Soundtracks — All Formats  

Herrmann's original score to the film is pretty compelling – almost in the mode of some of his work for Hitchcock – and it's conducted here by Herrmann himself and by Dave Blume. The album's got 2 especially noteworthy tracks – "Diary Of A Taxi Driver", which features a cool monologue by Robert DeNiro, and "Theme From Taxi Driver", which features alto sax work by Tom Scott. Other titles include "Betsy In A White Dress", "Sport & Iris", "The .44 Magnum Is A Monster", and "God's Lonely Man".

A slightly overlooked film score by the great John Williams – but a true classic that's every bit as great as his wildly famous work of the late 70s for bigger films! Williams is at the height of his powers here – really transforming modern film orchestrations in ways that strongly shake off any lingering modes from the 50s and 60s – very serious from a compositional perspective, and able to embrace a rich range of new ideas for orchestra – yet also able to come across with a lean, focused sort of energy that never has the soundtrack overwhelming the image on the screen – just rising to meet its needs in all the best ways. This huge 2CD version features 32 tracks from the original film score, and 10 more from the soundtrack recording sessions – with tracks that include "For Gillian", "Vision On The Stars", "Hester's Theme & The House", "Gillian's Escape", and "The Search For Robin".

Ali at his best – starring in this excellent film from the mid 70s, with a screenplay written by longtime boxing expert Muhammad Ali! The soundtrack's pretty nice and funky at times – and features the extended clubby groover "Ali Bombaye" – an almost Afro Funk-ish tune, performed by Mandrill, and written by Michael Masser, who did some of the other music for the film. Other cuts include the mellower "I Always Knew I Had It In Me" and "The Greatest Love Of All", both sung by George Benson, plus "Ali's Theme", which is pretty nice.