Yet, many of us have said that for a long time, they were not even really aware of the existence of film music.

Obviously, even though we did not know about it, we DID notice film music in our "pre-film music" days, and not only by having the emotional effects on us it is supposed to have, but also by semi-consciously noticing it as MUSIC.

For example, I remember taping the end credits of Gremlins 2 from video to audio cassette because I liked the music, yet I never even thought about that this piece must have been written specifically for the film, or that it might be available as music.

Around the same time, I think I asked my father what music was used during one of the final scenes of The Lord of the Rings. I though it must be classical music, because it was classical-sounding, and even though I did not care for this kind of music at that time, I found that specific piece fascinating and would have liked to have it on cassette.

I also remember whistling the main theme from LOTR; I had just begun to read the novel after seeing the film numerous times and couldn't get the theme out of my head. I bought the score album during my first year as a soundtrack fan and loved it. I'm still amazed that I remembered liking the music, as it is exactly the type of music I usually hated at the time when I watched the film frequently.

And finally, one of the first score CDs I bought was Williams' Jurassic Park, which I had seen about a year before "getting into" film music. I vaguely remember thinking about getting the CD BEFORE that time, yet my "turning" to film music was so abrupt that I suddenly liked the type music which I had still disliked only a week before, and suddenly disliked all of the music I used to listen to.

It nearly seems like I had been "carrying" my love for film music inside me a long time before I discovered it.

MOLE PEOPLE
MONOLITH MONSTERS
633 SQUADRON
HELLFIGHTERS
CRACK IN THE WORLD
COMBAT (TV)
12 O'CLOCK HIGH (TV)
TIME TUNNEL (TV)
LOST IN SPACE (TV)
HIGH CHAPPARAL (TV)
JUDD FOR THE DEFENSE (TV)
HAWKINS (TV)

I ran across another cassette a couple of years after I made it -- I was probably 15 at the time -- and wondered "what the hell is this?" (I hadn't marked it.) It turned out to be Ennio Morricone's ORCA, a movie I hadn't particularly liked, but which I had nonetheless been moved to record off the TV. Because of Morricone's beautiful theme, obviously -- meaning I had remembered it since the age of nine, and hence went out of my way to tape the TV broadcast. Strange how that slipped my mind entirely. I also taped John Barry's KING KONG and John Scott's PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT because I loved the score so much -- but the TV version was so badly cropped that Scott's credit was unreadable in its entirety! I spent YEARS wondering who the hell that was!

Thing is, I've always been bad with names! I distinctly remember, at the age of ten or so, finally sitting up from the couch (midway through the opening of ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES) and yelling "MOM! CAN YOU HELP ME REMEMBER THE NAME *JERRY GOLDSMITH*?"

I've been forgetting it ever since!

NP: THE OMEN complete (by ... ummm ...????)

I left the theater humming the theme which I loved so much. When I got home I recorded myself humming it on those old cassete recorders (those ones they used as "tricorders" on Star Trek)!

Only years later, while watching it on TV, I discovered it was composed by no one else then il maestro, Ennio Morricone!!

Emergency
The Munsters
The Addams Family
Gilligan's Island
I Dream of Jeannie
Bewitched

Well the list could go on but I also remember always being interested in the music for films as well. I used to sit by the TV and record my favorite movies on cassette. Carl Stalling's music for Warner Bros. cartoons always caught my attention. I used to remember how neat Akira Ifukube's marches for the Godzilla and other Kaiju films sounded at a small age as well. When the remake of King Kong came out I bought the album thinking it was the story with sound effects and dailogue. I was wrong but the music appealed to me.

When Star Wars came out my friends and I used to play to Meco's version with our Lightsabers and Blasters (toys of course ). When I finally got the soundtrack to Star Wars I was blown away by the sound after only having been exposed to Meco because my Dad was stationed in Germany when Star Wars came out and for some reason the soundtrack and the film wasn't made available to those miltary bases overseas. (We left Germany in August of 1979 and neither had appeared there yet)

I had gone to Universal Studios, where they played music from the films over the tram speakers during the backlot tour. I remember specifically entering Hill Valley Courthouse Square, and hearing Silvestri's dynamic theme. It was only then that I realized that there might be an album of it somewhere.

After that, I got the two soundtracks to Batman, by Elfman and Prince. (And yes, though Prince's music is largely denied quality and worth within the film, it is a presence in Burton's work, and therefore is deemed soundtrack music).

Ever since, I've been collecting as many soundtracks as I can get for the films that I love.