A breakthrough for one of Hollywood's biggest composers, a cult classic Western and an Oscar-winning '90s film are among the film scores being revisited by some of our favorite reissue labels this month.
La-La Land has released a new presentation of Hans Zimmer's score to 1988's Rain Man. The Barry Levinson comedy-drama (a four-time Oscar winner, including Best Picture and Best Director) stars Tom Cruise as a brash young man who discovers that his late father's estate was bequeathed to an autistic brother he never knew he had, portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in an Academy Award-winning performance. The film was the first American assignment for German composer Hans Zimmer, a prolific musician who'd collaborated with The Buggles (he's in the clip for "Video Killed the Radio Star") and The Damned. His unique score, achieved mostly through synthesizers and keyboards, was also Oscar-nominated and led to a still-ongoing career as one of the most ubiquitous figures in film music. For its first release on CD in over a decade, Rain Man features the complete score alongside six bonus tracks: four unreleased alternate and source cues, a demo of a planned concert suite of themes from the film, and two unique mixes and edits of score material heard on the film's original soundtrack album. Limited to 1500 units, the album is produced by Stéphane Humez, edited and mastered by Maxime Marion and features liner notes by writer Kaya Savas that feature new insights from Zimmer and Levinson. Dan Goldwasser designs the booklet and package art.
Intrada is revisiting a favorite release in their discography with a new remastered version of Basil Poledouris' score to Quigley Down Under. The 1990 film, directed by Lonesome Dove helmer Simon Wincer, starred Tom Selleck as an American sharpshooter who gets mixed up with a fellow countrywoman (Laura San Giacomo) and a plot by a corrupt rancher (Alan Rickman) to harm Aboriginal people in the Australian outback. Though dismissed by critics at the time - it opened a few weeks before a similar period piece, Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves - it's gained a following by Western enthusiasts thanks to recurrent cable broadcasts. Poledouris, who took home an Emmy Award scoring Lonesome Dove for Wincer, employs classic Romantic and Western styles to create a score that was a favorite of Intrada's late head honcho Douglass Fake, who released the score just a few years after Poledouris' work on Red Dawn became the label's first ever album. This new reissue sonically expands upon previous releases, with a new 24-bit high-definition transfer of the score from 2" 24-track session tapes, assembled and mixed by Mike Matessino. Jeff Bond writes new liner notes for the package.
Finally, from Varese Sarabande comes a new vinyl pressing of one of the most acclaimed films of the '90s. Adapted and directed by Anthony Minghella from a fact-based novel by Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient starred Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas as a couple whose forbidden, star-crossed love takes place against the backdrop of World War II - and across tautly edited flashback sequences. Co-starring Willem Dafoe and an Oscar-winning supporting turn by Juliette Binoche, The English Patient became the biggest blockbuster in the history of indie studio Miramax, taking home Academy Awards in nine categories including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing and Best Original Score. Lebanese composer Gabriel Yared, known for his work in French cinema, enjoyed a career breakthrough with his stirring work - which also won a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and a Grammy - and would collaborate with Minghella on three more films, including Oscar-nominated scores to The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain. This special double LP presentation will be pressed on double vinyl and available in two colorways: a standard "Saharan sun" orange, and a "sands of love" custard offering. (The latter is a Barnes & Noble exclusive.)
Hans Zimmer, Rain Man (Music from the MGM Motion Picture) (La-La Land Records LLLCD 1662, 2025 - original film released 1988)
- Drive from Country
- Empty House - Charlie's Memories
- Drive to Bank and Wallbrook
- Leaving Wallbrook
- Traffic Accident and Aftermath
- Train Crossing - Walk, Don't Run
- Farmhouse
- Putting Ray to Bed - On the Road
- Las Vegas
- Smoke Alarm, Aftermath
- Pancakes
- My Main Man
- Train Station Goodbye
- End Credits
- Rain Man 2000 Concert Suite (Demo)
- Piano Music (Source)
- On the Road (Panpipe and Bass)
- Smoke Alarm, Aftermath (Alternate)
- Leaving Wallbrook - On the Road
- Las Vegas - End Credits
Tracks 1-14 released on Perseverance Records PRD 037, 2010
Tracks 15-18 previously unreleased
Tracks 19-20 released on Capitol C1-91866, 1988
Basil Poledouris, Quigley Down Under (Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack) (Intrada ISC 518, 2025 - original film released 1990)
- Main Title
- The Fight
- The Redcoats Move On
- Arrival
- The Test
- Marston's Game
- Quigley Pans Out
- Quigley Gets Beat Up
- The Stabbing
- The Desert Trek
- Aborigines
- Native Montage
- Cora's Story
- Marston's Murderers
- Royus Interrupts
- The Cliff
- The Bodies
- The Baby
- You'll Be Back
- Rising of the Moon
- Dingo Attack
- The Fire
- Under the Boat
- Quigley and Cora
- The Gift
- The Warning
- The Attack
- The Capture
- Freedom
- The Aborigines Return
- Matthew Quigley
Portions previously released on Intrada MAF 7006D, 1990 and Prometheus XPCD 162, 2006
Gabriel Yared, The English Patient (Original Soundtrack Recording) (originally released as Fantasy FCD-16001-2, 1996 - reissued Fantasy VSD00739, 2025) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Barnes & Noble)
LP 1
Side A
- The English Patient
- A Retreat
- Rupert Bear
- What Else Do You Love?
- Why Picton?
- Cheek to Cheek - Fred Astaire
- Kip's Lights
- Hana's Curse
- I'll Always Go Back to That Church
- Black Nights
Side B
- Swoon, I'll Catch You
- Am I K. in Your Book?
- Let Me Come In!
- Wang Wang Blues - Benny Goodman
- Convento di Sant' Anna
- Herodotus
LP 2
Side C
- Szerelem, Szerelem - Muszikas feat. Márta Sebestyén
- Ask Your Saint Who He's Killed
- One O'Clock Jump - Benny Goodman
- I'll Be Back
- Let Me Tell You About Winds
- Read Me to Sleep
Side D
- The Cave of Swimmers
- Where or When - Shepherd's Head Jazz Orchestra
- Aria from The Goldberg Variations - Julie Steinberg
- Cheek to Cheek - Ella Fitzgerald
- As Far As Florence
- Én csak azt csodálom (Lullaby for Katharine)
I remember Lou Christie “Beyond The Blue Horizon” over the credits of Rain Man. I wasn’t familiar with it, and immediately fell in love with it. Too bad it’s not included.