Vangelis (b. 29 March 1943, d. 17 May 2022) was a Greek musician, composer, and producer. He began his music career in the 1960s with the Greek progressive rock band Aphrodite's Child and in the 1970s began composing electronic music. He gained wide mainstream popularity after composing soundtracks to film Chariots of Fire (1981) and Blade Runner (1982).[1] His solo career discography consists of 23 studio albums, 26 compilation albums, 12 soundtrack albums, and roughly 29 singles. The majority of his film, documentary, theatre, and ballet & dance scores weren't released or officially released. He also collaborated with Jon Anderson and as a duo Jon and Vangelis released 4 studio albums, 2 compilations, and 13 singles, and with Irene Papas released two studio albums.
His solo studio album Heaven and Hell (1975) was his UK chart debut (#31), while Albedo 0.39 (1976) his first Top 20 album. His best selling studio albums are China (1979) certified Silver for selling over 60,000 copies by BPI, Voices (1995) selling almost 300,000 certified copies in Germany and Austria, and Mythodea (2001) certified Platinum in Greece and Silver in Portugal. His compilation albums also had good sales, with Themes (1989) selling over 445,000 copies, Portraits (So Long Ago, So Clear) (1996) selling over a million copies in Europe, and (2003) over 110,000 copies. His best selling soundtracks are Opéra sauvage (1979) which reached #42 in the Billboard 200 and stayed in the charts for 39 weeks, Chariots of Fire (1981) which topped the Billboard 200 for 4 weeks and sold 2 million copies worldwide, Blade Runner (1994) sold over 250,000 copies, 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992) topped the charts in Europe and sold 3 million copies worldwide, and Alexander (2004) certified Platinum in Hungary.
His solo single "Chariots of Fire" in 1982 topped the Billboard Hot 100, "Conquest of Paradise" (1992) topped the charts in Europe and sold over 1.6 million copies, and "Anthem" theme music for 2002 FIFA World Cup reached Top 5 in Japan and was certified Platinum by RIAJ.
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUT | FRA | GER | ITA | NLD [2] | SWE | SWI [3] | UK | US | ||||||
| 1972 | Fais que ton rêve soit plus long que la nuit (lit. "Make Your Dream Last Longer Than the Night") | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| 1973 | Earth | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| 1975 | Heaven and Hell
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 31 | 204 | ||||
| 1976 | Albedo 0.39
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 18 | - | ||||
| 1977 | Spiral
| - | - | - | - | 38 | - | - | - | - | ||||
| 1978 | Beaubourg
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| 1979 | China | - | - | - | - | 31 | - | - | - | - | ||||
| 1980 | See You Later | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| 1984 | Soil Festivities | - | - | - | - | 45 | - | - | 55 | - | ||||
| 1985 | Mask | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 69 | - | ||||
| 1985 | Invisible Connections
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | ||||
| 1988 | Direct | - | - | - | - | - | 33 | - | - | - | ||||
| 1990 | The City | - | - | - | - | 82 | - | - | - | - | ||||
| 1995 | Voices | 6 | - | 24 | - | 36 | 50 | 31 | 58 | - | ||||
| 1996 | Oceanic | 22 | 29 | 87 | - | 98 | 60 | 37 | - | - | ||||
| 1998 | El Greco | - | 66 | 74 | - | - | - | - | 159 | - | ||||
| 2001 | Mythodea: Music for the NASA Mission: 2001 Mars Odyssey
| - | - | 46 | 39 | - | - | 75 | - | - | ||||
| 2016 | Rosetta | 58 [4] | 31 [5] | 55 | 30 [6] | 33 | - | 29 | 40 | - | ||||
| 2019 |
| - | 141 | - | - | 116 | - | 33 | - | - | ||||
| 2021 | Juno to Jupiter
| - | - | - | - | 31 | - | 21 | - | - | ||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or receive certification. | ||||||||||||||
Strictly not bootleg recordings as they appeared on a label, but they were released without Vangelis' permission and were later withdrawn from the market.
| Year | Title | Peak chart positions[7] | Album | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [8] | NLD [9] | JPN [10] | ||||
| 1970 | "Djemilla" | — | — | — | Sex Power - soundtrack | |
| 1973 | "Come On" | — | — | — | Earth | |
| 1976 | "Pulstar" | — | — | — | Albedo 0.39 | |
| "Thème D'Amour" | — | — | — | La Fête sauvage | ||
| 1977 | "Ignacio - Part I" | — | — | — | Ignacio | |
| "To the Unknown Man" | — | 38 | — | Spiral | ||
| "Dervish D" | — | — | — | |||
| 1979 | "The Long March" | — | — | — | China | |
| "The Tao of Love" | — | — | — | |||
| "Hymne" | — | — | — | Opéra sauvage | ||
| "L'Enfant" | — | — | — | |||
| 1980 | "Don't Be Foolish" | — | — | — | See You Later | |
| "My Love" | — | — | — | |||
| 1981 | "Not a Bit - All of It" | — | — | — | ||
| "Chariots of Fire - Titles" | 12 | 17 | 55 | Chariots of Fire | ||
| "Heaven and Hell: 3rd Movement" | 48 | — | — | Heaven And Hell | ||
| 1982 | "Blade Runner - End Title" | — | — | — | Blade Runner | |
| 1983 | "Theme from Antarctica" | — | — | 66 | Antarctica | |
| 1988 | "The Will of the Wind" | — | — | — | Direct | |
| 1989 | "Missing" | — | — | — | Themes | |
| 1992 | "Conquest of Paradise" | 60 | 1 | — | ||
| 1993 | "Twenty Eighth Parallel" | — | — | — | ||
| 1995 | "Voices" | — | — | — | Voices | |
| 1996 | "Ask the Mountains" | 77 | — | — | ||
| "Sauvage et Beau" | — | — | — | Portraits | ||
| "Song of the Seas" | — | — | — | Oceanic | ||
| 1997 | "March with Me" | — | — | — | ||
| 2001 | "Mythodea" | — | — | — | ||
| 2002 | "Anthem - 2002 FIFA World Cup Official Anthem" | 98 | — | 5 | ||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | ||||||