Ride of the Valkyries (German: Walkürenritt) is probably the best known piece by Richard Wagner. It stands out in part because it is a self-contained piece, Wagner's equivalent of an aria, an operatic style he tended not to employ extensively in his compositions.

It is from Die Walküre (Act III, Scene 1) and has been used to great effect in a wide variety of films, from the helicopter scene in Apocalypse Now to being lampooned in What's Opera, Doc? and The Blues Brothers, to the spa sequence in Fellini's 8½. In the 1984 cult film Repo Man, Duke and the remainder of his gang hum the tune as they prepare to commit a robbery, presumably to work up courage. The song was used in a Nazi propaganda film, as the background to a film displaying German planes in flight.

The song and its singer seem to be the iconic opera stereotype: The Valkyrie Brunhilde in breastplate and horned helmet, clutching a spear and shield, and crying out "HO JO TO HO!"