You Must Remember This: TCM, Masterworks Compile “Classic Sound of Hollywood” From Mancini, Williams, Morricone, More

On April 1, Sony’s Masterworks division and Turner Classic Movies marked the cable network’s twentieth anniversary with a new 2-CD collection of vintage Hollywood movie themes. Play It Again: The Classic Sound of Hollywood continues the Masterworks/TCM series that has previously encompassed archival releases from Doris Day, Mario Lanza and Fred Astaire. Composers represented include Bernard Herrmann, Max Steiner, Maurice Jarre, Elmer Bernstein, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Henry Mancini, Ennio Morricone and John Williams.  Most of the tracks on Play It Again aren’t derived from the original film soundtracks, but rather from renditions played by the likes of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Boston Pops.

The first disc is drawn entirely from RCA Red Seal’s series of Classic Film Scores as recorded by conductor Charles Gerhardt and London’s National Philharmonic Orchestra in the early 1970s. It includes three suites from composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold featuring his themes from Of Human Bondage, Between Two Worlds, and The Sea Hawk. Underscoring the diversity of this set, the disc also contains cues from the sensationally steamy Peyton Place (Franz Waxman), the creature feature The Thing (From Another World) (Dimitri Tiomkin) and even the Biblical epic Salomé (Daniele Amfitheatrof).  In 2010, Masterworks reissued this series as it originally appeared on LP, orphaning a handful of recordings.  The three of these “stray” recordings are the Peyton Place main title, the “Dance of the Seven Veils” from Salomé and the suite from The Thing.  In addition, the Korngold suites for The Sea Hawk and Of Human Bondage are different edits from those contained on the reissued Korngold CD in the Gerhardt series; this disc marks their first appearance on CD in over a decade.

What will you find on Disc 2?  Hit the jump for that, and more – including the full track listing and order links!

Keeping Score with New Releases by Intrada and Kritzerland

The last few weeks have seen some great catalogue soundtracks released, including a set of LPs from a beloved Golden Age composer and a pair of heavy hitters at 20th Century-Fox.

Last week saw Intrada release two score titles. The first is the world premiere of Maurice Jarre’s score to Distant Thunder, from the 1988 John Lithgow-Ralph Macchio film about a Vietnam War veteran uneasily returning to his family after a decade spent in the American wilderness. Jarre’s small-scale electronic ensemble balances the tentativeness of Lithgow and Macchio’s burgeoning father-son relationship with sudden bursts representing the fear and violence that Lithgow’s Mark Lambert so often lived with.

Elsewhere, Intrada unleashes no less than six albums on three discs from acclaimed composer Elmer Bernstein’s tenure on the MGM-distributed label Ava Records. Recorded and released between 1962 and 1965, The Ava Collection features original soundtrack albums from such classics as The Carpetbaggers, To Kill a Mockingbird and Walk on the Wild Side, as well as a compilation of stray movie and television themes by Bernstein. Not only is this the first collection of all six of these releases, it’s also the first time all six of them have been mastered from the original first generation stereo masters! This mix of quality and quantity make it a must-have for not only Bernstein fans, but for fans of great ’60s film scoring.

Last, but certainly not least, Kritzerland uncovers two classics from the scoring sessions of 20th Century-Fox: Alfred Newman’s O. Henry’s Full House (1952) and Cyril Holdridge’s The Luck of the Irish (1948). Full House is quite an interesting picture: five adaptations of short stories by the popular American author, including “The Last Leaf,” “The Ransom of Red Chief” and the enduring “The Gift of the Magi” – all put on by five different directors and five different casts (including Charles Laughton, Marilyn Monroe, Farley Granger and others) and narrated by John Steinbeck, in a rare film appearance. Newman’s five mini-scores, ably arranged by Ken Darby, are treats for any fan of his work. Full House is paired with the score to The Luck of the Irish, a fantasy about a man (Tyrone Power) torn between his wealthy fiancé in New York and a beautiful stranger he met on the Emerald Isle. His journey is guided by Cecil Kellaway as Horace, an honest-to-goodness leprechaun he also makes the acquaintance of.

The Kritzerland two-fer is limited to 1,000 copies, while the Intrada sets are available “while quantities and interest remain.” Make your orders and check out the track lists after the jump!

