Here is one of the most exciting sentences we could ever type for soundtrack fans on The Second Disc: Jerry Goldsmith’s score to Gremlins is coming to CD from Film Score Monthly.

“Cute. Cuddly. Mischevious. Intelligent. Dangerous.” Those five words roped audiences into one of the most exciting horror-comedies of the 1980s, Joe Dante’s Gremlins. The tale of a storybook American small town rocked by wacky creatures with razor-sharp claws on Christmas Eve was a perfect marriage of humor and macabre cinema. Director Dante – who got his start building scares on the cheap for Roger Corman on flicks like Piranha (1978) – writer Chris Columbus and producer Steven Spielberg were the perfect team to get the right mix of E.T.-like cuddliness and The Blob-esque shock horror, and audiences responded in kind (at least, when they weren’t protesting a spat of scares that inadvertently helped create the PG-13 rating in America).

One of the many feathers in Gremlins‘ cap is the delightful score by Jerry Goldsmith, who threw his skills at writing for horror, action and romantic moments into a blender and created one of the most earworm-ridden scores of his career. The synth-heavy “Gremlin Rag,” a mischievous motif for the titular hellraisers, is pure candy for soundtrack fans, as is a wistful song for the innocent creature Gizmo. Add a dollop of traditional holiday arrangements and you’ve got a perennial favorite – albeit one that was only partially serviced when it came time for a soundtrack release.

The original LP was a short one, split between 16 minutes of score and a couple of pop tunes by the likes of Quarterflash, Michael Sembello and Peter Gabriel (his tune, the Nile Rodgers-produced “Out Out,” remained incredibly rare for years). It was given a belated release on CD in the 1990s, and that was that for years, with mounting legal clearances hindering a proper reissue for a long time. But now, FSM save one of the best for one of their last, crafting a two-disc set of both the complete score with alternate cues (lovingly remastered by original supervising engineer Bruce Botnick) and that original soundtrack LP on CD.

If you love Gremlins as much as this writer, it’s all here and it’s all available now, released as a non-limited title. This is by far one of the best Christmas gifts you can get for a film music fan (especially if that fan is you) – just make sure to keep the discs away from sunlight…

Full details are after the jump! (Note: the servers at FSM and Screen Archives have been crawling since the announcement, so have faith. The set is unlimited, so you’re not going to miss out.)

Jerry Goldsmith, Gremlins: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Film Score Monthly/Retrograde FSM80130-2, 2011 – original film released 1984)

Disc 1: The Film Score

1. Fanfare in C (Max Steiner)/The Shop/The Little One
2. Late for Work
3. Mrs. Deagle/That Dog
4. The Gift
5. First Aid
6. Spilt Water
7. A New One
8. The Lab/Old Times
9. The Injection
10. Snack Time/The Wrong Time
11. The Box
12. First Aid
13. Disconnected/Hurry Home
14. Kitchen Fight
15. Dirty Linen
16. The Pool
17. The Plow/Special Delivery
18. High Flyer
19. Too Many Gremlins
20. No Santa Claus
21. After Theatre
22. Theatre Escape/Stripe is Loose/Toy Dept./No Gizmo
23. The Fountain/Stripe’s Death
24. Goodbye, Billy
25. End Title/The Gremlin Rag
26. Blues
27. Mrs. Deagle (Film Version)
28. God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen
29. After Theatre (with “Silent Night”)
30. After Theatre (without “Silent Night”)
31. Rabbit Rampage (Milt Franklyn)
32. The Gremlin Rag (Full Version)
33. Gizmo’s New Song
34. Gizmo’s Trumpet

Disc 2: Original soundtrack LP (originally released as Geffen , 1984)

1. Gremlins…Mega Madness – Michael Sembello
2. Make It Shine – Quarterflash
3. Out Out – Peter Gabriel
4. The Gift
5. Gizmo
6. Mrs. Deagle
7. The Gremlin Rag