The opening theme of the film, called "Titles" on the album track listing but widely known as "Chariots of Fire", was released as a single; on the Billboard Hot 100 it reached #1 and stayed there for one week.

[7] Vangelis played all the instruments, including synthesizers, acoustic piano, drums and percussion, and recorded the score in his Nemo studio in London, which he had set up in 1975.

The score album was almost all re-recorded, and sounds different from the music heard on film, with often richer arrangements, particularly in the "Titles" track.

In addition to Vangelis' original music, the album includes an arrangement of "Jerusalem", sung by the Ambrosian Singers, as performed at the 1978 funeral of Harold Abrahams, the event which bookends the film and inspired its title.

Despite Vangelis public performances being rare, he has played "Chariots of Fire" live in Los Angeles, U.S. (November 7, 1986), Rome, Italy (July 17, 1989, as encore), Rotterdam, Netherlands (June 18, 1991), and Athens, Greece (Mythodea concerts of July 13, 1993 and June 28, 2001, as encore, and August 1, 1997)[13] In 2000, and again in 2006, the album was relaunched on CD, on both occasions remastered by Vangelis.

Director Hugh Hudson's original choice for the famous slow-motion running sequences on the beach was the track "L'Enfant" from Opéra sauvage.

At the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics, the piece was used in a parody London Symphony Orchestra performance featuring Rowan Atkinson, in character as Mr. Bean.

For one notable example, it was played when Apple Inc.'s chairman Steve Jobs introduced the first Macintosh on January 24, 1984, at a technology demonstration event.