"For My Father"

Chariots of Fire and Vangelis' score were both serendipitous events with little chance for success. There's a two-hour video showcasing many of the highlights of the great composer's creations; the (much shorter) story of the movie is in that video starting here.

Vangelis was an improvisational symphonic master, well known for waiting until the last minute, not because of procrastination, but simply to allow all his compositional ideas to coalesce. He had seen the film and wrote the four or so relatively brief themes that filled key races in the script – and the producers had chosen one of them to re-use for the title sequence, that infinitely parodied slow-motion jog along the beaches of Kent.

At the last minute, Vangelis thought of his recently deceased father, who was a keen amateur runner and followed the Olympics religiously. And so he composed one more theme, surprised the producers with it, saying it was a "Requiem For My Father". They of course realized it was more than perfect, a musical icon for the ages.