On July 3, 1985, mass audiences got to take a trip Back To The Future thanks to the year's top-grossing film. For its 35th anniversary, the film and music fans at Mondo are bringing the film's classic soundtrack back to vinyl with a cool twist: an unused piece of front cover artwork courtesy of the series' beloved poster artist.
Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale's time-travel fantasy found Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), an average California teen in 1985, accidentally transported 30 years into the past thanks to a souped-up DeLorean time machine invented by his eccentric friend, the inventor "Doc" Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd). Not only does he have to figure out a way back into his present, but he has to ensure that his teenage parents (Lea Thompson and Crispin Glover) fall in love - lest, naturally, he cease to exist.
The film's airtight script and deft genre-hopping, combining comedy, action, romance and effects-heavy science-fiction, enchanted audiences and turned Fox, a rising star on the sitcom Family Ties, into an international superstar. Back To The Future spun off two sequels, a Saturday morning cartoon, a theme park ride at Universal Studios, two comic book series and a raft of ancillary products, from toys and games to all sorts of collectibles. (Our founder Mike Duquette's newsletter about movie novelizations, Hollywood & Spine, recently covered all three book adaptations of the trilogy!)
Fans loved the film's original music, from Alan Silvestri's heroic scores (finally released on CD by Intrada and Varese Sarabande between 2009 and 2015, the same year Mondo put the trilogy's orchestral music on LP) to Huey Lewis and The News' chart-topping "The Power Of Love." The soundtrack album itself, featuring two Huey tracks (including fan favorite "Back In Time"), two Silvestri suites, new cuts by Lindsey Buckingham and Eric Clapton, a throwback track from Etta James and three covers by Marvin Berry and The Starlighters, the band playing at a crucial high school dance set piece, was a bestseller, reaching No. 12 on the Billboard 200 and certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Mondo's new LP release of that original album, pressed on 180-gram, tri-color red, grey and blue vinyl, features a sweet treat for BTTF devotees: a new package featuring illustrations and unused poster art created in advance of the film's release by acclaimed commercial artist Drew Struzan. The man behind classic posters for Star Wars and Indiana Jones (as well as the sleeve to Alice Cooper's Welcome To My Nightmare) devised several collage concepts to promote the film before settling on a simple, powerful image (seen at right) of Fox emerging from the DeLorean's gull-wing doors, lifting his sunglasses and staring at his watch in surprise. (It was an image brilliantly built upon for the sequels; Fox later recounted that, upon posing for reference photos for the Part II poster, he stopped the shoot to ask the illustrator "Are you the Drew?")
Fans will appreciate the Drew's vintage designs in the new artwork, along with an insert of the infamous "Save The Clock Tower" flyer from the film. It's part of a new Mondo/BTTF collection that will also feature pins, a new poster and even a 1000-piece puzzle! It all drops today at 11 a.m. CST (that's just a few hours from when this post goes live), so rev your DeLorean to 88 miles per hour and add this vinyl classic to your collection!
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