"The Ecstasy of Gold" ( it, L'estasi dell'oro) is a musical composition by

Ennio Morricone Ennio Morricone (; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and trumpeter who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as more than 100 classica ...

, part of his score for the 1966

Sergio Leone Sergio Leone (; 3 January 1929 – 30 April 1989) was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter credited as the pioneer of the Spaghetti Western genre and widely regarded as one of the most influential directors in the history of cin ...

film '' The Good, the Bad and the Ugly''. It is played while Tuco ( Eli Wallach) is frantically searching a cemetery for the grave that holds $200,000 in gold coins. Sung by Edda Dell'Orso, it stands as one of the most well known of Morricone's themes and one of the most iconic pieces of cinematic score in history.

Appearances in other media

By other musicians

* An instrumental metal cover by

Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...

appears on the 2007 Morricone tribute album '' We All Love Ennio Morricone''. It reached #21 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock charts and was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of

Best Rock Instrumental Performance The Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance was an honor presented to recording artists for quality instrumental rock performances at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Award ...

. The band also uses the original recording to open up their concerts. * Jay-Z samples the beat in his song Blueprint 2 on his 2002 album The Blueprint²: The Gift & the Curse * The main melody and vocals are sampled in the 2022

glitch hop Glitch is a genre of electronic music that emerged in the 1990s. It is distinguished by the deliberate use of glitch-based audio media and other sonic artifacts. The glitching sounds featured in glitch tracks usually come from audio recording de ...

song "Ecstasy of Soul" by electronic artists Zeds Dead and GRiZ. The song peaked at #19 on the US Dance/Electronic Songs chart.

Films

* Appears in the 2006 film '' Jackass Number Two'' as the Jackass crew takes part in a running of the bulls. * Appears in the 2014 film '' The Book of Life'' as Manolo fights a bull. * Appears in the 2015 film '' The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water'' as Spongebob announces to volunteer in sacrificing himself to save Bikini Bottom. * Appears in the 2017 film '' The Battleship Island'' during the climactic prison escape set piece where Korean prisoners board a boat while fighting off Japanese soldiers. * Appears in the 2022 documentary film '' Fire of Love''.

Television

* The episode "XCIII" in '' Samurai Jack's''

5th season ''5th Season'' is the fourth studio album by the German progressive metal Progressive metal (sometimes shortened to prog metal) is a broad :Fusion music genres, fusion music genre melding heavy metal music, heavy metal and progressive rock, c ...

pays homage to the cemetery scene when Jack hides from the Daughters of Aku in a stone coffin within a ruined temple (complete with a reimagining of The Ecstasy of Gold). * It was played on the final episode of Brazilian novela '' Império'', during a montage where the characters played by Leandra Leal,

Lilia Cabral Lilia (Latin plural, meaning "lilies" in English; singular, ''lilium'') are pit traps arranged in a quincunx A quincunx () is a geometric pattern consisting of five points arranged in a cross, with four of them forming a square or rectangle a ...

, Andreia Horta and Marina Ruy Barbosa head to

Mount Roraima Mount Roraima ( es, Monte Roraima; Tepuy Roraima; Cerro Roraima pt, Monte Roraima ) is the highest of the Pakaraima chain of tepuis (table-top mountain) or plateaux in South America. It is located at the junction of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana. ...

to scatter the ashes of José Alfredo de Medeiros (played by

Alexandre Nero Alexandre Nero Vieira (born 13 February 1970) is a Brazilian actor, singer, songwriter, musician, arranger, sound designer and musical director. In 2016, he was nominated for the International Emmy Awards for Best Actor, for his starring role in ...

). *The episode "UFOs" of ''

Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends ''Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends'' is a television documentary series, in which Louis Theroux gives viewers the chance to get brief glimpses into the worlds of individuals and groups that they would not normally come into contact with or experien ...

'' played while Louis is driving to Area 51.

Commercials

* A television spot for L.L.Bean, entitled "The Pitch," used the song while showing a family softball game in a driving rain storm. * A commercial for

KFC KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is an American fast food restaurant chain headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, that specializes in fried chicken. It is the world's second-largest restaurant chain (as measured by sales) after McDonald's, with 2 ...

in the UK showing a standoff between a chicken and a turkey used the song. * Modelo uses the song in their "Fighting Spirit" commercials.

Video games

* Appears in the NBA 2K14 Next-Gen Intro video. * Contained in the overworld theme "Lone Bird in the Shire" in

Wild Arms (video game) is a role-playing video game developed by Japanese company Media.Vision. Originally released in Japan in 1996 for the PlayStation, it was later translated and released in North America in 1997 and Europe in 1998 by Sony Computer Entertainmen ...

YouTube

* The Danish National Symphony Orchestra included The Ecstasy of Gold in the second half of their YouTube video "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly". The featured soloist was soprano Christine Nonbo Andersen. Since the video's release on YouTube on January 26 2018, the video has garnered over 104,003,519 views as of 30 August 2022. *

Carolina Eyck Carolina Eyck (born 26 December 1987) is a German- Sorb musician specialising in playing the Theremin, an electronic instrument. Her performances around the world have helped to promote the unusual musical instrument. Biography German-born musi ...

has covered The Ecstasy of Gold both singing and playing the theremin. Since the video's release on YouTube on April 8 2017, the video has garnered over 8.7 million views as of April 2022.

Radio

* Used on the XM Radio show Opie and Anthony as its opening song preparing its listeners for the ensuing battle they had daily.

Marching Arts

* Used as a part of The Troopers Drum & Bugle Corps 2022 production entitled VorAcious.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ecstasy of Gold, The Film theme songs 1966 songs 1966 compositions Ennio Morricone songs Metallica songs Songs written for films Dollars Trilogy