Though John Barry crafted a lushly exquisite score for First Love in 1977 – the same year the film titan also lent his talent to The Deep and The White Buffalo – his name appeared nowhere in the credits to the romantic drama directed by Joan Darling. The director had enlisted Barry when she thought twice about the initial concept of using songs written by Cat Stevens and Paul Williams, but in the end, brief fragments of Barry’s score remained, uncredited, alongside songs from Stevens and Williams and orchestral cues from other…
Intrada Premieres Scores to “Joe Kidd,” “Flight of the Intruder”
This week, Intrada’s shaking off the dust on some little-heard, unreleased scores by two big names in film composing. We’ve heard and seen composer Basil Poledouris and director John Milius enjoy great success with their movie collaborations, namely Conan The Barbarian and Red Dawn in the early ’80s. For this 1991 Vietnam War flick (a favorite topic of the outspoken Milius), Poledouris was again on hand to create a rousing, militaristic action score. Never before released on CD, this disc presents the complete score to another excellent film music collaboration between friends. The label’s next title…
Kritzerland’s Got the Action with “Butch and Sundance” and Vintage Dean Martin Comedy
Kritzerland has just announced its first releases for 2013, and these two rare soundtracks, both of which are making their CD debuts, couldn’t be more different: George Duning’s Who’s Got the Action? and Patrick Williams’ Butch and Sundance: The Early Days. Almost ten years after the runaway success of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 20th Century Fox realized its hopes for a follow-up film with Butch and Sundance: The Early Days. At the conclusion of the first film, though, raindrops weren’t just falling on the titular anti-heroes’ heads: Butch and Sundance…
La-La Land Releases “Dave,” “The Relic” Scores
Following a strong 2012 release slate, La-La Land Records looks to be keeping the spirit of catalogue soundtracks alive with their first releases of the new year: one an expansion of a score to a modern comedy classic, the other a premiere release of the music to a ’90s sci-fi flick. Dave Kovic (Kevin Kline) is a simple businessman with a bizarre trait: he’s the spitting image of the President of the United States of America. When that president falls ill, his team decides to use Dave to their advantage. There’s just…
Intrada Goes Ape, Expands “Congo” and “Cromwell” Scores
Expanded scores by iconic composers? Reissues of soundtrack oddities paired with newly-discovered gems? Yes, it’s certainly 2013 at Intrada! The label unveiled its first two titles for the new year on Monday: complete presentations of Jerry Goldsmith’s score to Congo and Frank Cordell’s Cromwell. Released at the height of the mid-’90s post-Jurassic Park frenzy, Congo (which, like JP, was based on a techno-thriller novel by Michael Crichton) was the story of a team of scientists and mercenaries (and one gorilla fluent in sign language) searching for a mysterious diamond and finding a lost city populated by mysterious beasts….
Burt Bacharach’s “Together?” Finally Arrives On CD, Features Jackie DeShannon, Michael McDonald
Sexual liberation only goes so far… So went the tagline of director Armenia Balducci’s 1979 film Amo non amo. When the Italian drama starring Jacqueline Bisset, Maximilian Schell and Terence Stamp was slated for U.S. release, though, the decision was made to replace the score by Italian prog/symphonic “horror rock” band Goblin with a new, more accessible soundtrack. Burt Bacharach was tapped, and the Oscar-winning composer went far in lending an American flavor to the film, retitled for the U.S. market as Together? Like the film itself, though, its RCA Victor soundtrack album was seemingly…
We Love You Conrad, Oh Yes We Do: “Bye Bye Birdie” Film Soundtrack Turns 50, Is Newly-Expanded
Gray skies are gonna clear up… More than seven years before the first Tribe of Hair let the sun shine in, another cast of characters brought rock (and roll!) to the New York stage. Michael Stewart, Charles Strouse and Lee Adams’ smash hit musical Bye Bye Birdie skyrocketed its leading actors Dick Van Dyke and Chita Rivera to greater fame in 1960, alongside director/choreographer Gower Champion, in a sweet but timely tale of a hip-swiveling rocker about to go off to the Army and the one teenage girl who wins his “one…
Some Nice Things We’ve Missed: Quartet Records’ Trio of Sondheim and Double Mancini
As 2012 yielded to 2013, more than a few noteworthy releases may have been lost in the shuffle. Some of the most impressive of those December releases came from Spain’s Quartet Records. The label closed out the year with three particularly spectacular titles that no film score buff will want to miss. Two came from the prolific pen of Henry Mancini, perhaps the most-represented soundtrack composer in terms of 2012’s releases. Having previously issued the complete score to Curse of the Pink Panther (1982), the label turned its attention to 1978’s Revenge of…
