Classic Movie Soundtracks
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The year is 1951 and director Robert Wise is about to throw panic into Washington D.C. and the film world with "The Day the Earth Stood Still", when an extraterrestrial spacecraft lands near the White House. Very dramatic, intelligently directed and a well-craft screenplay with an outstanding cast. Our players are Klaatu (Michael Rennie) plays the alien invader and the Earth People who may be worth saving are Helen Benson (Patricia Neal), Dr. Barnhardt (Sam Jaffe), Bobby Benson (Billy Gray) and Tom Stevens (Hugh Marlowe). With first-rate cast we have a first-class composer of Bernard Herrmann, who creates the well established trademark of sci-fi with the theremin-dominated musical score. The theremin on this album is played by Celia Sheen, haunting with eerie imagery seeping through the orchestration. Wonderful arrangements by the composer himself, with excellent conducting by Joel McNeely. Each section of the orchestra ~ the pianos, hammonds, harps, brass and electronic instruments amplify within each cue. As Celia is carefully in complete control with the entire ensemble. The result is colors come shining through with a perfect performance and a credit to the classic composition by Bernard Herrmann.
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Rodgers & Hammerstein wrote the music for this film starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. The scene in which Andrews crests a hill with her arms spread singing the title track is one of the greatest in American film. Hearing that song forever fills the listener with that image, and remains as fresh and even chilling as it was initially. Unfortunately much of this has been co-opted by television advertisements or whatever, and so could languish because of the clichéd quality of it. Fortunately, conductor Irwin Kostal delivered a wonderful score, and the vocal delivery is as vibrant as any in the storied history of film musicals.
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If not for all the other highlights of Walt Disney's incomparable pop cultural legacy, it would be tempting to call Mary Poppins his crowning achievement. Released just two years before his death, the innovative live-action/animation/musical hybrid became an instant classic. It was nominated for 13 Academy Awards and a winner of 5 (including Best Actress for Julie Andrews and Best Musical Score and Best Song Oscars for the brother team of Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman). It's no stretch to call the Mary Poppins score the Shermans' most memorable of their 40-plus-year association with Disney. Boasting at least three bona fide classics ("A Spoonful of Sugar"; the Gilbert and Sullivan-esque romp, "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"; and Oscar winner, "Chim Chim Cher-ee") and at least as many other contenders, the Shermans' score held the technical tour de force together while giving it a sense of ageless wonder to match the powers of its titular magical nanny. This edition restores the previously abridged "Step in Time" sequence to its original length and offers a terrific 16-minute bonus track for collectors: the Sherman brothers' reminiscences about their work on the landmark film interspersed with four of their original song demos
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The double-disc soundtrack to the blockbuster Saturday Night Fever (available on a single CD) marks both the zenith and the nadir of disco. It was such a popular sensation that it catapulted the music to stratospheric levels of mainstream popularity, and the album was the bestselling movie soundtrack of all time (until The Bodyguard, and then Titanic). But "Disco Fever" became so hot, it could only flame out just as quickly (along with the careers of the Bee Gees). With this record, disco became a phenomenon and a fad. The Bee Gees' contributions are the strongest, especially the once-ubiquitous "Stayin' Alive" and "Night Fever," and they still hold up. Then there's Walter Murphy's "A Fifth of Beethoven," a trivial piece of pop ephemera that may have set new standards for ephemeral triviality. How often will you listen to this record--and how much will you play when you do? There's no telling--but it remains a classic piece of pop history, and when you're in the mood it's a good thing to have around.
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This 1974 Norman Jewison film may have been a critical misstep, but some fans actually preferred it to Broadway's rock spectacle. The thing is, Jesus Christ Superstar was first introduced as a two-disc rock opera, not unlike the Who's Tommy, as it even scored several Top 40 hits. While no set matches the original, it's still hard to go wrong with the music, no matter what the source. This also includes the pretty "Could We Start Again, Please," composed for the stage version, and sung here by the original LP's Mary Magdalene, Yvonne Elliman. Ted Neely (Jesus) and Carl Anderson (Judas), meanwhile, have spent two decades on the road, recreating their roles night after night, although they have to now be at least two decades older than Jesus was at the Crucifixion.
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For those of us who grew up in the '70s, this drive-in compilation of '50s and '60s rock and doo-wop, complete with Wolfman Jack introductions, was our introduction to this music. There are 41 jukebox hits here, and every one of them is a classic of its time (although two tracks--"At the Hop" and "She's so Fine" are covers by the revival band Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids). In his 1973 movie, director George Lucas used the music (and the presence of mysterious deejay Wolfman) as the AM-radio soundtrack to one night in suburban California, 1962. The idea was to capture and sustain an end-of-summer, end-of-innocence mood that's in the air throughout the picture-- not as a shortcut to establishing a period (as in Robert Zemeckis'Forrest Gump). There's an awful lot of spontaneous energy in these tunes--from Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly, to the Platters and the Clovers and the Del-Vikings, to the Crests and the Beach Boys--and also just a hint of melancholy that goes down very nicely with a burger, shake, and fries.
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