • This song makes my wife cry

  • My favorite childhood song.

  • Burl Ives won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for this movie

  • Fantastic film - love the actors and this is the time when actors were worth their weight in gold.

  • This was the first movie I can remember........my Dad took me to the Odeon at Newcastle ( North East England ) when I was a bairn......the theme tune remains with me even today , 50 years on , great film , great music, great ( and sad ) memories of my dad.........no longer around..........

  • @marylebone454 I'm in Dublin Georgia usa, Sorry about your daddy...Westerns were king in the U.S.A. at one time. Sadly, thats mostly all gone. From your comment on the Bihg Country

  • They play this from time to time on our local classical music stations. So catchy!

  • I have to play the violin part in the orchestra... difficult (the fast part) and beautiful (the slow part)

  • An overlong and boring old western.

  • @JuanMacready You are wrong. Giant is the western that is way too long and boring. The Big Country is, in my opinion, one of the three greatest westerns and western themes.

    1. How the West Was Won

    2. The Big Country

    3. The Magnificent Seven

  • @JuanMacready a philistine

  • Beautiful!

  • Good art doesn't gets older. I live in Brazil.

  • Well said, Man :)

    I live in Canada. What part of brazil are you in?

  • I'm from Ceara, in the Northeast of Brazil.

  • Jean Simmons was a great Star

  • epic

  • Available through Screen Archives Entertainment.

    By the way, Burl Ives gave a great performance in this movie. Really surprising how fine an actor he was.

  • Burl Ives was great, also as a singer

  • Jean Simmons, the female star of this movie, died 2 days ago- aged 80 or81 (1929-2010)

  • She was alway one of my favorites .. along with Ann Baxter.

    sigh.

  • She was lovely, one of my favourites.

  • It sounds Magical!

    They play it in frontierland at Disneyland resort Paris!

  • love that place :D

  • Im going next month! Cant Wait, Im obsessed!

  • Great music and interesting movie. It's not a usual western, the hero turns out to be some dandy sailor and the cowboys are a bunch of knuckleheads.

  • Great theme fo a great movie!!!!

  • Sorry, I mistyped. It was 1958.

  • this piece is played by the mantovani orchestra. please correct if i'm wrong.

  • Great music! Classic! Also check out Aaron Copland's "Hoedown" from his ballet "Rodeo" (Hoedown is your "Beef for Dinner music), as well as Elmer Bernstein's The Magnificent Seven (or The Marlboro Cigarette Theme for us boomers). Bernstein was so prolific and wrote for anything...from "The Ten Commandments" to "The Great Escape" to "The Sons of Katie Elder" to "Ghostbusters" to "Stripes". Some of it you hear in "Family Guy" and other shows today.

  • Love it!!!!!

  • EPIC MUSIC

  • Fergaloreilly - it was used in 'The Only Rhyme That Bites' by MC Tunes & 808 State in 1990.

  • I deeply despise what that

    SALAD DRESSING COMMERCIAL

    did to this song!

  • Actually it's from the "Beef. It's What's for Dinner" (Voice over by Robert Mitchum) commercial. I think it was pretty ingenious considering the movie's about a longstanding cattle ranchers feud. Whoever came up with the idea had to have been a fan of the movie and or music.

  • Can anyone confirm whether the main tune is exactly the same as The Magnificent Seven?

  • By a thin line.

  • It's not, they are totally different. You have the element of violin voices that are "hurrying" but it's not the same score at all.

  • It's NOT. Two COMPLETELY DIFFERENT tunes by two DIFFERENT composers. Both CLASSICS, of course, though...Indeed 2 of the most magnificent [no pun intended!] "western" themes ever composed!

  • Great,

    i would love to see an orchestra play this,

    it must be an amazing site to see....

    The BBC proms had MGM musicals recently,

    that was a wonderful night also.

    recommend paint your wagon too.

  • This was sampled on some hip hop track, does anyone know the name by any chance?

  • ive beign looking for this everywhere thanks

  • Terrific - one of the best movie scores ever. I don't know what won the Oscar that year but it must have been one heck of a toon - can't understand how this didn't win.

  • The music for "The Old Man and the Sea" by Dimitri Tiompkin won the Oscar for best original movie score that year-1956.

  • Mistyped.-- actually 1958

  • La canción de Radiorama stereo 103.3 FM de Caracas Venezuela principios del año 2007. Locutor Argenis Carmona

  • Makes me crave for those summer nights at the Drive-In theater. Ill never forget this movie while walking from the playground

    I heard a wall of horns trying to find my folks.

  • it makes me want a steak

  • HAHAHAHA...that's funny, very good

  • its by atomic kitten thats all i know

  • snap sfmpr! I also play it on the way to the horse, i just love the variation in theme, pace etc. It is so uplifting. Happy trails everyone ...

  • Terrific movie along with a great theme song. The only thing that got me down was Chuck Connors playing the bad guy. How could 'The Rifleman' lose a gun battle? LOL

  • Jerome Moross also did the theme from the 60's Western Lancer with Andrew Duggan and James Stacy.

  • I didn't know he had written the theme song to Lancer too, but it was a great theme song also.

  • I actually play it in the car on the way up to my horse, it's puts you in another time and place

  • This is absolutely the best Western movie theme ever, so atmospheric, makes you feel like your riding the range wherever you are. Heaven!

  • Agreed! When ever i'm out on a ride, this song comes to my head, great song, great western!

  • You are MORE than welcome, RBCar! Always nice to hear from a fellow fan of the late great Jerome Moross! Since you enjoy his work, you must be a person of refinefine, distinction & good taste! :)

    Here's hoping everyone out there in cyberland has a wonderful weekend! :)

  • There is a modern day song which samples this. Any1 know the name of it? Would be a great help to me if u could name it!

  • I just watched the movie last night. I NEVER tire of watching this movie. Actors of today can not fill the shoes of actors like Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston. And must not forget Jean Simmons. She is Beautifull in the movie and also a great actress. The music just keeps me motivated to watch every single scene. And, even the moments of silent dialouge, which Gregory Peck is greatly noted for, the music really brings out the message of the scene.

  • Nice tune, when im looking at long sunset in the Aussie outback :)

  • I NEVER tire of hearing this tune....my all time favorite movie theme song. The late great Jerome Moross was a true genius. The melody is a PERFECT match for the theme of the film (how different people adapt to a vast & often lawless country). And Mr Moross did another beautiful job when he composed the theme to the classic 60's TV Western "Wagon Train'.

  • Wow! I just posted my own comment and then read yours. I didn't know that the Wagon Train theme was also composed by Jerome Moross. That is a great fact of interest and history. Thanks!

  • Even though Jerome Moross is one of the lesser known composers, this is one the great classic themes, he used the "showdown" music from this as the main theme for The Valley of Gwangi and I think also did the Wagon Train theme.

  • The quintessetial western theme, along with, How the West was Won; and the TV series The Virginian, and The Wild, Wild West.

  • classic Western. Shame that Hollywood odesn't make clean movies like this anymore, the sole exception being Walt Disney Pictures.

  • theme parks always use this soundtrack

  • just love it

  • Probably the best classical peice ever made, it's so reconisable! Everyone knows this tune, it brings tear's to your eyes!

  • Great music but this rendering is very wrong at the beginning...way too fast, sorry.

  • The Big Country. Wales.

  • does anybody know where i can get this piece of music from?