Raiders of the Lost Ark (soundtrack)


Raiders of the Lost Ark: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the film score to the 1981 Steven Spielberg film, Raiders of the Lost Ark. The music was composed and conducted by John Williams, and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. Orchestrations were done by Herbert W. Spencer with additional orchestrations done by Al Woodbury. The score was released by Columbia Records in June 1981. The soundtrack received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score, but lost out to Vangelis' score for Chariots of Fire.

Track listing

  1. "The Raiders March"
  2. "Flight from Peru"
  3. "The Basket Game"
  4. "The Map Room: Dawn"
  5. "The Well of the Souls"
  6. "Desert Chase"
  7. "Marion's Theme"
  8. "The Miracle of the Ark"
  9. "End Credits"

    Expanded edition

The soundtrack was re-released in an expanded edition by DCC Compact Classics, Inc. in November 1995 on CD and LP, with thirty minutes of new and extended cues and a twenty-four page booklet. The LP had an extended "The Well of the Souls" sequence that was absent on the CD release.

Track listing

Total Time: 73:35

The Indiana Jones Trilogy

Silva released a newly recorded version of Williams' Indiana Jones music entitled "The Indiana Jones Trilogy" on January 21, 2003. It features various cues from the first three Indiana Jones films, with seven from Raiders. However, although they use the original manuscripts, this is a re-recording performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.

''Indiana Jones: The Soundtracks Collection''

The five-disc release by Concord Records was released on November 11, 2008. The set contains the three original soundtracks to the trilogy, expanded and remastered, including material never before issued on CD. The box set also includes the standard Kingdom of the Crystal Skull soundtrack plus a bonus CD that includes more music from the trilogy and an exclusive audio interview CD with Williams.
The re-issues of the three original soundtracks are also available in Europe as a single release. The content are identical to the first three titles in the box-set.

Missing music

There are about three minutes of music from Raiders of the Lost Ark that—so far—have not been released on CD.
  1. Marion Into The Pit
  2. Indy Rides The Statue
In addition to the missing music, "Desert Chase" is incomplete on the Concord set. It has been trimmed down to its 1981 album length, making the 1995 release the only complete representation of that cue.