'Star Wars' Theme Tops U.K. Ranking of Favorite Movie Soundtracks

"The Good, The Bad And The Ugly," "Vertigo" and Hans Zimmer's "Dark Knight Rises Suite" also rank in the top 10 of the BBC poll.

LONDON – The Star Wars theme has been named Britain's favorite movie soundtrack in a BBC poll.

"With almost a quarter of the audience votes, John Williams’ Star Wars Theme topped a list that spans 64 years of cinema soundtrack history," the BBC said. "Williams' soundtrack remains to this day the highest-grossing orchestral film music recording of all time and secured him his third Academy Award in 1977."

The Star Wars theme beat out Ennio Morricone’s The Good, The Bad And The Ugly, followed by Leonard Bernstein's score for West Side Story.

Bernard Herrmann’s soundtrack to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho missed out on the top 10, but his work for another Hitchcock classic, Vertigo, ranks fifth.

Hans Zimmer's Dark Knight Rises Suite is the highest-ranking composition from a recent film in the seventh spot, followed by the Django Unchained soundtrack in the 12th spot.

The shortlist of soundtracks that people could vote on was compiled by movie music and other experts. The poll is part of the BBC’s Sound of Cinema, a theme focus dedicated to "exploring the composers, songs and film scores that form the soundtrack to the big screen," according to the BBC.

Here are the top 20 soundtracks, according to the BBC survey:

1. Star Wars (John Williams)

2. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Ennio Morricone)

3. West Side Story (Leonard Bernstein)

4. Lawrence Of Arabia Main Theme (Maurice Jarre)

5. Vertigo (Bernard Herrmann)

6. The Third Man (Anton Karas)

7. Dark Knight Rises Suite (Hans Zimmer)

8. Grease (various)

9. Sound Of Music (Richard Rodgers/Oscar Hammerstein II)

10. Apocalypse Now (Wagner)

11. Psycho (Bernard Herrmann)

12. Django Unchained (Bacalov/Morricone)

13. Mary Poppins (Sherman brothers)

14. Billy Elliot (Swan Lake music, Tchaikovsky)

15. The Wizard Of Oz (Harold Arlen, EY Harburg, Herbert Stothart)

16. There Will Be Blood (Jonny Greenwood)

17. Planet Of The Apes (Jerry Goldsmith)

18. 8 ½ ‘Otto e Mezzo’ (Nino Rota)

19. Sholay (RD Burman)

20. Bombay (AR Rahman)

E-mail: Georg.Szalai@THR.com

Twitter: @georgszalai