925 Ennio Morricone “Il Buono, Il Bruto, Il Cattivo (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Theme)” 1966

“many of the same qualities that made the rock-and-roll of the 1960s commercially successful did the same for Morricone’s film music: it was concise, easily remembered, harmonically and formally uncomplicated, yet melodically very original. Morricone’s scores, particularly the Westerns of the 1960s including The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, demonstrate a fusion of many of the popular music elements of the time. The immense popularity of the electric guitar is the best example of this fusion…Undeniably, there is some similarity between these rock-and-roll instrumental hits of the 1960s [such as “Apache,” “Pipeline”] and Morricone’s use of the solo electric guitar in his Western scores of the same period” (Charles Leinberger, Ennio Morricone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 2004).

“the soundtrack recording of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly became a best-seller in the United States, due in part to radio airplay being given to a [1968] cover version of the ‘Main Title’ by Hugo Montenegro” (Charles Leinberger, Ennio Morricone’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 2004). 

Ennio Morricone “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Theme”