Must-have collections for soundtrack lovers
Monday, October 04, 2004
BY STEPHEN WHITTY
Star-Ledger Staff

Soundtrack collectors have always ranked only slightly below comic-book fans on the eccentricity scale.

Last year's documentary "Cinemania" profiled one enthusiast who had hundreds of albums -- but no record player to play them on. Audiophiles still search for vinyl copies of "Casino Royale" -- not because they're particular fans of the bouncy Burt Bacharach score, but because the recording is so preternaturally crisp.

Anyone drawing up a list of Must Haves is, therefore, looking for trouble. So a few caveats. These 10 suggestions are meant as starting points -- hence the reliance on compilations. The emphasis is, also, on instrumentals and original themes -- no musicals, or pop-song grab bags.

But if you want to start collecting soundtracks -- or just reliving some movie memories -- here are the places to begin. And if you want to continue to build your collection, check out the used and new CDs at moviemusic.com, pick up an issue of Film Score Monthly, or start haunting the flea markets. There might be a mint "Casino Royale" just waiting.

John Barry: 40 Years of Film Music James Bond soundtracks have always sold, but the best compilations have sadly been allowed to go out of print; this four-CD set hits the high points of the series' chief composer, along with such other Barry work as "Out of Africa" and "Body Heat." Dedicated 007 fans will also want to pick up Barry's full scores for "Goldfinger" and "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," both in print.

Composed By: Classic Film Themes From Hollywood's Masters With both the MGM and Warner Bros. libraries to draw from, Turner Classic Movies has plenty of greatest-hits CDs. This is a good start, with respect paid to Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold ("The Adventures of Robin Hood," "The Sea Hawk"). A haunting selection from Raksin's score for "The Bad and the Beautiful" may send you back to buy that film's entire soundtrack.

The Ennio Morricone Anthology: A Fistful of Film Music The Maestro. This two-CD set gives a hint of the man's range -- who else has gone from films like "The Battle of Algiers" to "Exorcist II: The Heretic," with stops along the way for some of the greatest Westerns ever made? Terrific, eclectic scores with the haunting "Once Upon a Time in the West" selections a standout. Out of print, but still in stock at some stores.

Great Composers: Elmer Bernstein A nice, one-volume CD that hits all the high notes: "The Great Escape," "The Magnificent Seven," "To Kill a Mockingbird" even "The Ten Commandments." The real delights, though, are in some of the less frequently reprised scores, such as "True Grit," with its rousing giddy-up brass, and "The Grifters," which coolly, musically hints at the comedy beneath the movie's cons.

A History of Hitchcock An interesting if limited selection, which includes the essential Bernard Herrmann tracks for "Psycho," "North by Northwest" and "Vertigo," among others, while also giving nods to Franz Waxman's scores for "Rebecca" and "Suspicion," and Miklos Rozsa's for "Spellbound." Herrmann fans should also seek out his complete scores for "Psycho," "Taxi Driver" and "Citizen Kane."

A History of Horror: From "Nosferatu" to "The Sixth Sense" Composers love horror assignments for the freedom they provide. This excellent, two-CD package demonstrates why, with selections from James Bernard's work on "Horror of Dracula" to Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind's unsettling theme for "The Shining." Jerry Goldsmith is particularly prominent, with several selections including the much-copied Latin chants for "The Omen."

Miramax Films' Greatest Hits A fine survey of modern scores, with some classic instrumentals -- Ennio Morricone's weepy "Cinema Paradiso," Philip Glass' spiraling "The Thin Blue Line," Luis Bacalov's gentle "Il Postino." The cuts of rehashed pop, though -- including Boy George's "The Crying Game" -- demonstrate Hollywood's sad new approach to soundtracks. Recently out of print, but not impossible to find.

Murder Is My Beat: Classic Film Noir Themes and Scores Modern private-eye scores -- whether Mancini's sardonic "Peter Gunn" or David Shire's mournful "Farewell, My Lovely" -- have given us some great jazz. The original '40s films tended more toward the mainstream, though, as heard here in David Raksin's swooning "Laura," or the tireless Max Steiner's dramatic work for "The Letter," "Mildred Pierce," "Key Largo" and "White Heat."

Music Inspired by Baadasssss Cinema: The Songs of Blaxploitation The black action films of the '70s empowered musicians as well as audiences, giving African-Americans rare jobs scoring films. This collection of songs includes Curtis Mayfield's insinuating "Pusherman" from his classic "Superfly" score, Earth, Wind & Fire's music for "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" and Isaac Hayes' theme from his own "Truck Turner." But where's "Shaft"?

Like what you want and don’t bother defending your tastes to the myopic and the dense. You might need that wasted breath when you go to die.

As for the article, it’s interesting. They didn’t pick a single rare recording in the lot. These might be a nice introduction to score collecting, but people who really get into it will only keep this out of completeness for the occasional odd track or out of sentiment for what gets them into the hobby.

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Originally posted by PeterK:
BY STEPHEN WHITTY:
A History of Horror: From "Nosferatu" to "The Sixth Sense" Composers love horror assignments for the freedom they provide. This excellent, two-CD package demonstrates why, with selections from James Bernard's work on "Horror of Dracula" to Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind's unsettling theme for "The Shining." Jerry Goldsmith is particularly prominent, with several selections including the much-copied Latin chants for "The Omen."

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Is this a real compilation, available on CD? If it is, I'd really like to know what are the "selections from James Bernard's work on HORROR OF DRACULA?? Bernard's original, authentic score for DRACULA is a CLASSIC and indeed a rarity.

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Originally posted by Graham Watt:
No re-recording has yet captured the chilly majesty and power of James Bernard's original.

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Exactly. Furthermore, I don't understand why they re-recorded on that Neil Richardson thingy so much of (the quite lame) TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA score and left out so much of the original HORROR OF DRACULA. Why oh why couldn't they re-record the climactic chase music (the one that was so good that Hammer producers wanted to use it also in their HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES)....

However, I have grown so tired waiting for someone to do something of the original HORROR OF THE DRACULA score, that I'm dragging my own bones once again into my friend's professional remastering studio and produce some magic on Bernard's authentic DRACULA score taken directly from the DVD (unfortunately with the sound effects).

By the way, Graham, I hope you have the NOSFERATU score by James Bernard. It's somewhat a reimbursement for the fans of Bernard's original DRACULA score.

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Originally posted by Graham Watt:
--I always felt it kind of odd to have Bernard score it in the first place. Murnau's film and the image of Max Schreck is so strong now culturally, that it seems a strange imposition to drag aural remembrances of Christopher Lee and Hammer into the stew. I mean, the James Bernard sound is SO linked to Hammer's Drac that, when combined with NOSFERATU, seems to be trying to turn it into something it's not.

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Actually, I agree with you completely.
I have watched NOSFERATU with this James Bernard score and the end result was mostly ridiculous - but in my honest opinion only because the music was TOO GOOD for this dull and overrated silent movie classic. (Yes, it IS a classic, but not for my tastes... I prefer the seven-movie Hammer DRACULA saga despite some of its weaknesses and lame scripts).

I myself was hippety-hoppiti-happy when Bernard's NOSFERATU was released on CD - especially the track "The Pursuit of Knock" reminds so much of HORROR OF DRACULA's climax chase, that I had a smile thiiiiiiiiiiiiis wide on my face.

KEN