CoronaVinyl Day 358 (V): Chariots of Fire Soundtrack by Vangelis

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "V," and I listened to Vangelis's soundtrack to the 1981 Best Oscar winner, Chariots of Fire.

Greek electronic composer Vangelis was tasked with scoring Chariots of Fire.  The movie, which admittedly I've never seen, is based on the true story of two British track athletes training for and competing in the 1924 Summer Olympics.  One is a God-loving Scot, Eric Liddell, and the other is Jewish, Harold Abrahams.  Liddell won gold in the 400m and bronze in the 200m.  Abrahams won gold in the 100m and silver in the 4x100 relay.

The film is best known for two things:  it's iconic slow-motion beach running scene and it's iconic theme song.  It won four Academy Awards:  Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Costume Design, and Best Original Score.  An interesting tidbit is that Dennis Christopher has a small supporting role in the film.  He, of course, was the lead in 1979's Breaking Away, which means that in the span of two years, he was in two of the greatest sports movies of all-time.  According to an Athletic article last year, Breaking Away is #7 and Chariots of Fire is #66.

Whether or not you know the title or what the song is from, the theme to Chariots of Fire -- which is technically called "Titles" on the album, though it is commonly just called "Chariots of Fire," even though that's a different song on the album -- is one of the most recognizable movie themes ever, and it has been used countless times in TV and film (often parodically) since it came out.  It was also the background music for the medal ceremonies at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

The soundtrack topped the Billboard album chart for four weeks and also reached the Top 10 on the album charts in Australia, Canada, The Netherlands, New Zealand, and the UK.  The theme song went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains the only #1 song in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 by a Greek artist.  It also topped the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, went Top 10 on the charts in Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa, and was the best-selling single of 1981 in Japan.

Because the second side of the album is just one song that's nearly 21 minutes long -- the aforementioned "Chariots of Fire" -- I'm not going to choose a favorite song from each side, but you can safely assume my favorite song from Side 1 is "Titles."