Six John Barry Scores Boxed Digitally By Silva Screen

John Barry may have passed away in January, but the film score titan has hardly been forgotten.  Kritzerland just scored a quick sell-out on its new edition of Barry’s score to Until September, while Quartet Records has reissued The Knack…and How to Get It on CD.  The Classic Brit Awards has announced that Barry will be the first-ever posthumous recipient of an award, while a June 20 concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall will celebrate his legacy with performances and remembrances from Sir George Martin, Michael Caine, David Arnold, Don Black, Timothy Dalton and others.

Silva Screen Records draws on its back catalogue for the new digital release John Barry: The Classic Scores.  The more classically-oriented oeuvre of the five-time Oscar winner is the focus of this digital-only collection which features re-recordings by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra of six Barry scores:  the Oscar-winning The Lion in Winter (1968), Mary Queen Of Scots (1971), Robin and Marian (1976), The Last Valley (1971), Walkabout (1971) and Zulu (1964).

John Barry: The Classic Scores is available beginning May 3 from Silva Screen Records and can be purchased on iTunes and Amazon.com and Napster, among others.  Hit the jump for the complete track listing of all six scores.

Reissue Theory: John Wayne, “America, Why I Love Her”

Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we focus on notable albums and the reissues they could someday see. With a bold development in international relations beginning today, we look at an American actor and patriot who put his beliefs into an unusual record.

Let’s be honest with ourselves: I’m a music writer, first and foremost. I’m not 100 percent sure what pithy commentary I can (or should) offer on the massive news of last night – that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the American terror attacks on September 11, 2001, was killed in an operation in Pakistan.

But like many of you, I’m grappling with a lot of emotions on the matter. Is the death of bin Laden going to end terrorism forever? Is it going to relax a decade of tighter airport security? Is it going to inspire a generation of snarky Internet users to drop their snide facades and focus on reflecting and healing? No, no and no, unsurprisingly. But it’s a historic moment, for sure, and one that needs to inspire not only some reflection on the road many of us traveled to arrive at this point in time, but a look ahead as to where we’re moving as a global society.

Of course, since I’m a music geek first and foremost, moments like these make me think of one of the most intriguingly patriotic records ever put to vinyl or CD – a release by a man who some would say had no business as a recording artist, but briefly became one anyway, to provide a nation with some much-needed audio comfort food. Today’s story is that of the sole LP by Marion Robert Morrison, better known to the rest of the world as John Wayne.

Shout! Factory Takes Frank Sinatra Fans “Around the World”

Shout! Factory and Frank Sinatra Enterprises delivered a remarkable treat last November with the release of the 7-DVD Frank Sinatra: Concert Collection.  This expansive box set restored to catalogue the splendid series of television specials starring the one and only Chairman of the Board, in which he celebrated his musical legacy.  Sinatra welcomed a diverse roster of guests including Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Tony Bennett, Loretta Lynn, The 5th Dimension and his daughter Nancy, just to name a few.  This package is a must-own for any devotees of Sinatra and the Great American Songbook, and contains a box set-exclusive disc of rare performances as well as a 44-page booklet written by noted Sinatra scholar Bill Zehme. But for those who were unable to obtain the box set (which is still available), Shout! has good news for you. 

Following stand-alone editions of the box set’s Concert for the Americas and A Man and His Music: The Collection, the label will release Around the World, a 2-DVD set containing four of the specials previously included on the box, on June 7.  Ol’ Blue Eyes is Back (1973) was filmed in front of live audience in Hollywood and features a reunion of Sinatra and Gene Kelly.  The following year’s The Main Event, from New York’s Madison Square Garden, presents Sinatra at his electrifying best, joined by Woody Herman and The Young Thundering Herd.  1970’s Sinatra in Concert at Royal Festival Hall was introduced by Princess Grace (Kelly) of Monaco on the eve of the artist’s impending (and thankfully temporary) retirement, and the new collection concludes with the much-in-demand 1985 concert Sinatra in Japan: Live at the Budokan Hall, Tokyo.

Each of the four concerts presents a wide repertoire of the singer’s finest moments.  The centerpiece of Ol’ Blue Eyes is Back is a medley with his 1940s MGM co-star Gene Kelly, but Sinatra also touches on more recent additions to his songbook including Paul Anka and Sammy Cahn’s adaptation of a French chanson, “Let Me Try Again,” and Stephen Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns.” Sinatra was among the very first to identify the song from A Little Night Music as a future standard.  The Main Event likewise includes both classics (hard-swinging treatments of “I Get a Kick Out of You” and “The Lady is a Tramp”) and new material (Stevie Wonder’s “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” Jim Croce’s “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown”).  The Royal Festival Hall concert is highlighted by emotional renditions of George Harrison’s “Something” and Jimmy Webb’s “Didn’t We,” while the Budokan Hall performance summarizes an overwhelming career, from 1939’s “All or Nothing at All” right up through 1984’s “L.A. Is My Lady.”

Around the World is due in stores on June 7.  Hit the jump for the complete track listing and pre-order link!