La-La Land Plans Some Golden Surprises

Reissue enthusiasts have often felt the sting of delays. One of our favorite soundtrack labels, La-La Land Records, announced today that the same sting had fallen upon them – but in the process, teased some great gems coming from the label in the future.

As previously reported, La-La Land was gearing up several special soundtrack titles for this year’s San Diego Comic-Con later this month. (That same celebration gave fans expansions of the scores to Krull and Batman last year.) One of the titles was oft-rumored to be an expansion of Elliot Goldenthal’s score to Batman Forever, but that title was later allegedly pushed back to the fall.

Ultimately, the planned titles for Comic-Con hit enough delays for the label to realize that they would not be ready in time. So label head MV Gerhard surprised fans by announcing not only one title to ship next week, but four other titles in the pipeline for 2011.

And what are those titles? Hit the jump to find out!

Release Round-Up: Week of July 5

Erasure, Wonderland / The Circus: Deluxe Editions (EMI)

Vince Clarke and Andy Bell’s first two albums, expanded with bonus B-sides and remixes across two CDs and DVDs full of live footage. (Official site)

Jim Capaldi, Dear Mr. Fantasy: The Jim Capaldi Story (Universal U.K.)

The late Traffic legend is memorialized in a four-disc box set. (Official site)

Paul McCartney, Driving Rain (MPL/Concord)

Another Macca remaster, this one of Paul’s 2001 album. No frills, but I imagine “Freedom” will get officially included on the track list. (Official site)

Ashford and Simpson, High Rise: Expanded Edition / Switch, Am I Still Your Boyfriend? Expanded Edition / The Pointer Sisters, Hot Together: Expanded Edition / Yarbrough & Peoples, Guilty: Expanded Edition / Prime Time, Flying High: Expanded Edition (Big Break)

A new brace of titles from Big Break Records, with the usual non-LP remixes and B-sides rounding out the albums. There’s more coming from BBR this month; keep your eyes peeled for a round-up post pretty soon. (Big Break)

Various Artists, The London American Label, Year By Year – 1958 (Ace)

Ace’s latest volume in the London American series, which honors one of the U.K.’s most beloved U.S. import labels, includes hits from Chuck Berry, Bobby Darin, Carl Perkins, Eddie Cochran and The Chipmunks! (Official site)

Elmer Bernstein Classic “Drango” On Deck From Kritzerland

Had Sweet Smell of Success been the only film score written by Elmer Bernstein in 1957, the composer’s place in the pantheon would have been all but assured.  Yet Bernstein remarkably found time to score four other motion pictures that very same year.  The soundtracks to two of those pictures, Fear Strikes Out and The Tin Star, were reissued earlier this year by Kritzerland.  A third, Drango, was announced on Monday, July 4 as the latest release from the veteran stage and screen specialist label.  (The remaining Bernstein score of 1957 was for Men In War.  It received a soundtrack LP on the Imperial label.)  Kritzerland’s Drango remasters and reissues the original Liberty Records recording for the first time on an authorized CD, and is a welcome “missing link” in Bernstein’s early period.  It follows Kritzerland’s June release of Bernstein’s 1958 Kings Go Forth!

Drango was produced by its star, Jeff Chandler, through his Earlmar Productions.  In the post-Civil War-era drama, Chandler (who died tragically young in 1961, at the age of 42) starred as Major Clint Drango, a Union Army officer resolved to restore the fortunes of a Georgia town he had helped destroy in Sherman’s March.  Chandler enlisted Hall Bartlett to direct, and Bartlett had quite an ear for music.  His 1955 prison drama Unchained introduced “Unchained Melody,” perhaps the ultimate example of a song outliving the film of its origin.  He later enlisted Neil Diamond to pen the score to his 1973 adaptation of Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and reteamed with Elmer Bernstein for 1963’s The Caretakers.

The low-budget production co-starred chanteuse Julie London, one of over twenty films she had to her credit.  Donald Crisp, Ronald Howard and Joanne Dru were also featured, as well as John Lupton, Milburn Stone, Morris Ankrum and familiar sitcom guest Parley Baer (The Andy Griffith Show, The Addams Family, Bewitched.)

Kritzerland’s CD presents the original LP program for Drango.  Unlike a recent European release derived from a less-than-perfect LP (and available due to the U.K.’s 50-year copyright law), the new Drango is fully remastered from the original Liberty album master now housed in Capitol’s vaults.  It’s presented in mono.  The new CD is limited to 1,000 copies and is available for $19.98 plus shipping, as well as in a special offer bundle to those who purchase directly from Kritzerland.  It should arrive the second week of August, but pre-orders usually ship one to five weeks earlier than the announced date!  Hit the jump for the label’s full press release plus the pre-order link and track listing!