Ranking The Scores of Star Wars
One of the best and most consistent part of Star Wars is the music.
Even if some of the movies weren't all that great, you could always count on the legend John Williams to smash the score of the Skywalker saga and make you feel something even if the movie itself made you roll your eyes a little bit. Now that's even carried over into The Mandalorian series with Ludwig Göransson composing the score of that live-action thriller.
TikTok user Léa Martinez dropped a video ranking the Star Wars sounds, and it's actually pretty agreeable for the most part. It goes as follows:
1. Binary Sunset
2. Duel of The Fates
3. Battle of The Heroes
4. Imperial March
5. Cantina Band
6. Main Theme
7. Leia's Theme
8. Throne Room (Celebration from A New Hope)
9. Rey's Theme
10. Yoda's Theme
All really solid choices. A few disagreements as is per usual with any sort of list, so I wanted to give my top 10 in response.
1. Imperial March
2. Battle of The Heroes
3. The Mandalorian
4. Duel of The Fates
5. The Asteroid Field
7. Victory Celebration
8. Yoda and The Force
9. Main Theme
10. Cantina Band
1. It's tough to top Imperial March for me. So epic. So badass. You never forget that first scene in Empire when the star destroyers are looming in space and that starts to play. Plus, they still play it at practically every football game at some point or another to this day. Need a song to play during the away team's introduction? Always a fan favorite to play the Imperial March.
2. One of the most redeeming qualities of the now looked better upon prequels is Battle of The Heroes. We all knew that at the end of the road with those movies we'd see the long-awaited Anakin vs. Obi-Wan duel. The fight that had over 30 years of anticipation had a score that surpassed the hype.
3. Yes, The Mandalorian is a baby in the Star Wars universe, but damn I tell you what if I don't get fired up every time I hear that theme. Every Friday I sit there in awe and in a bit of sadness because this week's episode is over while the storyboards play with the credits and the epic theme. It's fucking awesome.
4. Duel Of The Fates another jaw-dropper that you secretly put on your spotify or apple music and hope that it doesn't come on shuffle while you're on the aux at a get-together. When those doors open and Darth Maul is standing there with his hood up followed by the buildup to the sabers igniting is a moment that changed 6-year-old me's life in the theaters in May of 1999.
5. Perhaps no piece of music partners better with it's scene than The Asteroid Field in Empire Strikes Back. It's perfect. And as much as Solo can be trashed sometimes, it was a nice callback during that movie when Han, Chewie, and the gang are making the Kessel Run against the Empire.
6. Darth Vader's death score always gives me chills. Such a wild scene with Luke finally seeing his father in person for the first time. It also gets a callback in Rise of Skywalker when Rey is entering the throne room on the remains of Death Star II that really brought that moment together as well.
7. How can you not be happy listening to the Victory Celebration from Return of The Jedi? This one is a little lower since it was the original original score to that scene shoutout Yub Nub.
8. Yoda & The Force aka the sound for when Yoda lifts the X-Wing out of the swamp on Dagobah then again poetry in motion when Luke does the same for Rey in Rise of Skywalker. You'd be lying if you're a big Star Wars fan and that score doesn't make you well up a bit.
9. Tough to have a Star Wars sounds ranking and not have the main theme on there. It's a part of the zeitgeist. Even someone who has never seen Star Wars knows that's the theme, and I'll be really bummed if we've seen the last of that beautiful theme blasted in theaters with the scrawl rolling up on the screen for us.
10. Ahhh yes the cantina band is a classic fun Star Wars song. Family Guy has made the jokes about that being the only song they play, but hell I'd listen to that in the background of a bar or pub without a doubt.
My top-10. Fire away.