"The Rivers Suite" from Alfred Newman's Stupendous Score to How the West Was Won (1962)

By N.S.

""@tomsmith7742 Hands down the greatest movie score of all time. Perfectly evokes the beauty, grandeur, and adventure of the American western experience. How it didn't win an Oscar is the biggest blunder in Oscar history."

N.S.: The blunder was in the studio's campaign of opening the picture all over Europe in 1962, but not opening in the States until 1963. That caused it to be ineligible for the Oscars until 1964, at which point it lost to John Addison for Tom Jones. (I have never been a fan of John Addison.) However, had it been up for the 1963 Oscars, it still might have lost, for two of the greatest scores of all time came out that year: Maurice Jarre's music to Lawrence of Arabia, which won, and Elmer Bernstein's music to To Kill a Mockingbird.

Al Newman (1900-1970) was the founder of what I have dubbed the Newman gang. He was for 32 years the music director at 20th Century Fox Studios, where he won nine Oscars for Best Original Music, a record which still stands. Another of his records was in being nominated for an Oscar for 20 straight years (1938-1957), anywhere from once to four times per year. His brothers Emil and Lionel Newman were also successful Hollywood composer-conductors, and their children and grandchildren were also nominated for Oscars for their screen music. The greatest score I have ever heard, to Bernard Malamud and Barry Levinson's The Natural (1984), was composed by Al's great-nephew, Randy Newman.