Last weekend, The Lion King sat atop the box office once more, a potent reminder not only of the 1994 film’s enduring power but of its music.  Though Elton John and Tim Rice famously composed its songs, it was Hans Zimmer who picked up an Academy Award for the orchestral score.  Zimmer made his first major splash in Hollywood with the score to Barry Levinson’s 1988 film Rain Man, following it up with high profile assignments such as Driving Miss Daisy (1989), Days of Thunder (1990) and Thelma & Louise (1991).   This morning, Kritzerland delivered a gift to Zimmer’s many fans, announcing its release of the first-ever complete release on CD of the score to Ridley Scott’s Thelma & Louise.  The original MCA soundtrack recording was an almost all-songs affair, so on the occasion of the film’s 20^th anniversary, Zimmer’s score is finally available, including its dynamic slide guitar work from Pete Haycock.

We’ll let producer Bruce Kimmel’s press release speak for itself; the soundtrack is due the last week of October, but pre-orders directly from the label usually arrive an average of four weeks early!

Sometimes the right people come together at the right time to make the right movie for the right audience. Certainly it happened in 1991 with Thelma & Louise, a film where each of its creative elements came together and resulted in a film that truly struck a chord with audiences and critics. A road movie, a buddy movie, a comedy, a tragedy, Thelma & Louise became an instant classic. Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis are perfection as Thelma and Louise, both delivering multi-layered and iconic performances. Harvey Keitel is their equal as Detective Hal Slocumb, and Michael Madsen, Christopher McDonald, and Brad Pitt are all excellent in supporting roles.

Every creative component of the film is masterful – from direction, writing, acting, editing, photography, art direction, costuming – it’s all of a piece and that includes the great score by Hans Zimmer. Zimmer, born in 1957, had begun scoring films on his own in the 1980s, with projects such as A World Apart, Paperhouse, and others. But it was in 1988 that he got his big break, scoring the Barry Levinson film Rain Man. Rain Man was a smash, and Zimmer received his first Oscar nomination. Then came Twister, Black Rain, and Driving Miss Daisy, and since then he has been one of the most successful film composers in history, composing scores for such hits as Days Of Thunder, A League Of Their Own, The Lion King, As Good As It Gets, Crimson Tide, The Rock, The Prince Of Egypt, Gladiator, Hannibal, Pearl Harbor, Black Hawk Down, Batman Begins, The Da Vinci Code, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3, Kung Fu Panda, Sherlock Holmes, Inception, and many, many others. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards and taken home the prize once – for The Lion King.

Zimmer’s score for Thelma & Louise captures Scott’s visuals and the tone of the film perfectly. While there are a fair number of pop songs used in the movie, it’s Zimmer’s twangy, mournful, exciting, hard-driving, bluesy music that really propels the film and helps give it its distinctive feel – and it features the absolutely mind-bending guitar work of the great Pete Haycock.

Hit the jump to continue reading the press release, plus the full track listing and pre-order link!

Thelma & Louise had a soundtrack release on MCA that was all songs save for one four-minute track, “Thunderbird.” That track was assembled specifically for that album and was not used in the film in that form ever. It basically pieced together parts of three different cues to make the one four-minute track. For this first ever release of the film score, we present all the music as Zimmer recorded it for its use in the film. As sometimes happens, a few of the cues were shortened for the movie, but we left them in their entirety for the CD. As a bonus, we also include the “Main Title” cue exactly as it is edited in the movie (it’s comprised of two score cues). It’s a real pleasure to finally bring Zimmer’s wonderful score to CD – it’s been way too long in coming.

This release is limited to 1,200 copies only. The price is $19.98, plus shipping.  It can be ordered here from Kritzerland!

Hans Zimmer, Thelma & Louise: Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack (Kritzerland, 2011)

1. Going to Mexico
2. JD
3. The Hell with Texas
4. Happy Birthday Lady/Picking Up JD/Oilfields
5. Watching Him Go/Ride of the FBI
6. Louise’s Theme
7. Giving Up/Suck My Dick
8. Getting Out of State
9. I Got a Knack
10. Charged with Murder
11. Learning from TV
12. Chase/You’ve Always Been Crazy
13. Thelma & Louise/End Credits
14. Main Title – Film Version (Bonus Track)