Neha Patil (Editor)

The Ecstasy of Gold

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Released
  
1966

Length
  
3:22

Genre
  
Film score, western

Writer(s)
  
Ennio Morricone

The Death of a Soldier (9)
  
"The Ecstasy of Gold" (10)

"The Ecstasy of Gold" (10)
  
The Trio (main title) (11)

"The Ecstasy of Gold" (Italian: L'estasi dell'oro) is a musical composition by Ennio Morricone, part of his score for the Sergio Leone film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It is played while Tuco (Eli Wallach) is frantically searching a cemetery for the grave that holds $200,000 in gold coins. Sung by Edda Dell'Orso, it stands as one of the most well known of Morricone's themes.

Other uses

  • American heavy metal band Metallica has used "The Ecstasy of Gold" as the introductory music for its concerts since 1983; it is included on the live albums Metallica Through the Never, S&M and Live Shit: Binge & Purge. An instrumental metal cover by Metallica (with minimal vocals and lead guitar work by lead singer James Hetfield) appears on the 2007 Morricone tribute album We All Love Ennio Morricone. This metal version was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Rock Instrumental Performance. It was also used in the trailer for and appears in Guitar Hero: Metallica, in its original form as composed by Morricone; however, it is not a playable track. It reached #21 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock charts in April of that year.
  • The 1975 film adaptation of The Rocky Horror Show uses an excerpt as incidental music during the climax when Rocky grieves and carries the dead Dr. Frank-N-Furter up the RKO Tower.
  • Famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma recorded this song in his tribute album, Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone.
  • The opening scene of Jackass Number Two (2006), in which the cast is chased through a suburban neighborhood by bulls, is accompanied by this piece.
  • Sampled by Jay-Z in the song "Blueprint2" in his album by the same name released in 2002.
  • Remixed by Bandini for the Ennio Morricone Remixes 2 album released on February 10, 2004 by Compost Records.
  • Used in the introduction sequence of the 2010 Activision racing game, Blur.
  • Sampled by rapper Immortal Technique in the song "Land of the Gun".
  • The episode "XCIII" in Samurai Jack's 5th season pays homage to the cemetery scene when Jack hides from the Daughters of Aku in a stone coffin within a ruined temple (complete with a reimagining of The Ecstasy of Gold).
  • A commercial for Modelo Especial beer using The Ecstasy of Gold has been circulating since at least 2015.

    • References

    The Ecstasy of Gold Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA