The last few weeks have seen some fine deluxe soundtrack reissues from two of our favorite film score labels - as well as another album project from the genre's greatest living luminary.

La-La Land Records has aimed for the funny bone with a brilliant new expansion of Maurice Jarre's score to Top Secret! The 1984 comedy from the Zucker Brothers and Jim Abrahams - only their second big screen effort as writer-directors after the blockbuster Airplane! four years earlier (plus the brilliant ill-received Police Squad!, later adapted into The Naked Gun trilogy) - sent up three decades of genres: World War II films, early rock and roll musicals and '60s spy flicks. The mishmash of styles baffled moviegoers, who instead put their money toward high-concept comedies like Ghostbusters and Gremlins; even David Zucker himself copped to it being "very funny, but...really isn't a good movie." Nonetheless, the film provided early exposure for Val Kilmer as the suave, Elvis-esque Nick Rivers, and for those who appreciate more zany, cerebral gags in ZAZ pictures instead of lowbrow happenings and celebrity cameos, this might be a movie for you. Jarre's score is of particular note: the man who scored classics like Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago acquitted himself nicely with music that's as askew as the movie itself.

This new 2CD presentation, limited to 2000 copies, premieres nearly an hour of Jarre's score (including some very short alternates and a host of source material) alongside the debut of all six songs Kilmer sang in the film (including Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti," Elvis Presley's "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" and the Beach Boys style parody "Skeet Surfin'" on the second disc. That disc is rounded out by a new remaster of the original soundtrack album, a new recording of highlights by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Jarre's command. The package is produced and designed by Dan Goldwasser, with Chris Malone handling mastering and new notes by Daniel Schweiger featuring new recollections from the ZAZ team.)

Next, it's on to two new entries in Varese Sarabande's CD Club, both from critically-acclaimed animated films of the last 25 years. The late Michael Kamen gets the red carpet treatment for his score to The Iron Giant, a cult classic cartoon about a young American boy in the '50s who finds the titular alien robot and valiantly protects him from a Cold War-paranoid battalion of the American military. (The titular Giant was voiced by a litle-known Vin Diesel, two years from his star turn in The Fast and The Furious and 15 years before his similarly empathetic turn as the sentient tree being Groot in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy franchise.)

The beautiful, hand-drawn visuals of The Iron Giant and its deeply felt bonds between Hogarth Hughes and his metallic companion, as co-written and directed by Brad Bird (a longtime executive consultant on The Simpsons) seemed poised to loose Disney's grip on film animation, which was rapidly pivoting to computer-animation by Pixar. But a shockingly muted promotional campaign proved disastrous for the film's commercial prospects. (Bird would, ironically, succeed on the senior creative team at Pixar, writing and directing the beloved superhero send-up The Incredibles and its sequel as well as the quirky Ratatouille.)

Kamen delivered a typically admirable score for the Czech Philharmonic to record, full of heart and bombast; it was, sadly, one of his final works before his passing in 2003. This packed disc features, for more than an hour, the complete score and a host of unreleased outtakes and demos - altogether, nearly a half-hour of material in its first release. (For lovers of Kamen's brilliant fusion of orchestral ideas with rock arrangements, the demo "Souls Don't Die" is an attempt at turning the main theme into a pop song, with Eric Clapton leading the proceedings. The set, also limited to 2000 copies, features great new notes by Tim Grieving, including new interview highlights from Bird, music editor Christopher Brooks and orchestrator Blake Neely.

Varese next expands John Powell's beloved score to 2014's How to Train Your Dragon 2. An emotionally-fulfilling sequel to the 2010 DreamWorks animated film, the second film finds an older Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) working to keep the peace between the Viking village of Berk and a spate of mystical dragons - work that is complicated by not only a ruthless, dragon-hunting warmonger (Djimon Honsou) but Hiccup's long-lost mother (Cate Blanchett). Powell, who received an Oscar nomination for his work on the first film, returns to expand upon his lovely, bombastic and old-world-inspired themes (including another collaboration with Icelandic singer Jónsi.) Another title limted to 2000 copies, it includes Powell's complete score on two discs alongside a selection of six demos and new notes by Grieving, featuring interviews with Powell and returning writer-director Dean DeBlois.

Finally - as part of an ongoing 90th birthday celebration for the legendary John Williams, the composer's latest original concert work will premiere on CD this summer. Williams and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter have reunited for the first recording of Violin Concerto No. 2, a four-movement piece recorded by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The concerto will be released on CD and vinyl on June 3; as a special treat for CD buyers, Williams and Mutter will offer a mini-sequel to their work on the 2019 album Across the Stars with three new recordings of violin-led arrangements of three classic Williams themes: a piece from Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye, and the romantic themes for "Han Solo and The Princess" (as debuted in The Empire Strikes Back) and "Marion's Theme" (from Raiders of the Lost Ark). Also planned for release on August 19 is a stand-alone Blu-ray featuring the album in Pure Audio, surround sound and Dolby Atmos, films of the concerto's world premiere at Tanglewood, a 25-minute interview with the composer/conductor and violinist and more. (A web-exclusive 10" of the film themes from the CD will be available on the same day.)

Order links and full track lists for all these great releases are below.

Maurice Jarre, Top Secret! Music from the Motion Picture (Limited Edition) (La-La Land Records LLLCD 1588, 2022 - original film released 1984)

Disc 1: Score presentation (previously unreleased)

1. Paramount Pictures Logo/The Train Fight
2. The Plan
3. Papers/The Train Station/East Germany
4. Souvenirs, Novelties, Party Tricks/Junkyard/Hillary's Letter/Nazi's Entrance
5. Announcement/Cedric
6. In the Prop Room/Death Row
7. Kruger is Dead/Bruno and Klaus
8. Imprisonment/The Polaris Mine */Recaptured
9. Firing Squad
10. Escaping the Concert/Nick and Hillary Enter the Park
11. Kissing in the Park**/Sven Jorgensen
12. The Story of the Deserted Island
13. Abandoned at Macy's/Love and Fireplaces/The Potato Farm
14. The Torch/Meet the Resistance
15. Déjà Vu's Advice/Latrine
16. The Potato Farm Siege
17. A Noise */A Traitor at the Table/Suspicion/Adventures in Moving/Parachutes
18. Nigel's Plan **/Entering the Castle
19. A Bull's Encounter +/Traitor/Poor Du Quois/Not Without My Daughter
20. The Big Fight/Bonanza ++
21. Happy Ending
22. Paramount Pictures Logo (alternate)
23. Meet the Resistance (alternate)
24. The Big Fight (alternate opening and ending excerpt)
25. Medals (Source)
26. Hymn (Source) †
27. Tales of the Vienna Woods (Op. 325, No. 1) (Source)
28. The Tango of Things Unsaid (Source)
29. Austrian Landler (Source)
30. Mysterious Tango (Source)
31. Pizza Rock (Source)

* not used in film
** contains material not used in film
+ contains "Theme from JAWS" written by John Williams
++ contains "Theme from Bonanza" written by Ray Livingston/Jay Evans
† parody based on "The Shorewood Wisconsin High School Hymn" by Sandy S. Smith

Disc 2: Songs sung by Val Kilmer (1-6) and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra original soundtrack album (7-18, released as Varese Sarabande STV-81219, 1984)

1. Skeet Surfing
2. Are You Lonesome Tonight?
3. How Silly Can You Get
4. Straighten Out the Rug
5. Tutti Frutti
6. Spend This Night with Me
7. Top Secret!
8. Love and Resistance
9. Cedric
10. Tango of the Things Unsaid
11. Medals and Imprisonment
12. The Potato Farm Siege
13. The Big Fight
14. The Torch
15. Pizza Rock
16. Nigel's Plan
17. The Triumph of the Resistance
18. Happy Ending

Michael Kamen, The Iron Giant: Original Score (The Deluxe Edition) (Varese Sarabande, 2022 - original film released 1999)