Kritzerland “Taps” Maurice Jarre For a Pair of Soundtracks

Three-time Academy Award-winning composer Maurice Jarre (1924-2009) makes his debut on the Kritzerland label with a newly-announced two-for-one release of his scores to 1981’s Taps and 1970’s The Only Game in Town.  Hollywood couldn’t help but take notice of the French-born Jarre when he scored director David Lean’s 1962 epic drama Lawrence of Arabia, and the Lean/Jarre collaboration was so successful that Jarre was asked to score each of Lean’s subsequent films.  He won his first Oscar for Lawrence, and his subsequent two trophies were also for Lean films: 1965’s Doctor Zhivago and 1984’s A Passage to India.  But Jarre, a nine-time nominee, also found time for other filmmakers.  Two of these efforts for George Stevens (The Only Game in Town starring Elizabeth Taylor and Warren Beatty) and Harold Becker (Taps, with an ensemble including Tom Cruise, Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton) are joined together on one new CD from Kritzerland.

This high-profile release follows other recent Jarre discoveries from Intrada (Dreamscape, The Mackintosh Man, The Last Flight of Noah’s Ark, and Island at the Top of the World – the latter two resulting from the partnership between Intrada and The Walt Disney Company) and La-La Land (Jarre’s unused score to Jennifer 8).  While Taps has been previously released on CD by Varese Sarabande, the limited edition was a quick sellout.  Jarre’s score to The Only Game in Town makes its world premiere soundtrack release here.  This limited edition of 1,000 copies is due to ship the last week of December from Kritzerland, but pre-orders made directly with the label usually arrive one to five weeks earlier.

After the jump: you’ll find the full information on Taps/The Only Game in Town courtesy Kritzerland’s full press release, plus the track listing and pre-order link!

Soundtrack Watch: Intrada’s Busy Month

Calling all soundtrack lovers: Intrada has been pretty busy in the last few weeks, reissuing or expanding three diverse scores and premiering another on CD.

The label’s most recent batch saw a pair of double-disc score sets, and the first up was James Horner’s action-packed score to 1994’s Clear and Present Danger. Based on the Tom Clancy novel, Clear and Present Danger finds the irascible agent Jack Ryan (played again by Harrison Ford, his second turn in the role after 1992’s Patriot Games) serving as acting deputy director of the CIA, only to find a covert drug war in Colombia is being conducted behind his back – and the President may be in on the scheme. Many of Horner’s dramatic action cues from this film are making their proper debut on this two-disc set, along with a few extras from the original soundtrack CD.

Last week also saw the reissue of Intrada’s double-disc presentation of Inchon, Jerry Goldsmith’s score to the Terence Young dramatization of the pivotal Korean War battle. Initially released on LP by the Regency International label upon initial release in 1981, Intrada oversaw a release of the original score as heard in the film on CD in 1988, and then expanded that program in 2006 as a two-disc set featuring both complete score and original soundtrack LP. That program is now available once more – and as an unlimited title, preserved in the label’s catalogue from this point. It’s another traditionally strong mid-period Goldsmith score for everyone to enjoy again.

Intrada also bowed a few single-disc sets in the weeks before their latest batch: first there was a straight remastered reissue of Maurice Jarre’s score to Dreamscape, a Dennis Quaid-anchored sci-fi film about infiltrating people’s dreams two decades before Inception, and the premiere of Jerry Fielding’s score to Beyond The Poseidon Adventure, which found a few all-star groups of explorers revisiting the half-sunken ocean liner. Full details on all four sets, including track lists and order links can be found after the jump!

Soundtrack Watch: La-La Land Issues a “Challenge,” Intrada Premieres Goldsmith, Bernstein, Jarre Classics

Here’s some recent soundtrack news from the last month to keep you up to date on two of our favorite score labels: La-La Land and Intrada.

• La-La Land’s released several archival scores in the past few weeks. First there was The Challenge, a film written by John Sayles and directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Scott Glenn and Toshirō Mifune as two unlikely partners tasked to obtain a rare sword in Japan. Jerry Goldsmith provided a fine action score for the flick; first released on Prometheus Records in 2000, this release features one bonus track, the original film version of the end credits (Goldsmith requested an alternate take be used on the last release; that track closes out this CD program). The disc is available for sale, although fan requests about the initial pressing’s sound quality have prompted LLL to work on replacement discs, the details of which will be formally announced next month.
• La-La Land also released a pair of Elmer Bernstein Western scores on one CD, including The Shootist (1976), the final film of John Wayne, and a CD release of the original soundtrack LP from The Sons of Katie Elder, featuring a song by Johnny Cash. In that same batch, they also expanded James Newton Howard’s score to Grand Canyon, a 1991 drama by Lawrence Kasdan (writer/director of The Big Chill).
• And Intrada’s been busy as well: their second most-recent batch also featured Bernstein (The Carpetbaggers (1964), based on the Harold Robbins novel – featuring both original film score and re-recorded album debuting on CD) and Goldsmith (the brief but fascinating score to the political thriller Seven Days in May (1964)). Seven Days was paired with a Maurice Jarre score for Warner Bros., The Mackintosh Man (1973), a John Huston thriller starring Paul Newman.
• Intrada’s most recent batch, announced Monday, features an expanded edition of Bill Conti’s score to Five Days from Home (1979), starring The A-Team‘s George Peppard (who also directed) as an escaped prisoner. The label also prepped more Goldsmith: the premiere of the complete score to the WWII action film Von Ryan’s Express starring Frank Sinatra, as well as a remaster of the jazzy score to The Detective, another Sinatra vehicle. (Fun fact: Sinatra’s character in this film was sourced from a novel by Roderick Thorp; a sequel to that novel, Nothing Lasts Forever, featured the same protagonist taking on terrorists in a skyscraper. It was later heavily adapted as Die Hard in 1988.)

