Midnight Special: Sweet “Rocky Horror” Reissues on Tap

A toast! A famed box set of music from The Rocky Horror Show is coming back into print, as well as a new reissue of the original film soundtrack on CD and vinyl, 40 years after the show first Time Warped into the hearts of fans.

There comes a time in many music and theatre enthusiasts’ lives when they encounter The Rocky Horror Show, Richard O’Brien’s raucous cult musical, which first premiered in London’s West End in the summer of 1973. More than 35 years after it was adapted into The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the legacy not only survives but thrives thanks to consistent live revivals and midnight screenings of said film, heavy on costumes, camaraderie and audience participation. The enduring musical legacy of Rocky Horror includes some killer pop-rock tunes written for stage and screen (“Dammit Janet,” “Sweet Transvestite” and the unforgettable “The Time Warp”) – all ably performed by killer casts (famous members including Meat Loaf, “Little” Nell Campbell and, of course, Tim Curry as the cross-dressing Dr. Frank N. Furter).

In the early CD era, Rhino Records (prior to its acquisition by Warner Music Group) did a pretty stellar job of preserving that musical legacy, releasing a four-disc box set for the film’s 15th anniversary in 1990. This box included two Rocky Horror albums released by Ode Records – the original 1975 film soundtrack and a cast album from the show’s run at Los Angeles’ Roxy Theatre in 1974 – and two compilations of curiosities related to the show, from solo singles by Little Nell and Curry and tracks from O’Brien’s follow-up project Shock Treatment to selections from a number of international cast albums. On September 2, that box set will be reissued by Salvo, featuring the same four discs and a 24-page booklet of liner notes and photos – all packaged in a five-panel digipak with slipcase.

But the party doesn’t stop there! The original film’s soundtrack is slated for a reissue on CD (in a digipak) and vinyl (at least one source reports this to be a red vinyl pressing) on October 8. The exact distributor is undetermined; Amazon lists “Ode Sounds & Visuals” as the label, as Ode founder Lou Adler still retains the soundtrack’s rights. (Most of Ode’s catalogue is licensed and distributed through Sony Music’s Legacy Recordings arm.) But the original album repertoire is intact, down to the two extra bonus tracks first released on CD in 1989.

You can pre-order the TRHPS reissue on Amazon (CD and LP), and find the full track list and pre-order links for the Salvo box after the jump!