His scores may not be full-blown symphonic but his tunes are very catchy and still stand the test of time.
- Theme
from The Great Mouse Detective. It gets remixed as part of "Big Ben Chase" further on. It shifts between multiple different moods from triumphant to nerve-racking, all without letting up tension and matching what's on screen perfectly.
- The jazzy theme of The Pink Panther.
- The theme to the second Pink Panther movie, A Shot in the Dark, is even cooler. It also became the theme to The Inspector cartoons based on the Clouseau character.
- Then there's "Hong Kong Fireworks" from Revenge of the Pink Panther.
- The theme
- One of the coolest TV themes ever, the theme to Peter Gunn, heard later in The Blues Brothers. John Williams played piano in the original version.
- For a time, Mancini also composed themes for NBC News; composing their theme for the NBC Nightly News during the late 1970s. However, he saved his best work with NBC for their election night coverage with this classic theme called "Salute to the President" used from 1976 until 1992.
- "His scores may not be full-blown symphonic..." it says at the top of the page, well, Lifeforce (1985) has now entered the chat. This glorious large-scale score for this horror/science fiction tale is arguably the second-best element of the movie, behind...you know.
- It's a lesser-known piece from Mancini but "Lujon" — named after the instrument featured in the recording — is a sweepingly romantic number. It was even featured in The Big Lebowski.
