The late composer Roy Budd (1947-1993) excelled in a variety of genres, from jazz to opera to motion picture soundtracks. Yet, among his many triumphs, one still stands out: his score to 1971's Get Carter. Director Mike Hodges' crime thriller starring Michael Caine and Britt Ekland proved controversial at the time of its release for its gritty depiction of violence and amorality. Looking back, it seems a forerunner of today's cinema; see no further than the current No. 1 movie in the United States, Joker. Roy Budd brought his jazz background to the score, playing his compositions with the other members of his jazz trio, Jeff Cline and Chris Karan. With Fender Rhodes electric piano, harpsichord, double bass, and percussion/tablas, the lean, lithe score sounded like few others at the time. The stripped-down sound brought new and unexpected dimensions to the hard-edged drama. The soundtrack was expanded over the summer as a 3-CD edition from Cherry Red Records.

A child prodigy, Budd parlayed his skill into an acclaimed career as a jazz pianist. Like another young artist, vocalist Matt Monro, he was championed by the pianist Winifred Atwell who had the very first U.K. piano instrumental chart-topper with 1954's "Let's Have Another Party." Budd made his debut at the London Coliseum in 1953, and earned the attention of musicians and composers including Liberace, Oscar Peterson, Dudley Moore, and Antonio Carlos Jobim; the latter two gentlemen would become lifelong friends. When he formed The Roy Budd Trio at the age of 16 with Chris Karan and Pete Morgan, he was beginning an association that would last for decades.

Budd broke into film score composition with 1970's Soldier Blue, director Ralph Nelson's western starring Candice Bergen, Donald Pleasance and Peter Strauss. Budd's work was well-received, but the best was yet to come with Get Carter. Years after the film's initial release, Budd's hard-hitting score would be celebrated and revisited by a younger generation of musicians from artists like Portishead, The Human League, Stereolab, The Black-Eyed Peas, and Wu Tang Clan. Tyler Bates, later the composer of Marvel Studios' Guardians of the Galaxy, naturally paid homage to Budd's original score when scoring the 2000 remake of Get Carter.

Yet the road to this 3-CD release was a bumpy one. Budd turned in an original soundtrack album to his label, Pye Records, but the Pye brass rejected it in favor of a single of the movie's theme "Carter" b/w the B-side "Plaything." Budd's collaborator, producer Jack Fishman, brought the album to EMI's Odeon label in Japan, and decades later, in 1998, it came to CD via Cinephile Records. The label expanded the album further in 2000, and in 2010, Silva Screen released its own issue of the score. Music on Vinyl has reissued Get Carter in LP format over the years, most recently on a 2019 Record Store Day exclusive.

For this current reissue, producer/remastering engineer Paul Fishman (son of Jack Fishman) revisited the master tapes and discovered alternate, earlier mixes. The first CD of the 3-disc set has the core soundtrack's songs, instrumentals, and dialogue, plus the originally-excluded song "Hallucinations." (A dialogue-free version has still not been released on CD.) The second disc has 18 bonus tracks including some (but not all) of the remixes made for the 2000 Cinephile/Sanctuary release, the original B-side "Plaything." And the newly-discovered alternates. Finally, the third disc is called A Bit of Budd and features tracks from his other film scores such as Soldier Blue, Foxbat, The Stone Killer, The Marseille Contract, and others. This 19-track set showcases Budd's versatility in service of the films he scored. However, one wishes there was more information about these tracks, including three for which no film or discographical information is given ("Theme from Aunt Harriet," "Versailles Exit," and "Who Needs Love Anyway").

The three discs are packaged within a lavishly-illustrated hardcover book of nearly 100 pages and numerous, comprehensive essays by writers Mark Wheaton, Charlie Brigden, and Paul Fishman. The must-read book features chapters on the original novel on which Get Carter is based; its author, Ted Lewis; the making of the film; the legacy of the film; an appreciation of Roy Budd; musician biographies; cue-by-cue notes; and a history of the soundtrack.

Whether you're a longtime fan of Get Carter or new to Roy Budd's score, Cherry Red's new reissue is a deep dive into the world of the film and its influential jazz score. It's available now at the links below!

Roy Budd, Get Carter: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Deluxe 3-CD Edition (Cherry Red CRCDBOX75, 2019) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

CD 1

1. Intro
2. Dialogue
3. Main Theme - Carter Takes the Train
4. Dialogue
5. Looking for Someone
6. Dialogue - The Race Track
7. Something on My Mind
8. Dialogue
9. Gettin' Nowhere in a Hurry
10. Dialogue
11. The Girl in the Car
12. Dialogue
13. Love Is a Four-Letter Word
14. Dialogue
15. Living Should Be This Way
16. Dialogue
17. Manhunt
18. Dialogue
19. Goodbye Eric/Dialogue
20. Dialogue
21. Hallucinations
22. Goodbye Carter

CD 2

1. Get Carter (Alternative Mix I)
2. Plaything
3. Dialogue
4. Hallucinations (Alternative Vocal Mix)
5. Dialogue
6. Gettin' Nowhere in a Hurry (Instrumental)
7. Love Is a Four-Letter Word (Alternative Mix)
8. Manhunt (Alternative Mix)
9. Dialogue
10. Get Carter (Alternative Mix II)
11. Gettin' Nowhere in a Hurry (Alternative Vocal Mix)
12. Hallucinations (Instrumental)
13. How About You
14. Get Carter (Single Version)
15. Get Carter (Dope on a Rope U.S. Remix)
16. Get Carter (De Few 2 Smoking Barrels Remix)
17. Get Carter (Deadly Avenger Remix)
18. Get Carter (Breakneck Dirtbox Remix)

CD 3: A Bit of Budd

1. Funker (M15-Fb)
2. Way Out M1 (SK 10)
3. No Doubt (Mc-M11)
4. Diamond Fortress
5. In the Shadows
6. Jazz It Up
7. Free Tarrant
8. Cassette Jazz
9. For All My Days
10. No Cooperation
11. Teacher and Pupil
12. Main Theme
13. Love at First Sight
14. How Can We Run Away
15. Cresta's Song
16. Theme from Aunt Harriet
17. Theme from The Carey Treatment
18. Versailles Exit
19. Who Needs Love Anyway

Track 1 from Foxbat
Tracks 2 & 5 from The Stone Killer
Tracks 3 & 6 from The Marseille Contract
Track 4 from Diamonds
Tracks 7-8 & 10 from The Black Windmill
Track 9 from Kidnapped
Track 11 from Paper Tiger
Track 12 from Fear Is the Key
Track 13 from The Warsaw Concerto
Track 14 from Something to Hide
Track 15 from Soldier Blue
Tracks 16, 18-19 origins unknown
Track 17 from The Carey Treatment