The 5 Best Marches

I'm'a talk about marches! Because everybody loves marches, right? C'mon, you all know you love marches. You there, shaking your head, and your fist, and shouting obscenities, you know you love marches. No? Still going to insist that I'm absolutely insane? Still going to demand satisfaction for my audacious suggestion that you love marches?

Well sit down, friend, because I've got 5 marches right here that I'm confident will prove you wrong.


The Imperial March

Yup. You may have been thinking of this as "Darth Vader's Theme" for the past few decades, but the song, in addition to being structurally a march, is literally titled as a march. It's the theme applied to the heavily militaristic Empire in The Empire Strikes Back, and is one of the most recognizable and thematically excellent leitmotifs ever penned by the consistently amazing John Williams. And I'd challenge you, dear music lover, to find something in here you don't like.

I can hear you now; "oh, right, that's technically a march." You get used to thinking that, because that's the hammer I'm going to be beating you over the head with for the rest of this post.

Raider's March

"If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the mooooornin'..."

It's fair to point out that John Williams uses marches quite frequently as situational thematic elements, frequently applied to organizations like the Galactic Empire as referenced above, but also the rebel alliance and Galactic Republic, also of the Star Wars franchise, and the Nazi's present in the Indiana Jones movies. But that's all secondary to the fact that the theme you've always thought of as "the Indiana Jones theme" is, in fact, a march.

Yeah, buckle up, they keep coming.

March (from Superman)

"I'd hammer in the eeeevenin'..."

There's a fair chance, depending on your age and considering the morons behind the Superman reboot went with Hans Zimmer for their music over John Williams (an objectively bad decision), that you've never heard this song. But as you listen I'm sure you'll detect that it is, indeed, a march. You'll probably also detect that you love it.

Oh, what's that? You want something that wasn't from a John William's movie?

Bugler's Dream/Olympic Fanfare

"I'd hammer all daaaaaay!"

HA! Not a John William's movie! I mean, sure, it was written for TV kinda, but really it was written for an opening ceremonies and look, the point is that it's a march, you hear it probably at least once every two years, and you probably enjoy hearing it every... single... time. You march lover you.

But yes, yes, you're right. Are there any marches you don't hate that weren't written by John Williams?

Captain America March

"I'd hammer out JUSTICE!"

Yes. Yes there are. Alan Silvestri to the rescue.

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