In honor of Sergio Leone’s birthday, today’s song of the day is the main theme from Leone’s best-known film, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Ennio Morricone’s score is as much of a character in this film as the ones played by Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, and Lee Van Cleef.  It perfectly sets the moods, telling us that we’re about to see something that is truly epic.  The opening notes, which have so often been parodied but which have never lost their power, truly capture the feel of Sergio Leone’s mythical vision of the old west.