In Case You Missed It: Stand Up and Cheer! Intrada Releases “Hoosiers” Soundtrack and More
We begin our first day of catalogue coverage for 2013 by…keeping up with some titles that came out last year that slipped through our wires. (I know, I know. Really, it just sat in drafts for a week or two while I kept wrapping presents instead of finalizing it. -Ed.) Rest assured, though, that these – the final three catalogue soundtrack releases from Intrada Records – are worth your time in any year. First up is one of Intrada’s most intriguing releases in awhile, in that it’s two scores for the same movie,…
Elmer Bernstein’s “Hud,” The Return of “Carrie” Among Latest Trio of Titles from Kritzerland
It’s been an incredibly busy morning for the Kritzerland label! While you have the chance to win some of Kritzerland’s best releases of 2012 today only for Second Discmas, the soundtrack specialists have just announced three new limited edition albums to close out the year: a two-fer from Elmer Bernstein and Nathan Van Cleave of Hud and The Lonely Man, respectively, plus another from Alex North and Adolph Deutsch of Hot Spell and The Rainmaker, and finally, a special Encore Edition release of Pino Donaggio’s score to Carrie! All three titles feature…
On the Fifth Day of Second Discmas…
Here at The Second Disc, the holiday season is the perfect time to do what we love to do best: share the gift of music. For the second year in a row, we have we reached out to some of our favorite reissue labels and we’ve teamed with them to play Santa Claus to our awesome and faithful readers. It’s called – what else? – Second Discmas, and it’s going on now through Christmas! The fifth day of Second Discmas is a celebration of all things stage and screen! We’re offering two…
Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Eddie Vedder, Johnny Depp, Nick Cave Join “Voices for Justice” on New Soundtrack
When not telling the story of The Hobbit on Middle Earth, film producers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh are hoping this winter to bring a different, real-life story to light. West of Memphis is their new documentary film directed by Amy Berg (Best Documentary Oscar nominee Deliver Us from Evil), so named for the Arkansas city of West Memphis in which three eight-year old boys were tragically killed in 1993. The film chronicles the battle to prove the innocence of the three young men convicted for the heinous crime, each of whom…
A Very (Television) Special Christmas: Legendary Brings Como, Burnett, “Sesame Street” to CD and DVD
Holiday specials have long been a television tradition, from the beloved (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, A Charlie Brown Christmas) to the programs their creators would rather forget (The Star Wars Holiday Special). Legendary Entertainment Alliance has recently drawn on the archives of producer Bob Banner for three new releases, each available as a DVD, a CD soundtrack and a CD/DVD combo pack. Christmas with Carol Burnett reaches back to the earliest tube appearances of the famed comedienne, presenting three episodes of The Garry Moore Show for the first time on home video. …
Black Friday 2012: Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Rolling Stones, Frank Zappa Lead Off Packed Slate of RSD Exclusives
Here in the U. S. of A., Black Friday is almost upon us: that unusual date following the prior day of giving thanks, in which consumers make a mad dash to the local big-box store, mall or shopping center to procure bargains for the holiday season ahead. Retailers are controversially beginning Black Friday “festivities” even earlier than usual this year, with many sales starting on Thanksgiving Day itself and not even at midnight but in the early part of the evening. For a number of recent years, music buyers have had our…
Career Man: Franz Waxman Score to Dean Martin, Shirley MacLaine Drama Premieres on CD
Releasing vintage film scores has long been “all in a night’s work” for the Kritzerland label. In June, Kritzerland issued Andre Previn’s score to the 1962 comedy All in a Night’s Work, a Paramount Picture starring Dean Martin and Shirley MacLaine. That was hardly the first onscreen pairing between the two offscreen pals, however. Dino and MacLaine first lit up the screen together in 1955’s Artists and Models, MacLaine’s second film and the fourteenth starring the Martin and Lewis comedy team. In 1958, Martin and MacLaine appeared opposite another Rat Packer, Frank…
It’s Mancini! It’s Disney! It’s “Condorman” and It’s Flying to You from Intrada! Plus: “Battlestar” and More!