1. The Eye of the Storm
2. Hogarth Hughes
3. Creepy Music/Hogarth Investigates
4. Into the Forest
5. The Giant Wakes
6. Hogarth in Car/Sting for FBI Man: Suite
7. Come and Get It
8. Shut Off Switch/Rock Tree: Suite
9. Cat and Mouse
10. Train Wreck
11. Magic Rebuild/Hand Underfoot: Suite
12. Chew Your Food
13. Amerika
14. Great Ride
15. We Gotta Hide
16. His Name is Dean
17. He Can Stay
18. Eating Art
19. Space Car
20. Souls Don't Die
21. Contest of Wills
22. The Army Arrives
23. Annie and Dean
24. I'm Superman
25. He's a Weapon
26. Giant Discovered
27. Trance Former
28. No Following
29. The Last Giant Piece
30. End Credits: Suite
31. Bedtime Stories
32. Wild Tam-Tam
33. Chew Your Food Pickup
34. Duck and Cover
35. Early Demo #1
36. Early Demo #2
37. Souls Don't Die (feat. Eric Clapton)

Tracks 1-2, 4-5, 7, 9-10, 15-16, 18-19, 21-23, 25-28, 31 and 34 released as Varese Sarabande 302 066 062-2, 1999. All other tracks previously unreleased. Tracks 33 and 35-37 not used in final film

John Powell, How to Train Your Dragon 2: Music from the Motion Picture (The Deluxe Edition) (Varese Sarabande, 2022 - original film released 2014)

Disc 1

1. Dragon Racing (1m1-INS) (Alternate Film Version)
2. Dragon Racing (1m1) (Original Opening Version)
3. Where No One Goes (1m2s) (feat. Jònsi)
4. Together, We Map the World (1m3-4)
5. Hiccup's Gonna Be Chief (1m5)
6. Eret Educates Hiccup (1m6)
7. Drago's Coming (2m7)
8. Eret Has Visitors (2m8)
9. Me Likey (2m9)
10. War is What He Wants (2m10)
11. Hiccup and Toothless Attached (2m11)
12. Dragon's Lair (2m12)
13. Should I Know You? (2m13)
14. Valka's Dragon Sanctuary (2m14)
15. Hiccup & Valka Bond (2m15-16)
16. Valka's Flash - Good Alpha (3m17-18)
17. I Grew Facial Hair for You (3m19)
18. Flying with Mother (3m20)
19. Can We Start Over? (3m21)
20. Meet Drago (3m22)
21. Stoick Finds Beauty (3m25-26)
22. Get' Em You Son of Eret (3m27)
23. Courting Song (3m28s) (feat. Gerard Butler, Mary Jane Wells & Craig Ferguson)
24. Courting Song Instrumental (4m29)
25. Battle of the Bewilderbeast (4m30)

Disc 2

1. Hiccup Confronts Drago (4m31)
2. Stoick Saves Hiccup (4m32)
3. Off to Valhalla (4m33)
4. Riding to Drago's (4m35)
5. Alpha Comes to Berk (4m36-37)
6. Toothless Comes Back (5m38)
7. Challenging the Alpha (5m39a)
8. The Chief Has Come Home (5m39b)
9. Where No One Goes Reprise (5m40) (feat. Jònsi)
10. Dragon Racing (1m1) (Demo)
11. Together, We Map the World (1m3-4) (Demo)
12. Valka's Flash - Good Alpha (3m17-18) (Demo)
13. Flying with Mother (3m20) (Demo)
14. Off to Valhalla (4m33) (Demo)
15. Toothless Comes Back (5m38) (Demo)

Portions previously released as Relativity Music Group RMG1067-1, 2014

John Williams, Anne-Sophie Mutter & Boston Symphony Orchestra, Violin Concerto No. 2 & Selected Film Themes (Deutsche Grammophon, 2022)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. (TBD) / Amazon U.K. (TBD) / Amazon Canada (TBD)
Selected Film Themes 10" (* included on CD and this 10" only): DG Web Store (TBD)

1. Concerto for Violin & Orchestra No. 2: I. Prologue
2. Concerto for Violin & Orchestra No. 2: II. Rounds
3. Concerto for Violin & Orchestra No. 2: III. Dactyls
4. Concerto for Violin & Orchestra No. 2: IV. Epilogue
5. Theme from The Long Goodbye *
6. Han Solo and The Princess (from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back) *
7. Marion's Theme (from Raiders of the Lost Ark) *