The Baton: A John Williams Musical Journey

Episode 20 - Heidi

A few years after he decided to leave a lucrative career writing music for television, John Williams returned to the small screen in 1968 with "Heidi." Though the film is

Episode 19 - Valley of the Dolls

The 1967 film "Valley of the Dolls" was, on the surface, like any other assignment John Williams had in his early film scoring career. His task was to adapt music from fi

Episode 18 - Fitzwilly

During a break in recording the score for Valley of the Dolls (the subject of the next episode), John Williams decided to take on a comedy film starring Dick Van Dyke fre

Episode 17 - A Guide for the Married Man

After composing scores to five films in 1966 -- and writing music for a failed TV sitcom -- John Williams had only three films on his plate in 1967. On the surface, they

Episode 16 - Not With My Wife You Don't

John Williams' final film score of 1966 wasn't his best work of the year, but it does contain some decent moments, including music for a bar fight and a decent love theme

Episode 15 - Penelope

Natalie Wood is the star of "Penelope," but the film puts so much more focus on Edith Head's costumes that it takes away from the flimsy and uneven plot. John Williams ma

Episode 14 - The Plainsman

Universal Pictures had two Westerns released in 1966. After the box office flop "The Rare Breed" came another underperformer, "The Plainsman." John Williams, nearing the

Episode 13 - How to Steal a Million

The Audrey Hepburn art caper comedy "How to Steal a Million" was a turning point in John Williams' career, at least in the eyes of the composer himself. Host Jeff Comming

Episode 12 - The Rare Breed

Did you know that John Williams wrote music for Westerns? The first one was the James Stewart vehicle "The Rare Breed," which features a bull named Vindicator and a sort-

Episode 11 - John Goldfarb Please Come Home

Technically, John Williams' follow-up to "None But the Brave" is a war film, as it deals with the U.S.-Soviet animosities during the Cold War, but it really is nothing mo

Episode 10 - None But the Brave

John Williams' first war film is "None But the Brave," a misguided directorial debut by Frank Sinatra. Despite the bad acting and preachy plotline, John Williams is able

Episode 9 - The Killers

It's John Williams' birthday, and we're celebrating with a special release of this episode of "The Baton." The film itself is nothing really special, though we get some p

Episode 8 - Gidget Goes to Rome

John Williams is back in comedy territory for "Gidget Goes to Rome," the third and final film in a trilogy about the Southern California girl who gets in a mess wherever

Episode 7 - Diamond Head

The first of two films that John Williams would score in 1963 took him back to dramatic territory, specifically the lush locales of Hawaii in the Charlton Heston film "Di

Episode 6 - Bachelor Flat

The year 1962 was a big one for John Williams, earning his first Grammy and Emmy nominations for his work on TV shows. But his gaze never left the movie theater, and he c

Episode 5 - The Secret Ways

John Williams' fourth film score, for the movie "The Secret Ways," does its very best to turn a very bad film into something watchable. Williams succeeds in many places,

Episode 4 - Because They're Young

We've got another teenage drama for you on this episode: "Because They're Young." It's a bit more dramatic than John Williams' first foray into the teenybopper genre, Dad

Episode 3 - I Passed For White

The second film in John Williams' filmography is about as different from his first as you could get. The film "I Passed For White" tried very hard to be taken seriously,

Episode 2 - Daddy-O

Let's start this journey through the career of film composer John Williams with his first-ever score for a feature-length film. The 1959 B-movie "Daddy-O" was not the blo

Episode 1 - Prologue

Welcome! This is a podcast unlike any other. We're going on a journey through the 60 years of film music written by the legendary John Williams, considered by just about