Henry Mancini’s “Sunflower” Blooms From Quartet In Complete Edition

When producer Carlo Ponti and director Vittorio De Sica, both giants of Italian cinema, sought out Henry Mancini to score their 1970 film I Girasoli (or Sunflower, in English), the American composer jumped at the opportunity.  Though creative differences between producer and director plagued the production of the film starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni, Mancini turned out one of his strongest, most romantic scores.  Thanks to the team at Quartet Records, Mancini’s absorbing work on Sunflower has recently been issued on CD in its first complete version.

Arguably no other classic film composer was as well represented in 2012 than Henry Mancini, and luckily 2013 could very well follow suit.  Last year alone, Intrada premiered the original film tracks to Charade and Hatari! for the very first time on an audio release and teamed with Disney for Condorman on CD; Kritzerland reissued the long out-of-print Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation in remastered sound; Quartet dedicated three CDs and nearly 3 hours to Mancini’s epic work on Santa Claus: The Movie, and also unveiled the funky Revenge of the Pink Panther and the rich Sunset. La-La Land got into the Mancini act with his classy score to Mommie Dearest.  For 2013, Real Gone Music has already announced a straight reissue of the Warner Bros. LP for Mancini’s 10 (1979).

Hit the jump for all the specs on Sunflower, including the full track listing and order links!

Wind of Change: Scorpions to Expand “Crazy World”

Here’s an upcoming catalogue title that lives up to its name: the Scorpions’ 11th album, 1990’s Crazy World, is getting the double-disc deluxe treatment from Universal’s U.K. arm this summer.

At the time of release, the German rockers had been playing together for more than 25 years, enjoying their greatest success internationally with the iconic “Rock You Like a Hurricane.” But Crazy World actually spawned a bigger hit than that: “Wind of Change,” a power ballad celebrating the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall, was a worldwide hit, peaking at No. 4 in the U.S. and even higher in Europe. (It’s still one of Germany’s biggest-selling, if not the biggest, singles of all time.)

It provided a fitting close to the band’s “classic” period; longtime bassist Francis Buchholz would depart the band in 1992. But the band is still going strong with founder/rhythm guitarist Rudolf Schenker and longtime vocalist Klaus Meine and lead guitarist Matthias Jabs all still part of the band. They even famously retired with 2010’s Sting in the Tail, only to un-retire the following year.

This new edition of Crazy World, released June 3, is augmented with seven B-sides, including Russian and Spanish-language versions of “Wind of Change,” as well as a bonus disc featuring 12 tracks from the band’s Crazy World live tour and four music videos.

Amazon links are not live yet, but the full track list is after the jump.