Chariots Of Fire

Biography

Chariots of Fire is a musical score by Greek electronic composer and artist Vangelis (credited as Vangelis Papathanassiou) for the British film Chariots of Fire, which won four Academy Awards including Best Picture and Original Music Score. The album topped Billboard Top 200 for 4 weeks and the opening theme of the film (called "Titles" on the album track listing but widely known as "Chariots of Fire") was released as a single in 1982 and topped the Billboard Hot 100 for one week after climbing...

Chariots of Fire is a musical score by Greek electronic composer and artist Vangelis (credited as Vangelis Papathanassiou) for the British film Chariots of Fire, which won four Academy Awards including Best Picture and Original Music Score. The album topped Billboard Top 200 for 4 weeks and the opening theme of the film (called "Titles" on the album track listing but widely known as "Chariots of Fire") was released as a single in 1982 and topped the Billboard Hot 100 for one week after climbing steadily for five months (it made #1 in its 21st week on the chart). "Titles" also reached #12 in Britain, where its parent album peaked at #5 and spent 107 weeks on the album chart. The single also peaked at #21 in Australian on the Australian Singles Chart (Kent Music Report). The film's director, Hugh Hudson, invited Vangelis after becoming impressed with his albums Opera Sauvage and China and having worked with Vangelis on commercials in Paris during the 1970s. Vangelis played all the instruments, including synthesizers, acoustic piano, battery and percussion, and recorded the score in his Nemo studio in London, UK which he had set up in 1975. The music that he came up with, entirely electronic for a period film, initiated a new style in film scoring. The use of synthesizers in film scores beyond mere textures, and their convenience in allowing directors, producers, and studios to hear preliminary versions of full scores found its roots in Chariots of Fire. "He (Vangelis) tells us about the way he set about producing the music for Chariots Of Fire. About the low budget it really had. About the way in which he endlessly exchanged thoughts with the author about the story. Only when the movie was completely finished did he actually start working on the music for it. Saw it only three times for that purpose and then started work." — Vangelis interview to Music Maker magazine, September 1982. "I didn't want to do period music. I tried to compose a score which was contemporary and still compatible with the time of the film. But I also didn't want to go for a completely electronic sound." — Vangelis interview to American Film magazine, September 1982. The score album, however, is almost all re-recorded and sounds differently from the music heard on film, with often richer arrangements, namely in the "Titles" track. The second part of the album is a one-track suite including music from and inspired by the score. On the other hand, some original themes from the film did not make it to the album. "A record is something other than a film. There have to be changes - not least of all for artistic reasons." — Vangelis interview to Neumusik magazine, issue 5, August 1981. Although Vangelis had already done a number of film scores, namely for the animal documentaries by Frédéric Rossif, Chariots of Fire was his first major film score, and it immediately gave him the big breakthrough as a film composer, as "Titles" was an international hit and changed the whole course of his career. "It occurs very rarely that a composer thinks of his most successful work as his best. I am no exception to that rule. I think of my soundtrack for [...] Mutiny on the Bounty as endlessly more interesting than Chariots of Fire." — Vangelis interview to De Telegraaf newspaper, June 15, 1991. The album reached #1 in the sales charts of various countries, including 4 weeks at #1 in the U.S. In total, the album stayed 97 weeks in the Billboard top 200, selling 3 million copies in the first year alone. The album reached #5 in the UK album charts and stayed in top 100 for 107 weeks. Track Listing (on vinyl LP) Side one 1. "Titles" – 3:33 2. "Five Circles" – 5:20 3. "Abraham's Theme" – 3:20 4. "Eric's Theme" – 4:18 5. "100 Metres" – 2:04 6. "Jerusalem" – 2:47 Side two 1. "Chariots of Fire" – 20:41 Credits John McCarthy -- Director Ambrosian Singers -- Choir, Chorus Alwyn Clayden -- Art Direction, Design Raphael Preston -- Engineer Raine Shine -- Engineer Vangelis -- Composer, Producer, Performer John Walker -- Engineer (Strongly recommended for all soundtrack fans.) ENJOY! Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.