Everything described above is available now, with full track lists and artwork, after the jump.

Soundtrack Round-Up: FSM “Heat”s Up, Intrada Uncovers More Disney, La-La Land is Super, Kritzerland Is Forever Young

You know it’s a big week for soundtracks when multiple specialty labels announce projects in the same week; currently, we have six such titles on the horizon from four labels!

First off, Film Score Monthly has prepped their third-to-last soundtrack set, and it’s an oft-requested killer: an expanded edition of John Barry’s score to Body Heat (1981). A neo-noir classic, Body Heat – the directorial debut of legendary screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Bodyguard) – stars William Hurt and new starlet Kathleen Turner in a highly eroticized tale of an affair that turns to murder and deceit. The late John Barry turned in one of his most acclaimed scores, looking back to his early, improv-friendly jazz combo days while maintaining a modern, lush, orchestral edge to the score. FSM’s definitive presentation of Body Heat includes the full score with alternates and source music, as well as a bonus disc featuring an unreleased edit and mix of the score for album purposes, featuring composer-approved mixes by Dan Wallin, and ten demos of the seductive main theme.

And what’s on the way from Intrada, La-La Land and Kritzerland? Hit the jump to find out.

“Predator” De-Cloaks Again and More Disney from Intrada

Intrada’s latest batch of soundtrack releases should be cause for celebration, if you’re not an easily offended fan.

First, and most controversially, the label has announced a second pressing of the score to Alan Silvestri’s score to the 1987 sci-fi/action classic Predator. One of the best soundtrack’s of Silvestri’s mid-to-late-’80s period of greatness (which also saw the scores to gems like Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit), Predator is a kinetic, rhythmic score that fits perfectly with the tone of the film, the tale of an American Special Forces outfit on a mission in the jungles of South America. The group, led by Col. Alan “Dutch” Schaefer (Arnold Schwarzenegger), comes across a more fearsome foe than global terrorists, a stealthy alien hunter who decimates the group with violent traps and weapons.

The Predator score, a fan favorite, was finally released as a limited title by Varese Sarabande in 2003. That edition sold out not long after its release; when Intrada announced another limited reissue (slightly re-edited and remastered) in 2010, it sold out in about a day. This edition, commissioned as an unlimited title by licensor 20th Century Fox and composer Silvestri, features different artwork, minor tweaks in editing at the suggestion of fans, and an additional brief unused cue that appeared on Varese’s edition. Discussion of the merits of this reissue has been heated (a thread at the Film Score Monthly forum has been closed due to uncivil discussion), but this writer maintains that getting the music out to the many people who doubtlessly missed out on both releases is far more important than the sanctity of limited edition status.

But things for Intrada have a Disney-style happy ending in more ways than one, as you’ll find out after the jump!

Pop Quiz, Hot Shot! La-La Land Celebrates 200th Release in Latest Batch

While there’s a month to go before La-La Land releases the expanded soundtrack to Hook, they’ve got three great releases available to buy today – including their 200th title!

First up is a reissue of Jerry Fielding’s score to the cult classic The Mechanic, with Charles Bronson as the efficient hitman who takes the son of a recent contracted kill under his wing. Save a few audio tweaks, title changes and changes in sequence, this disc features the same material from Intrada’s long out-of-print 2007 release of the score, and the 1,200-unit pressing is intended to connect more fans who missed out the first time with the soundtrack.

Next, it’s Jennifer 8, a 1992 thriller starring Andy Garcia as an L.A. cop investigating a string of brutal murders in a small California town. Christopher Young, who wrote scores for the Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser and Spider-Man series, expands his score – one that put him in the upper tier of film composers – for this set, but the real treat is a bonus disc featuring an unreleased original score from composer Maurice Jarre, who composed a good portion of music for the film before being replaced by Young. The double-disc set is limited to 2,000 units.

The 200th release is hurdling your way after the jump!