Happy 84th Birthday Maestro Williams!

Today is John Williams' 84th birthday.  In honor of the greatest living composer, I whipped together a quick list of his 25 greatest themes.  And believe me, it could have been at least twice as long.  As note that I did this quickly, so I may have missed one or two, or I may change it later.  Also note, these are only themes from movies.  So no NBC News theme, no Olympics theme, no Summon the Heroes, no Lost in Space, etc.

25.  The Adventures of Tintin (2011) - an underrated jazzy piece

24.  Marion's Theme from Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) - a nice, understated theme

23.  Theme from Sabrina (1995) - beautiful piano

22.  Exsultate Justi from Empire of the Sun (1987) - one of his most exultant themes

21.  Rey's Theme from The Force Awakens (2015) -  this one grew on me slowly, but now I really like it

20.  Catch Me If You Can (2002) - Williams began as a jazz musician, and you can really hear it here.  This just sounds like the 60s to me.

19.  Theme from JFK (1992) - political intrigue galore

18.  Hatikvah (The Hope) from Munich (2005) - kind of like a Schindler's List light

17.  Yoda's Theme from Empire Strikes Back (1980) - full of the Force, this is

16.  Across the Stars from Attack of the Clones (2002) - Williams makes even this bad a love story sound good

15.  Hymn to the Fallen from Saving Private Ryan (1998) - solemn remembrance

14.  Home Alone Main Theme (1990) - the sounds of Christmas

13.  Theme from Schindler's List (1993) - might be the most beautiful and haunting on this list

12.  Wild Signals from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) - can you hear those five notes and not think of this movie?

11.  Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter (2001) - a classic fantasy sound just nearly missing the top 10

10.  Battle of the Heroes from Revenge of the Sith (2005) - action packed choir full of urgency

9.  1941 Theme (1979) - about the only good thing about this movie

8.  Star Wars Main Title (1977) - the main theme from my favorite movie series this low?

7.  E.T. Theme (1982) - the perfect theme to explore the playful kid side of Spielberg

6.  Theme from Jurassic Park (1993) - as we can see throughout this list no one does more with fewer notes than Williams, and this is another fantastic example

5.  Midway March (1976) - maybe I'm biased for this due to the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band, but this is one of the greatest military marches ever

4.  Jaws Main Title (1975) - as Jack Black says in The Holiday "Two notes and you've got a villain.  I don't know what to say about it.  Totally brill."

3.  The Imperial March from Empire Strikes Back (1980) - perhaps the most iconic theme in movie history, yet I have it 3? 

2.  Raiders March (1981) - nothing says adventure quite like this

1.  Superman March (1978) - the greatest superhero theme of all time, and it's not even close.  Others have tried to copy it, but now they unfortunately have decided to go the complete opposite way and almost ruin superhero score (I'm looking at you Hans Zimmer) but that's a rant for another day.