Henry Mancini’s film score work has been anthologized numerous times, and the latest such release is due August 24 from Legacy as part of their ongoing The Essential… series. The Essential Henry Mancini is a 2-disc overview containing 36 tracks, dating between 1958 and 1983. During that time, Mancini was one of Hollywood’s most prolific composers, creating memorable themes for the big and little screens alike. Mancini’s longterm collaboration with Blake Edwards ranks with the Danny Elfman/Tim
Friday Feature: "Reality Bites"
There are plenty of moviegoers in any given week who look at the films playing at their local theatre, shake their head and conclude that Hollywood is no longer making movies for "them." One only wonders how the winter of 1994 was for that crowd when Reality Bites was released. One of the most explicitly Generation X movies ever created, Reality Bites follows the trials and tribulations of a group of twentysomethings in 1990s Houston. There's Leilaina (Wynona Ryder), a college valedictorian
More Score to Adore
With no shortage of catalogue film score news and announcements in the past week, The Second Disc adds to that with two releases from Intrada and a few rumblings about La La Land. First, the releases: Lalo Schifrin's score to the newspaper drama The Mean Season and George Delerue's fanciful score to the Glenn Close comedy Maxie, both released in 1985, are getting their first-ever releases as part of Intrada's Special Collection. Both albums feature a new sequencing experiment for the label: big
Romantic Hamlisch Coming Soon from Kritzerland
This is shaping up to be an exciting week for classic soundtrack fans. Hot on the heels of Film Score Monthly’s announcement of a Bronislau Kaper collection, Kritzerland unveiled its latest release Monday morning: Marvin Hamlisch’s score to the 1983 film Romantic Comedy. Hamlisch is too often underrated in the film scoring department, although can you really call someone underrated who has amassed three Academy Awards, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, four Grammy Awards, a Tony Award and
News Round-Up: New Stage and Screen Releases from Kaper, Loesser and More
There's rarely such a thing as a Monday matinee, but that won't keep The Second Disc from ushering in the week with news of a quintet of reissues from our friends at Film Score Monthly and Sepia Records. These exciting releases are sure to please devotees of both soundtracks and cast albums. Film Score Monthly kicks things off with their new release of BUtterfield 8: Bronislau Kaper at M-G-M, Volume 1 (FSM 1309). Kaper rarely seems to be afforded the acclaim given to many of his contemporaries,
Friday Feature: "Ghostbusters"
For whatever cosmic reason, 1984 was a huge cosmic intersection for pop music and film. Prince exploded into the national consciousness with Purple Rain, Kenny Loggins continued his run as America's go-to soundtrack guy with his contributions to Footloose. Stevie Wonder called The Woman in Red to say he loved her, Harold Faltermeyer helped make Eddie Murphy a superstar with "Axel F." from Beverly Hills Cop. Even Phil Collins had a soundtrack hit, against all odds. And then there was
"Batman," "Krull" to Be Expanded by La-La Land
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AdEHOta-Uc] La-La Land Records has announced its next batch of catalogue soundtrack reissues - and they're two big names to fans of '80s action/fantasy films. Danny Elfman's iconic score to the 1989 film version of Batman and James Horner's music from Krull (1983) are getting lavish expanded releases for the month of July. Batman, part of La-La Land's Expanded Archival Collection series, will feature, for the first time ever, the full score as
News Round-Up: Coming Soon from Audio Fidelity, Kritzerland & Masterworks Broadway
There's lots of label action to report today, so let's just jump right in: Hot on the heels of this week's release of Stevie Wonder's Talking Book and Laura Nyro's Time and Love: The Essential Masters, Audio Fidelity has announced two more titles to receive the 24K Gold CD reissue treatment. Coming up are two 1980s classics: Rickie Lee Jones' 1989 Flying Cowboys, produced by Walter Becker of Steely Dan, and Billy Idol's Rebel Yell, the 1983 album that catapulted Idol to superstardom. Steve
Score Round-Up: Intrada Goes to Washington and La-La Land is the Judge
The week (or post-holiday part of the week) kicks off few release notes from around the soundtrack catalogue labels. Intrada has two releases - one which celebrates another hero of the early days of the U.S.A. - and La-La Land has a two-fer dealing with the films of a biting American satirist. Intrada's releases are The Black Bird - Jerry Fielding's 1976 score to the goofy semi-sequel to The Maltese Falcon - and Laurence Rosenthal's score to the 1984 miniseries George Washington (the label
Friday Feature - "Jaws: The Revenge"
Let's get the facts out of the way first: Jaws: The Revenge (1987), the third sequel to one of the best horror films of all time, is terrible. It is quite possibly the worst movie ever made. It is so bad that I once watched the film with a friend and we ended up taking a break (with the film, not with our friendship, though that could have just as easily happened). The plot is ludicrous: Ellen Brody (Lorraine Gary), the widow of Roy Scheider's heroic police chief from the first two Jaws films,
It is Spartacus
Confirming months of rumor and speculation, Varese Sarabande Records has announced the full specifications for a lavish box set version of the music to Alex North's score to the classic sword-and-sandal epic Spartacus. The honchos at Varese weren't kidding; the venerable score label's latest limited release (the 1000th to be produced by longtime producer Robert Townson) is easily the largest set ever devoted to a single film score. A jaw-dropping six CDs and a DVD make up the set, featuring the
Friday Feature: "Grease"
Quick, name a late '70s blockbuster with a propulsive, lasting soundtrack! Okay, now name one that wasn't written by John Williams. Chances are you've got two films atop your list: Saturday Night Fever and Grease. Both were classics of their time, full of dancing, John Travolta and the influence of one or more Brothers Gibb. But it's the latter we're going to look at to definitively cap our look at summer reissues. Even 32 years after its release, Grease still seems to be the word - the film,
News Round-Up: Prince Possibilites, Soundtrack Bits, Plus Bon Jovi Reaction
