Soundtrack News & Reviews

The big news this past week in the soundtrack realm is Varese Sarabande’s announcement that Alex North ‘s score for Spartacus (1960) will be released in a deluxe 6-disc edition featuring every extant note recorded for the score, in terms of the re-recorded soundtrack album, the final film mix, the pre-release cues, and re-recorded versions and interpretation of North’s Spartacus “Love Theme.”

The set, limited to 5,000 copies, also comes with a DVD featuring interviews with contemporary composers, but the fact producer Robert Townsend included the Ramsay Lewis Trio’s version of North’s theme means he’s really done his homework and gone uber-obsessive for this release, timed for the film’s 50th anniversary.

I’ll have a review of the set when it arrives, but those curious about the score’s history on LP and CD will find it interesting that the only release of the actual score recordings appeared on Criterion’s laserdisc and DVD, in the form of alternate and demo cues; the other CDs were, well, legally grey.

Only MCA’s album was internationally legit, but it contained re-recorded themes; the 'grey' editions were culled from other sources: the SVC 2-disc edition featured ‘reconstructions’ of cues from earlier 'pre-release' edits of the film, whereby some scenes and the intermission had different placements; the Tsunami CD was culled from material from the Criterion and SVC sources; and the Soundtrack Library 3-disc set was a mish-mash of those sources, as well as what the label reported to be an unreleased follow-up soundtrack album that was never released.

Varese’s set, due August 2nd, will feature surviving stereo cues in chronological order (CD 1), the full score in mono (CDs 2 + 3), alternates and demos (CD 4), rerecorded versions & jazz interpretations (CD 5 + 6) from giants such as Bill Evans, Lalo Schifrin, the Ramsay Lewis Trio, and others, and a 96 mins. DVD featuring interviews with contemporary composers reflecting on the score, plus a recording of the theme with Mark Isham and Diego Navarro.

I can’t wait to hear the set, but I also can’t wait to learn why so many of the cues only exist in mono. It’s an all-too common problem with some of the best-known scores from classic films that aren’t really that old, but whose master tapes no longer exist, were damaged, erased, destroyed, or whatever.

That of course brings us to this week’s CD reviews, which include La-La Land’s new disc of John Williams’ The Poseidon Adventure, which existed mostly as mono tracks until stereo versions were created from surviving sources using cutting edge digital technology. Also reviewed are a pair of comedy scores – Marc Shaiman’s Speechless (La-La Land) and Rolfe Kent’s Killers (Lionsgate)

This month’s issue of Rue Morgue features my reviews of Steve Jablonsky’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (Water Tower Music), and James Burrell’s review of Big Finish’s latest audio drama of Dark Shadows tales, The Night Whispers. The 85 year old actor recorded the vocal parts for vampire Barnabas in Toronto, and John Karlen appears as weasel Willie Loomis, and Barbara Steele as the mysterious Celeste.

No details on whether it includes any of Bob Cobert’s themes, but some of Nigel Fairs’ cues from scores for the other audio DS dramas have been collected in Dark Shadows: Music from the Audio Dramas, due July 31, 2010 on CD.

Coming Wednesday will be the first of three detailed examinations of the mythic story that evolved into A Star is Born.

--- The first part will contain comparative reviews of What Price Hollywood? (1932) which starred Constance Bennett, and A Star is Born (1937) with Janet Gaynor and Frederick March.

--- Next will be the 1954 Judy Garland-James Mason version of Star (just released in a fat Blu-ray edition from Warner Home Video), and the 1976 Barbara Streisand-Kris Kristofferson version.

--- That’ll be followed by reviews of Max Steiner’s 1937 score, and the musical score for the 1954 version. (There will be NO review of the 1976 version, because going there will cause my brain to bleed.)

Lastly, here are some new soundtrack announcements for July:

Beat Records (Italy)

Da Corleone a Brooklyn / From Corleone to Brooklyn (Franco Micalizzi)

Voglia di donna + Maliizia erotica (Ubaldo Continiello)

DigitMovies (Italy)

African Story (Francesco DeMasi)

Fatevi vivi la polizia non interverra (Piero Piccioni)

Le 4 Giornate di Napoli (Carlo Rustichelli)

Misteria / Body Puzzle (Carlo Maria Cordio)

GDM (Italy)

Addio Zio Tom / Goodbye Uncle Tom (Riz Ortolani) --- August

Ad ogni costo (Ennio Morricone)

La mogile giapponese (Nino Oliviero)

Nico Fidenco: I mei pimri 50 anni da cantante e compositore / My First 50 Years as a Singer and a Composer (Nico Fidenco) --- 6 CDs

Vendo cara la pelle / I’ll Sell My Skin Dearly (Marcello Marracchi, Enrico Ciacci)

Intrada (USA)

Black Bird, The (Jerry Fielding) --- limited to 1500 copies

George Washington (Laurence Rosenthal) --- 2 CDs, limted to 1000 copies

Mr. Atlas (Terry Plumeri)

Kritzerland Records (USA)

Juggernaut + The Bed Sitting Room (Ken Thorne) --- limted to 1000 copies

Promises, Promises (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) --- 2 CDs, limited to 1000 copies

Kronos Records (Malta)

Aragosta a colazione (Piero Umiliani) – limited to 500 copies

Legend Records (Italy)

La spina dorsale del diavolo / The Deserter (Piero Piccioni)

Quartet Records (Spain)

Hornet’s Nest (Ennio Morricone)

Screen Archives Entertainment (USA)

Champion (Dimitri Tiomkin) --- 1500 copies

Silva Screen (USA / UK)

Drumbeat: The John Barry Seven (John Barry)

Varese Sarabande (USA)

Knight and Day (John Powell)

Vocalion (Dutton Vocalion) (US)

Mancini’s Angels + The Theme Scene (Henry Mancini)