Movie Soundtracks that should be on every shelf.

[pjme]

Has anyone mentioned the MASSIVE Conan the Barbarian soundtrack? A must have.

Hi, I counted at least 7 "Conans"...it didn't appear unnoticed!
I bought the Milan CD a couple of years ago for a few euro cents....( 2nd hand shops are great for this kind of music). It's all well spiced up with Ravel (Bolero,Daphnis),Rozsa,Respighi,even Borodin/Prokofiev...but indeed really atmospheric !



I want to mention Dimitri Tiomkin's 1937 great score for "Lost horizon" which got a very good recording in ca 1976 / National PO under Charles Gerhardt. (RCA Victor GD81669). Gerhardt has distilled a spectacular 23 min. suite (choral/orchestral) from the score - shamelesly "exotic" in the extreme .
On a very kitschy double Silva Screen CD "Hammer, the studio that dripped blood" there's a beautiful fragment from Humphrey Searle's (1957) score for Val Guest's "The abominable snowman". A cheap B-film receives ,apparently, a monumental score. the Main title ( the only fragment on CD) is a towering "Maestoso" depicting the Tibetan mountains.

[Haffner]

So I can sleep better at night Ange, please tell me that you have picked up the re-published Robert E. Howard works that they have been putting out.

http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Conan-Cimmerian-Original-Adventures/dp/0345461517/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205118447&sr=1-2 

I'm so there, dude.

[eyeresist]

Starship Troopers - Poledouris (unfortunately the recording is very compressed and unnatural, but I'd love to hear this in a concert hall)

Outland - Goldsmith (a good movie too, except it goes downhill in the last act)

Psycho - Herrmann (not just a good soundtrack, but damn good music)

Gone with the Wind - Steiner (I have the suite played by some British pick-up group; I'd love to know who the conductor was!)

TIED: Dune / Blade Runner - "Toto" (plus arranger, plus "additional music by" a name I don't recall) / Vangelis


I also want to make the point here that Ridley Scott was dead wrong, putting Hanson's symphony at the end of Alien. Goldsmith's "End title" music would have been more fitting - and it's just better music, too.

[Bogey]

Psycho - Herrmann (not just a good soundtrack, but damn good music)

To steal a line from MN Dave, "Damn skippy!"

[Kullervo]

Outland - Goldsmith (a good movie too, except it goes downhill in the last act)

A fun romp of a movie (basically a western in space) and one that owes a lot of its "look" to Alien. Pretty dated special effects, though. After recently watching Chinatown for the first time I would probably put Goldsmith's score near the top of my (admittedly short) list of soundtracks.

Psycho - Herrmann (not just a good soundtrack, but damn good music)

Agreed, but I would probably place Vertigo over Psycho. It's hard to choose between those two and Citizen Kane.

TIED: Dune / Blade Runner - "Toto" (plus arranger, plus "additional music by" a name I don't recall) / Vangelis

Oh, definitely Vangelis (I may be biased as Blade Runner is one of my favorite films, whereas Dune is to me unwatchable.  ). If memory serves, the "other guy" is Brian Eno.

[Kullervo]

Some soundtracks I've come to know in the months since I posted my top five:

Woman in the Dunes and Ran (Toru Takemitsu)
Chinatown (Jerry Goldsmith)
In a Lonely Place (George Antheil)
On the Waterfront (Leonard Bernstein)

Alex North's score for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is also worth mention. Auric's score for Dassin's Rififi really stood out, but perhaps it's too soon to list it as a favorite — I only watched it last night.

[Bogey]

Some soundtracks I've come to know in the months since I posted my top five:


On the Waterfront (Leonard Bernstein)

Do you have a link to this recording Corey?

[Kullervo]

Do you have a link to this recording Corey?

I don't know if there's a full score available, Bill. I've only ever heard it within the context of the film, but it's very effective.

[Bogey]

One that gets buried, and for that matter the movie as well, was Elfman's A Simple Plan.  He did a brilliant job on this score and it laid over the movie perfectly.

If you want one that is just a fun ride from start to finish, try Shearmur's Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow score.  

[Bogey]

I don't know if there's a full score available, Bill. I've only ever heard it within the context of the film, but it's very effective.

Gotcha Corey. 

[Bogey]

This might be worth taking a risk on Corey:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Waterfront-Original-Score/dp/B000008P9I

and then there was this:

http://www.filmnight.org/onthewater.htm

[eyeresist]

Oh, definitely Vangelis (I may be biased as Blade Runner is one of my favorite films, whereas Dune is to me unwatchable.  ). If memory serves, the "other guy" is Brian Eno.

Yeah, I know Eno contributed a track, but I think there was another guy hidden in the small print somewhere. I'll see if I can fish out my copy tonight.

[Ephemerid]

The soundtrack to SlingBlade was really good too-- lots of work by Daniel Lanois.

[eyeresist]

Here is the composition info on Dune, from the CD liner notes:

Written, composed and performed by Toto
Prophecy Theme by Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and Roger Eno

But then in the fine print:

Adaptation and additional music by Marty Paich
Additional orchestration by Allyn Ferguson

Paich and Ferguson also conducted the score. Paich is presumably the brother of Toto's David Paich.

BTW, the orchestra is the Vienna Symphony Orchestra with the Vienna Volksoper choir. Concertmaster was Dieter von Ostheim.


Anyway, I love the movie Dune. Like Blade Runner, it creates a fascinating, immersive alternate world, but Dune is more bizarre and horrific (directed by Lynch, after all). But then I like William Burroughs and the films of Jodorowsky, beside which Dune is fairly sane.

[Bogey]

Here is the composition info on Dune, from the CD liner notes:

Written, composed and performed by Toto
Prophecy Theme by Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and Roger Eno

But then in the fine print:

Adaptation and additional music by Marty Paich
Additional orchestration by Allyn Ferguson

Paich and Ferguson also conducted the score. Paich is presumably the brother of Toto's David Paich.

BTW, the orchestra is the Vienna Symphony Orchestra with the Vienna Volksoper choir. Concertmaster was Dieter von Ostheim.


Anyway, I love the movie Dune. Like Blade Runner, it creates a fascinating, immersive alternate world, but Dune is more bizarre and horrific (directed by Lynch, after all). But then I like William Burroughs and the films of Jodorowsky, beside which Dune is fairly sane.

I wonder if this soundtrack ran into the same Academy Awards' buzzsaw as Master and Commander and was not eligible for an award because more than one person (or is it two?) worked on the score.

[Hattoff]

Would one of you experts list me a few John Barry albums that give a good coverage of his output? Cheap!
I'm getting nostalgic in my old age and have a hankering to listen to soundtracks I remember as being pretty good. Cheers.

[Cato]

Would one of you experts list me a few John Barry albums that give a good coverage of his output? Cheap!
I'm getting nostalgic in my old age and have a hankering to listen to soundtracks I remember as being pretty good. Cheers.

Out of Africa, Somewhere in Time, Dances With Wolves and if you can find it, one of Michael Caine's best movies: Zulu

[Bogey]

Combine the last two:

Goldfinger
Dances With Wolves

and The Black Hole

[Bogey]

I checked my collection and the John Barry soundtracks I have are:

The Ipcress File
Day of the Locust
The Lion in Winter
(and Dances with Wolves)

Those three I bolded are really good.

And obviously some Bond?

[Hattoff]

Thank-you all, I can get those at reasonable prices, I see.
Ah, nostalgia can be expensive.