For over 40 years, the names of director Steven Spielberg and composer John Williams have been inextricably linked.  Since 1973's The Sugarland Express on which they first worked together, only two Spielberg pictures have not featured a score by Williams (1985's The Color Purple and 2015's Bridge of Spies).  On March 17, Sony Masterworks will celebrate the enduring collaboration of these two titanic talents with the release of John Williams and Steven Spielberg: The Ultimate Collection.  This 3-CD/1-DVD set brings together two previously released albums, 1991's The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration and 1995's Williams on Williams: The Classic Spielberg Scores, with a newly-recorded third volume entitled The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration Part III.  A newly filmed documentary, Steven Spielberg & John Williams: The Adventure Continues, rounds out the package on DVD.

Back in 2010, our very own Mike Duquette charted the history of the Spielberg/Williams partnership in two Back Tracks columns.  (Here's Part I and Part II!)  He wrote, "One could almost argue that each man made the other's career more fruitful. When they first met, Williams, then 42, was just starting to become known as a serious composer, having scored many light, jazzy films and television shows in the 1950s and 1960s. He had won an Oscar for adapting the music to the Fiddler on the Roof film in 1971, and would become associated with the disaster movie craze starting with The Poseidon Adventure in 1972. Spielberg, meanwhile, was a 28-year-old wunderkind who'd secured steady television direction at Universal, including an iconic episode of the Rod Serling series Night Gallery, the first regular episode of Columbo and the fantastic television movie Duel (1971). Their partnership established Williams as the biggest name in blockbuster composition, earning him three of the five Oscars he's won and turning him into an in-demand composer for George Lucas, Oliver Stone and others. (He is tied with mentor Alfred Newman for the most amount of Oscar nominations in history, with 45.) Spielberg, meanwhile, has become known as a master storyteller with a keen eye for the popular and the emotional. Critics may snub him for playing too perfectly with an audience's emotions on film, but his ability to move the public on such a massive scale is what makes him such a formidable and influential artist."  (Since then, Williams has received an additional five Oscar nominations for Best Original Score, exceeding Newman's record as the most-nominated composer and second only to Walt Disney as the most-nominated individual.)

The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration Part III picks up where its predecessors left off.  It features Williams and The Recording Arts Orchestra of Los Angeles' new performances (and in some cases, fresh arrangements) of music from films including Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull, War Horse, Amistad, Lincoln, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, and last year's The BFG.  One cue ("Marion's Theme") looks back as far as 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark.  The new DVD has recently-shot footage of the maestro and the auteur in conversation.

You can peruse the track listing of this celebratory collection below.  John Williams and Steven Spielberg: The Ultimate Collection is due from Sony Masterworks on March 17!

John Williams & Steven Spielberg: The Ultimate Collection (Masterworks, 2017) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Disc 1: John Williams & The Boston Pops Orchestra, The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration (originally released as Sony Classical SK 45997, 1991)

1. Raiders March (from Raiders of the Lost Ark)
2. Theme from Always
3. Adventures on Earth (from E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial)
4. Theme from Sugarland Express
5. Title Theme from JAWS
6. Out to Sea/The Shark Cage Fugue (from JAWS)
7. Exsultate Justi (from Empire of the Sun)
8. Parade of the Slave Children (from Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom)
9. Over the Moon (from E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial)
10. March from 1941
11. Cadillac of the Skies (from Empire of the Sun)
12. Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra (from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade)
13. Excerpts from Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Disc 2: John Williams & The Boston Pops Orchestra, Williams on Williams: The Classic Spielberg Scores (originally released as Sony Classical SK 68419, 1995)

1. Flying (from E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial)
2. Theme from Jurassic Park
3. Remembrances (from Schindler's List)
4. Flight to Neverland (from Hook)
5. The Battle for Hollywood (from 1941)
6. Smee's Plan (from Hook)
7. The Barrel Chase (from JAWS)
8. My Friend, The Brachiosaurus (from Jurassic Park)
9. Jim's New Life (from Empire of the Sun)
10. The Dialogue (from Close Encounters of the Third Kind)
11. The Lost Boys' Ballet (from Hook)
12. Theme from Schindler's List
13. The Basket Chase (from Raiders of the Lost Ark)
14. The Face of Pan (from Hook)
15. The Banquet (from Hook)

Disc 3: John Williams & The Recording Arts Orchestra of Los Angeles, Spielberg/Williams Part III (new recordings)

1. The Adventures of Mutt (from Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull)
2. Dry Your Tears, Afrika (from Amistad)
3. The BFG (from The BFG)
4. With Malice Toward None (from Lincoln)
5. The Duel (from The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn)
6. A New Beginning (from Minority Report)

Escapade for Alto Saxophone & Orchestra (from Catch Me If You Can) (Tracks 7-9)

7. Movement 1: Closing In
8. Movement 2: Reflections
9. Movement 3: Joy Ride
10. Marion's Theme (from Raiders of the Lost Ark)
11. Hymn to the Fallen (from Saving Private Ryan)
12. Dartmoor, 1912 (from War Horse)
13. Viktor's Tale (from The Terminal)
14. Prayer for Peace (from Munich)
15. Immigration and Building (from The Unfinished Journey)
16. With Malice Toward None (from Lincoln) (Alternate Version)

DVD: Steven Spielberg & John Williams: The Adventure Continues