A Paramount Package: Three Vintage Franz Waxman Scores Premiere On New Release

Long before Andrew Lloyd Webber set Sunset Boulevard to music, Franz Waxman was Norma Desmond’s composer of choice, having created the score to the original Paramount picture.  But Sunset wasn’t Waxman’s only Paramount film.  Nor was it his only collaboration with legendary director and screenwriter Billy Wilder. Waxman’s scores for the studio are among his most renowned works – think of A Place in the Sun, Come Back, Little Sheba or Rear Window, to name three.  The Kritzerland label, already Waxman specialists thanks to such releases as Career, Taras Bulba and My Geisha, will soon combine three vintage Waxman-at-Paramount titles as one package.

Kritzerland has just announced the world premiere release containing Waxman’s scores to Elephant Walk (1954), Botany Bay (1953) and Billy Wilder’s Stalag 17 (1953).  None of these incredibly rare scores have been released before in any format, making this release all the more special for enthusiasts of the composer’s works.  Just six cues have survived from the Elizabeth Taylor-starring drama Elephant Walk, and all are presented in stereo sound on this new release.  On the other hand, nearly forty minutes of music – almost the entire score – has survived from the seafaring adventure Botany Bay, and these cues will be heard in mono.  From Wilder’s remarkable Stalag 17 – which starred Sunset Boulevard’s William Holden in an Oscar-winning performance – comes all of the surviving cues, in the mono sound in which they were originally recorded.

This limited edition of 1,000 units is due to ship the last week of July from Kritzerland, but pre-orders usually arrive an average of four weeks early.  Hit the jump for the label’s full press release on this essential value-for-money package, plus the complete track listing and pre-order link!

The Roots of Philadelphia International: BBR Reissues O’Jays, MFSB Classics

Though London, England is some 3,500 miles away from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States, the spirit of the City of Brotherly Love is alive and well thanks to Cherry Red’s Big Break Records label.  Two more remarkable artifacts from Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff’s Philadelphia International empire have recently arrived from BBR, and though both titles have previously been available on CD, these new reissues are their best representations in the format yet.

Fans who only know The O’Jays from their massive hits like “Love Train” and “Back Stabbers” might be surprised by the cover image of 1970’s The O’Jays in Philadelphia (CDBBR 0229) in which the “classic trio” of Eddie Levert, Walter Williams and William Powell are joined – suitcases in hand – by a fourth O’Jay, Bobby Massey.  The group actually began its life in Cleveland, Ohio in 1957 as a quintet.  Bill Isles departed during The O’Jays’ Imperial Records stay, and Massey was out before the group signed with Philadelphia International.  But Massey did participate in one Gamble and Huff production, recorded during the infancy of Philly soul for the duo’s pre-PIR Neptune Records label – The O’Jays in Philadelphia.

Hit the jump as we spin The O’Jays in Philadelphia – plus MFSB!