Here's something that'll get tongues wagging: gossip blogger Dr. Funkenberry, known for his commentary and scoops around the Prince camp, reported that The Artist partook in a meeting at the headquarters of former label, Warner Bros. The idea is that his upcoming album, 20Ten, will get a release with several European publications (similar to the release of 2007's Planet Earth), but will be released through WB in the U.S. PLEASE let this mean that reissues are in the cards somewhere. Pitchfork
Friday Feature: "Toy Story"
This week's Friday Feature should come as no surprise. There's one movie on more minds than any other this week: Toy Story 3, the 11th effort by Disney's Pixar Animation Studios. Like the other films in the series, it promises to be a funny, adventurous and touching affair that adults will connect to as easily as kids. Like the others, it promises massive box office returns and universal acclaim (as of this writing, film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes has not picked up a single negative
La-La Land Goes to "The Edge" with "Speed 2"
Bad puns all, I know. But the title at least lets you know that La-La Land continues its killer pace of getting great soundtracks to dig out from the vaults. Up for sale this week is two 20th Century Fox films from the '90s with Sony-owned soundtracks. Mark Mancina's score to Speed 2: Cruise Control, a score with more to offer than the silly, Sandra Bullock-led sequel to the action hit, makes its official debut on CD. Meanwhile, Jerry Goldsmith's score to The Edge, a David Mamet-penned nature
Friday Feature: "Batman (1989)"
And one last foray into the Prince catalogue on The Second Disc with what is arguably one of the dopiest entries in his catalogue. To some, it seems like a total work for hire, a hatchet job, a cash-in - and while that may be the case, it's kind of a fun listen. That's right: Prince's album devoted to the 1989 film Batman. The story goes that star Jack Nicholson was the one who suggested Prince to director Tim Burton. After editing two scenes to a temp track of Prince tunes ("1999" for the
Soundtrack Reissue Round-Up: Beyond Thunderdome and Another Brian May
It might be premature to write about the film score news of the day - especially since the La-La Land label will be announcing some titles later today - but a few labels have announced some worthwhile titles to kick off your Tuesday morning. Although it was announced late last month, the Tadlow Music label is now shipping copies of the complete score to Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, composed and conducted by Maurice Jarre (an Oscar winner for Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago). This deluxe
It Might Be (The Soundtrack for) You
The Film Score Monthly label has prepped another two titles for release: two very different scores from two different composers, but winners both. First up is Jerry Goldsmith's in-demand score for the Sean Connery space Western Outland (1981). Goldsmith created a score that resembled his suspenseful approach to Alien from two years before, and it was augmented by some last-minute additions by Michael Boddicker (Buckaroo Banzai, Flashdance and session work for Michael Jackson) and Morton Stevens
Friday Feature: Prince on Film
The Second Disc reader Robert Altman was predicting the future when he suggested a week devoted to Prince a few days ago. Prince - one of the most polarizing and intriguing figures to ever saunter onto the pop music scene - deserves reams (or gigabytes, in this case) written about his music and its impact, and The Second Disc promises to deliver in that regard. From this Friday to next Friday - going right through Prince's 52nd birthday on Monday - TSD will present a few features on Prince's
Boldly Going Back
Man, it's been a good week for Star Trek music enthusiasts. First Film Score Monthly announces a brand-new deluxe reissue of James Horner's score to Star Trek III: The Search for Spock last week. And now, Varese Sarabande has jumped ahead on the Trek timeline to give fans another new deluxe set: starting June 14, the label will ship Star Trek: The Deluxe Edition, featuring the complete score to last year's fantastic reboot of the sci-fi series. As if the movie wasn't great enough on its own
Friday Feature: A Discful of "Dollars"
Blame the continuing heat in the Northeast. Blame the recent release of video game Red Dead Redemption. But it's just a good time for some great music from the "spaghetti Westerns," that subgenre of film where the Italian film community emulated and built upon the traditions of the American Western picture. Ask any film scholar and they'll likely tell you that few directors contributed more for the genre than Sergio Leone - and futhermore, that his best works had Ennio Morricone providing a
Soundtrack News Round-Up: Spock, Mancini and Spartacus
Well, here's a nice surprise. Following their masterfully-done expansion of James Horner's score to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan last year, Film Score Monthly presents a double-disc reissue of Horner's Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. The unlimited set includes the complete score on one disc and the original LP presentation on the other. Intrada's announced some new titles as well. Les Baxter's score to The Beast Within and Henry Mancini's jazzy soundtrack to 99 and 44/100% Dead!, both
Reissue Theory: Galactic Novelties
The Star Wars saga continues at The Second Disc with a trove of often-ridiculous but always intriguing musical curios devoted to the films. It's as much a story of disco and a rock legend from New Jersey as it is about Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. And it's yours to read after the jump.
Friday Feature: The Star Wars Trilogy
It was three decades ago today that The Empire Strikes Back was released. Much has been written about what the movie did for the Star Wars trilogy as a cultural force (no pun intended), for sequels in general and so on. But let's not kid ourselves here: when Empire first came out, it was not seen as the masterpiece it is now. The New York Times gave this film - easily the most watchable of the three Star Wars movies - a largely negative write-up. But whatever the merit of such reviews nowadays,
Friday Feature: "Psycho"
It is one of the greatest motion picture scores of all time. A suspense classic that immortalized its composer and director for all time. Arguably the most influential in its style. And, half a century later, has never been properly released on any format, ever. Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film, was a stunner from the get-go - not only unlike any film at the time, but unlike any in The Master of Suspense's lengthy career. The film starts out simply: a conflicted young woman steals a hefty