by Mr. Jim on 9/3/2000
 
Superman's "Main Title" and "Love Theme" hook you immediately with heroic patriotism! Many collectors and fans believe that the music of Star Wars and the Indiana Jones movies takes the spotlight, but even now, after some twenty years, the score from Superman still gets you.

The original soundtrack album was far from complete, missing the opening and closing marches, some love themes, a flying sequence and the theme for planet Krypton and its destruction. Quality and spark has been ignited once again with this re-recording of the RSNO, capturing the mood and excitement of the original from the big screen. Believing this recording was NOT the original was difficult - it's that good! Many times, when another orchestra performs a film score, it loses something. But again, not in this case, this is an excellent recreation of the power and magnitude of Williams' score.

This 1978 blockbuster confirmed Williams' place as the leading composer of the 1970s. In addition to Superman, Williams had great success with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Wars and Jaws.

In closing, this is a much better Superman soundtrack than the original album. The sound quality by Varese is superb, and the performance is the best I've ever heard from the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. The sequence in this two-CD set is as it was in the film; the track-by-track analysis in the liner notes made for interesting reading and listen. This new recording will take you back to each exciting scene. So, find a phone booth, put on your cape, we're about to run faster than a locomotive, leap tall buildings with a single bound, bend steel with our bare hands. Look up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Who is it? Why, it's a bunch of movie music collectors!