Musical themes carried over from the Highlander film to TV series

Question

In "The Gathering", the pilot episode of Highlander, there are several parts of songs used from the movie:

• Princes of the Universe, which plays over the film credits, is the show's theme song, and is heard when Richie spies on Duncan and Connor sparring.
• Who Wants to Live Forever, which is used in the film when Connor is dealing with Heather growing old without him, is used (as an instrumental) when Tessa and Duncan are having a similar conversation and (with vocals) in the Lakota flashback.

Are there other influences or themes carried from the film to the TV series? Not just songs, but the instrumental themes? Do any of these persist past the first pilot episode (which ties the film and TV series together)?

Answer 1

TL;DR:

Of the songs used in the "Highlander" movie, only "Princes Of The Universe" and "Who Wants To Live Forever" ... have been heard in "Highlander-The Series". (Source: Roger Bellon's "Highlander-The Series" Music FAQ)

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Long answer:

• Highlander movie featured 2 different sets of music:

  1. Overall score by Michael Kamen

  2. Songs by Queen

     A general note to those who don't live, breathe, and dig either Queen, Highlander or both:

     • The movie used several songs by Queen ("A Kind of Magic", "One Year of Love", "Hammer to Fall", "Who Wants to Live Forever", "Princes of the Universe", "Gimme The Prize", "A Dozen Red Roses for my Darling", and their version of "New York, New York" by John Kander and Fred Ebb).

     • Some of the songs were older Queen songs, while some ("Who Wants to Live Forever") were written expressly for Highlander movie.

     • There was never an official soundtrack released containing all Queen songs from the movie. At least one song (New York, New York version) was never completely recorded and released.

     • However, an 1986 album "A Kind of Magic" serves as unofficial soundtrack since it contains a lot of songs from the movie (plus 3 NOT from the movie: "Pain Is So Close to Pleasure", "Friends Will Be Friends" and "One Vision").

• Highlander series score featured 3 sets of music:

  1. Was mostly written by Roger Bellon.

     There was a compilation soundtrack CD for his Highlander music

  2. However, notably, the theme song of the series was Queen's "Princes of the Universe".

  3. Other popular songs were featured in the series (as my favorite, the random example would be Kansas' "Dust in the Wind").

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1. Michael Kamen score and TV series:

   Based on both his IMDB page, his and Highlander Wiki pages, and some extra searches, none of Kamen's music seems to have been re-used in TV series.

   There was a Kamen score released on CD, containing music from several Highlander movies (but NOT Queen songs).

2. Queen songs and TV series:

   Of the songs used in the "Highlander" movie, only "Princes Of The Universe" and "Who Wants To Live Forever" ... have been heard in "Highlander-The Series". (Source: Roger Bellon's "Highlander-The Series" Music FAQ)

   Of course, "Princes of the Universe" was the theme song, while "Who Wants to Live Forever" was used in episodes "The Gathering", "Revenge is Sweet", "The Hunters", "Line of Fire", and "Leader of the Pack" (Source: WWTLF Wiki).