Best songs help make the movies memorable

It must be harmonic convergence. In the past few weeks, two of the best-loved themes in movie history have been given new life.

The first goes something like this: "Bum bum bum-bum bum bumbum-bum bum bum bum-bum tweedle-dee tweedle-dee duh-dum."

The other used to go, "Who's the black private dick who's a sex machine with all the chicks?" That was back in 1971. The refurbished version has been sanitized somewhat for less-flamboyant audiences of 2000.

We're talking "Mission: Impossible 2" and "Shaft." Right on.

Of course, Lalo Schifrin's "Mission: Impossible" first imprinted itself on the collective psyche via the television show, which ran from 1966 to 1973. Just hearing that blood-quickening music conjures images of a long fuse being lit - the opening credits of the TV program.

And Isaac Hayes' Oscar-winning theme for "Shaft" had as much to do with the special place the film holds in the hearts of its fans as the picture itself.

This time around, the "Mission: Impossible" theme gets the power-tool treatment from Limp Bizkit; Hayes had the luxury of neutering "Shaft" himself. Even in these altered forms, however, the music holds up. One might even hazard the opinion that both the old TV show and the 1971 blaxploitation pic might've been more easily forgotten had it not been for the quality of the music.

All this beautiful noise got inquiring minds to thinking. What are the best movie themes?

Some of the most memorable movie music in history doesn't qualify. Bernard Herrmann's chilling "wee! wee! wee!" for the shower scene in "Psycho" and John Williams' haunting "dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum" to accompany the shark attacks in "Jaws" will always be with us - immortal but, alas, not theme music.

Here's a list of the best:

1. "Rocky" (1976) - "Gonna Fly Now" is not the greatest musical piece in the world - a bit treacly, don't you think? - but it's eminently recognizable, ubiquitous, and every time you hear it, it shouts of underdogs overcoming huge obstacles. Today, Bill Conti's theme is part of the repertoire of every stadium and arena musical programmer, and well it should be. It's kind of like John Philip Sousa twisted into a disco-ized advertising jingle - stirring, in a banal and jingoistic sort of way. Just like the movie.

2. "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) - Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra" provided a payload of gravity for what otherwise might have been an awfully slow movie. Filmgoers of a certain generation simply can't hear Strauss' dramatic crescendo today without thinking of Stanley Kubrick's spacecraft ballet, apes flinging bones at one another and a mysterious black monolith rising up against a fiery starburst. Kubrick's use of the Strauss composition, inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche, transformed a ponderous classical composition into a phenomenon.

3. "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1967) - Whenever some gag writer wants to parody Westerns, all he has to do to set the tone - and get the audience laughing - is push "play" on a recording of Ennio Morricone's airy theme. Sergio Leone's spaghetti Western, which starred Clint Eastwood as The Man With No Name and Eli Wallach as a human punching bag, was an off-kilter mix of macho and mirth, and Morricone perfectly captured the mood of this unique hybrid. Morricone has lent his talent, and his fame, to more than 100 film scores, most recently "Bulworth" (1998) and "Lolita" (1997), but never more famously than this.

4. "Gone With the Wind" (1939) - Max Steiner tops even Ennio Morricone in the realm of productivity. The Austrian scored more than 200 movies between 1929 and 1965, winning three Oscars - for "The Informer" (1935), "Now, Voyager" (1942), and "Since You Went Away" (1944) - and getting 15 other nominations. Despite the accolades for other flicks, Steiner is most famous for "Gone With the Wind." It's ironic that a disciple of Gustav Mahler would be able to evoke the lush swan song of the Old South. If you're wondering, Steiner was, indeed, nominated for an Academy Award for the score of "Gone With the Wind," but he lost out to Herbert Stothart. Stothart's film? "The Wizard of Oz," which wasn't too shabby, either.

5. "Shaft" (1971) - If you were around back in the days of free love and black power, you probably remember a bullet-headed Isaac Hayes, wearing a vest made of what looked to be chain mail and the first pair of wraparound shades off the assembly line, grinding out a tribute in his basso profundo to the most all-that private detective in film history. John Shaft, played by Richard Roundtree, didn't want to be James Bond. He was better, a king of the mean streets of New York, and he had no use for the dominant white culture. Hayes' trademark theme was funky enough for the neighborhood and so irrepressibly cool that it couldn't help but cross over and become a big radio hit, a one-of-a-kind achievement to this day.

6. "The Godfather" (1972) - It's hard to believe that "The Godfather," which began life as a best-selling novel by Mario Puzo, almost didn't happen - that director Francis Ford Coppola was almost replaced just after shooting began, that Marlon Brando had to audition for the role of Vito Corleone and Coppola and producer Al Ruddy had to beg Paramount to cast him, and that even Coppola had doubts to the end about the quality of his masterpiece. In 2000, everyone includes this film in their Top 10 of all time. And the music had a lot to do with it. Nino Rota's theme endures to such an extent that when Bruce Springsteen introduced guitarist Steve Van Zandt at a New Jersey concert last summer, Van Zandt - who stars on TV's mob hit, "The Sopranos" - played the first few notes of "The Godfather" theme to great laughter. An entire arena, in on the joke, thanks to the popularity of Rota's tune.

7. "Exodus" (1960) - When it comes to bittersweet, soul-swelling theme music, "Exodus" might just take the prize, thanks to another Austrian, emigre Ernest Gold. His Oscar-winning score is complete enough to stand on its own, but after seeing the movie it's impossible to separate it from the struggle of Paul Newman, Sal Mineo, Eva Marie Saint and the rest of the Jews fighting for the establishment of Israel against the British and then the Arabs. Fun fact to help you win a bar bet: Gold also wrote the score for "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World." That's versatility.

8. "The Exorcist" (1973) - Most movie scores involve orchestras, or at least instruments an audience can easily recognize. Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells," however, broke a lot of rules. William Friedkin's classic tale of a young girl possessed by the devil was horrifying enough to stand on its own, pea soup and all, but Oldfield's eerie, gothic theme added a perfect complement. A side note: "Tubular Bells" was released as a single in 1973 and became a mega-mega-hit for a fledgling label. That label was Virgin, and the guy who ran Virgin, then as now, was Richard Branson, who today is one of the richest men ever to not fly a hot-air balloon around the world. Put that in your tubular bell and ring it.

9. "Mission: Impossible" (1996) - Lalo Schifrin, the Argentina-born composer of this most famous of TV themes, studied classical music in Paris, arranged tunes for Xavier Cugat's band, and wrote music and played piano for Dizzy Gillespie before selling out to Hollywood and penning the "M:I" TV theme in 1966. Schifrin's also scored for George Lucas' "THX-1138," "Bullitt," "Cool Hand Luke" and all the Dirty Harry movies. But nothing quite moves the blood faster and better than this '60s spy-was-a-lounge-lizard classic that is fresh 30 years later for the first Tom Cruise vehicle.

10. "Star Wars" (1977) - Before he won an Oscar for "Star Wars," John Williams had already won for "Fiddler on the Roof" (1971) and "Jaws" (1975). After "Star Wars," George Lucas' and Steven Spielberg's house composer won for "Schindler's List" (1993). And even though his shark-attack music for "Jaws" enlivens every trip to the pool or beach for millions of moviegoers, it's his lively, unpretentious anthem for "Star Wars" that remains, after some 80-plus scores, Williams' most memorable theme.

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Top 5 movie themes

.1. "Rocky" (1976)

2. "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968)

3. "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1967)

4. "Gone With the Wind" (1939)

5. "Shaft" (1971)