Steven Spielberg thought ‘Jaws’ theme was a joke when John Williams pitched it

nypost.com:

“Jaws” will never, ever forget composer John Williams’ famous musical score. The iconic theme from director Steven Spielberg’s shark flick is chilling and ominous, yet all too familiar.

However, the 75-year-old filmmaker initially thought Williams — who turned 90 on Tuesday, Feb. 8 — was kidding when he first played the score for him.“I expected to hear something kind of weird and melodic, something tonal, but eerie; something of another world, almost like outer space under the water,” the “West Side Story” director said in a prior “Jaws” DVD featurette unearthed by The Hollywood Reporter, in which Spielberg discussed the process of creating the music for the movie.“And what he played me instead, with two fingers on the lower keys, was ‘dun dun, dun dun, dun dun.’ And at first, I began to laugh.

He had a great sense of humor, and I thought he was putting me on,” he continued. But the “Indiana Jones” composer persuaded Spielberg to just listen to the music.

After playing the theme several times, Spielberg knew the score was perfect. “It suddenly seemed right. And John found the signature for the entire movie,” he said.Spielberg even later admitted: “I think the score was responsible for half of the success of that movie.”Williams was also interviewed for the DVD segment, during which he echoed Spielberg’s sentiments and explained how he composed the theme. “You could alter the speed of this ostinato [a repeated musical rhythm]; any kind of alteration, very slow and very fast, very soft and very loud.