The Intrada label is going up, up and away with their latest slate of releases – but Superman doesn’t have much to fear. No, the Intrada/Disney partnership is taking off instead with another heroic release: Henry Mancini’s original soundtrack of the zany family comedy Condorman! Last August, when prepping a Wish List of possible releases from the Disney vaults, I wrote of Condorman that “this loopy superhero comedy can count among its assets a high-flying, fun score by Henry Mancini. The composer brought his typical ingenuity to the tale of a comic…
JSP Goes Beyond the Rainbow with 4-CD Collection of “Creations” by Judy Garland
Judy Garland’s place in the annals of popular music would have been all but assured if she had only introduced Harold Arlen and E.Y. “Yip” Harburg’s “Over the Rainbow” to the world. After all, the Academy Award-winning song from The Wizard of Oz (1939) was ranked the No. 1 Song of the Century by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) and topped a list of the 100 Greatest Movie Songs compiled by the American Film Institute. Garland introduced another venerable standard when she…
The Splendor of Alfred Newman: “Love” and “The Seven Year Itch” Due on CD
The music of Alfred Newman’s son Thomas will resound at theatres in the United States this Friday with his score to the blockbuster-in-the-making James Bond film Skyfall. But what better time to revisit two classic scores from Thomas’ dad, perhaps the all-time dean of the film score? Following its recent restoration of Alfred’s score to 1951’s David and Bathsheba, the Kritzerland label is turning its attention to two more famous titles from the vast 20th Century Fox library, both from 1955: the romantic drama Love is a Many Splendored Thing and the…
T Stands For “Trouble Man”: Marvin Gaye Classic Gets Expanded on CD
At long last, Trouble Man. With the upcoming 40th anniversary edition of Marvin Gaye’s 1972 album currently slated for November 13 release, each one of the Motown legend’s studio albums between 1971’s seminal What’s Going On and 1982’s Midnight Love has been expanded as a 2-CD set. (In the case of What’s Going On, an even more deluxe edition was released in 2011.) Trouble Man, the soundtrack to the 20th Century Fox “blaxploitation” film, turned out to be Gaye’s only excursion into movie scoring. It followed the enormous success of What’s Going…
“Die Hard 2,” “Enemy Mine” Lead Off New Varese Batch
Like a sleeping giant, soundtrack reissue Varese Sarabande wakes only periodically and deliberately to release film and television scores from the vaults through their famed Soundtrack Club. In recent years, fans have bemoaned the lack of “Silver Age” scores – that is, more recent music from blockbuster films. That trend looks to change with the latest solid batch of limited edition reissues from Varese. First up, following Varese’s own limited edition of Michael Kamen’s score to Die Hard in 2002 (and a subsequent further expansion by La-La Land last holiday season), the label…
Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’: Sony Masterworks Boxes “Complete Rodgers and Hammerstein”
Back on September 10, we reported on Sony Masterworks’ Broadway in a Box, a 25-CD primer on the impressive musical theatre catalogue of Columbia, RCA Victor and associated labels. Contemplating Masterworks’ vast library, we opined, “A deluxe Rodgers and Hammerstein box could represent each of the duo’s stage musicals (save the posthumous adaptation of State Fair) with a disc from the Columbia and RCA Victor archives.” Well, such a deluxe box set is here, much sooner than we anticipated! On November 6, Masterworks will unveil Rodgers and Hammerstein: The Complete Broadway Musicals. …
Soundtrack Corner: We Will Always Love “The Bodyguard” Plus Jerry Lewis Goes “Geisha” and Les Baxter for Halloween
Though the 1992 soundtrack to Mick Jackson’s film The Bodyguard is the best-selling soundtrack album of all time, its success was largely on the strength of star Whitney Houston’s performances of “I Will Always Love You,” “I Have Nothing” and “I’m Every Woman.” Featured on just one track was the work of Alan Silvestri, the composer of Back to the Future and Who Framed Roger Rabbit who provided the film’s original score. The under-three minute snippet featured on the Grammy-winning Arista album barely scratched the surface of Silvestri’s score for The Bodyguard. …
GNP Crescendo Boldly Goes Again with New “Trek” Reissue
If you thought the Star Trek reissue renaissance couldn’t get any better this year, there’s at least one more release to bring your ears into maximum warp: GNP Crescendo, longtime Trek soundtrack label, announced yesterday an expanded edition of the score to 1994’s Star Trek: Generations. Generations came to theaters months after the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation, an excellent program which rekindled interest in Gene Roddenberry’s space franchise. It was no surprise that Patrick Stewart’s Captain Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC 1701-D) make the jump to the big screen; in this…
WE HAVE A WINNER!! 50 YEARS, 50 TRACKS OF JAMES BOND 007…CAN BE YOURS!
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNER, SCOTT FREIMAN (FAVORITE BOND THEME: “LIVE AND LET DIE”)!
Review: Vince Guaraldi Trio, “A Charlie Brown Christmas (2012 Remaster)”
Who buys a reissue? It’s a question many of us catalogue enthusiasts probably struggle with at one point or another. When I was a younger, more naive music fan in the New Jersey suburbs, my logic was unique but relatively sound: I could pay $13 or so for a classic album I wanted on CD, or I could save up what I earned mowing the family lawn and spend $30 on a version with more material, nicer packaging, all of that. More was always better, in my mind. Of course, it’s that…
Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention
September 25, 2026
