In turn, Vertigo's love theme makes a poignant return in North by Northwest, as does the vertigo chord when Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint have their turn clutching Hitchcock's precipice.

NPR: 'Hitchcock's Music' Scores Big on Suspense

Accompanied by a full string orchestra, he plays "Midnight Sun" with gravitas and then, a few tracks later, engages in a harmonica-and-bass duet (with Marc Johnson) on the "Spartacus Love Theme" that's more about intimacy than grandeur.

WSJ: Playing Hand to Mouth | By Will Friedwald

"Madeleine's Theme" gradually swells into the full love melody, which makes its initial appearance as Scottie and Madeleine drive to the sequoia forest, then fragments into a gathering nightmare during the stable sequence.

NPR: 'Hitchcock's Music' Scores Big on Suspense

It has polled Gore's "fight for you" phrasing against Bush's "uniter not divider" theme and claims that people are savvy enough to know that Love and Happiness will never be a legislative anthem.

CNN: The Lover vs. the Fighter