Fans of John Barry have double the delight coming their way this week, with two hugely expanded scores from the late British composer. First up is one of the weirdest films Barry's got his name on: the critically-maligned, George Lucas-produced adaptation of Marvel Comics' Howard The Duck. The film, co-starring Lea Thompson as Howard's...uh...human love interest, was scored by Barry and re-scored in part by composer Sylvester LeVay. Part of Barry's score ended up on the second side of a
Throughout a long, celebrated career, the late John Barry scored roughly 100 films (including eleven James Bond movies), picked up five Academy Awards, penned classic television themes, and wrote five musicals. But before all of those mighty accomplishments, the Yorkshire native formed his own band, The John Barry Seven. While leading the septet, he was hired by EMI as an orchestral arranger - which in turn, led to his first film assignments. The early days of Barry's career have been
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Neil Diamond, 50th Anniversary Collector's Edition (Capitol/UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Neil Diamond revisits a 50+-year career with a new 6-CD, 115-song retrospective box set featuring hits, rarities, and 15 previously unreleased tracks including the original demos of "America" and "I Am...I Said." Everything is packaged within a deluxe hardcover book-style format. 50th Anniversary Collector's Edition expands upon 2017's
Lulu's first album promised Something to Shout About, and indeed, throughout a career now spanning six decades, the Scottish pop singer has always delivered with her full-throated, soulful belt. In 1972, Lulu wrapped up her tenure at Atco Records - in which she reinvented herself in full southern soul mode - and signed to Wes Farrell's RCA-distributed Chelsea label. At Chelsea, she released two albums: 1973's Lulu and 1976's Heaven and Earth and the Sky. Both of those LPs have just returned
Cherry Red's él imprint had a busy 2016, most recently with a number of titles from Anita Kerr including We Dig Anita! and box sets dedicated to her recordings with The Anita Kerr Singers and The San Sebastian Strings. We've already filled you in on most of the imprint's titles from last year, but here are some nice things you might have missed from the él catalogue, many of which have been drawn from the vaults of Ember Records. John Barry Plays 007 and Other '60s Themes for Film,
We're continuing our Movie Monday with a look at the most recent soundtrack releases from Varese Sarabande's CD Club! It's all "B"s in Varese Sarabande's newest CD Club batch, but these are all A-list scores! The label is expanding two great sci-fi/action scores--Basil Poledouris' RoboCop 3 (1993) and Marco Beltrami's Hellboy (2004)--and releasing a special reissue of John Barry's Jagged Edge (1985). There's no superhero quite like Hellboy. As depicted in the Dark Horse Comic of the same
In the halcyon days of the British Invasion, Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde notched an impressive eleven Hot 100 singles and six Top 100 albums in the United States. Their appealing blend of folk and pop, with soft, often hushed vocals and tight harmonies, earned them the attention of Columbia Records, where they recorded five albums before disbanding. Cherry Red's RPM imprint has recently released a 2-CD, 57-track collection bringing together Chad and Jeremy's early recordings for Ember (in the
Among Ace Records' recent releases is a collection that just might make you scream - make that "Primal Scream" - with elation. Bobby Gillespie Presents Sunday Morning Comin' Down is a mix CD curated by Primal Scream founder/Jesus and Mary Chain drummer. The Glasgow-born singer/songwriter/musician has selected 20 of his favorite tracks for Ace, and the result is a set that not only illuminates Gillespie's influences as an artist but stands on its own with thematic and sonic coherence. In
A classic '50s score and four popular '90s soundtracks from three beloved composers make up La-La Land Records' exciting-as-always Black Friday announcements. This year, the label has prepped expanded reissues of Dimitri Tiomkin's Giant (1956), 25th anniversary editions of John Williams' Home Alone and John Barry'sDances with Wolves (both 1990) and two scores by the late James Horner: 1994's The Pagemaster and 1995's Braveheart. All five limited edition CD sets will be available to order on
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring the return of a veteran artist, celebrations of the renowned musicians of Nashville and Los Angeles, a classic Disney soundtrack, and much more! Various Artists, Dylan, Cash and the Nashville Cats: A New Music City (Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Legacy teams with the Country Music Hall of Fame for this 2-CD, 36-song companion soundtrack to the Nashville museum's current exhibit chronicling Music City's fusion of country of rock.
Happy Birthday, Kritzerland! Ten years ago this month, producer Bruce Kimmel, known for his work at labels including Bay Cities and Varese Sarabande, launched the Kritzerland label. Since 2005, Kritzerland has released over 150 CDs: classic soundtracks from composers like Burt Bacharach, Henry Mancini, John Barry and John Williams, vintage cast recordings of musicals including stunning remixes of Follies and Promises, Promises, and solo albums by artists such as Sandy Bainum and the elusive
Everything about The Deep was big. Jaws author Peter Benchley was guaranteed over half a million dollars by impresario Peter Guber for film rights to his unpublished follow-up in a deal which seemed justified when The Deep finally arrived and quickly became a bestseller. For his big screen-ready underwater adventure, Guber had a big budget, big locations for shooting, and a big partner in Neil Bogart's Casablanca Records. Bogart wasn't known for doing anything small, and as the inaugural
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
His name is Barry...John Barry. And the famed film composer's score to the 1966 spy thriller The Quiller Memorandum is one of the two latest soundtrack reissues from Intrada. The film score specialists have also just released a 2-CD set of four scores drawn from the legendary films of George Pal. War of the Worlds/When Worlds Collide includes, as bonuses, The Naked Jungle and Conquest of Space. These four soundtracks are the work of Leith Stevens (War of the Worlds, When Worlds Collide),
When John Barry won two 1967 Academy Awards for his work on Born Free, the trophies were a vindication. Over the initial objections of his director, Barry envisioned his score to reflect a "Disneyesque kind of movie, lovely family entertainment" and fought for the dramatic integrity of that sound. Twelve years later, Barry actually got his chance to score a Walt Disney Productions motion picture. One of many science-fiction epics produced in the wake of Star Wars, Disney's The Black Hole was
John Barry may have passed away in January, but the film score titan has hardly been forgotten. Kritzerland just scored a quick sell-out on its new edition of Barry's score to Until September, while Quartet Records has reissued The Knack...and How to Get It on CD. The Classic Brit Awards has announced that Barry will be the first-ever posthumous recipient of an award, while a June 20 concert at London's Royal Albert Hall will celebrate his legacy with performances and remembrances from Sir
It is with a heavy heart that I pass along to you the news that film composer John Barry died on Sunday. Barry, a five-time Oscar winner, is of course best known for his work on 12 of the 22 James Bond films. Though his authorship of the iconic theme is under dispute even after a U.K. court ruled that it was Dr. No composer Monty Norman's work alone, Barry is still the name most synonymous with Bond music, and crafted some of the series' best themes. The timing of Barry's passing comes at an
Kritzerland continues to mine the MGM/UA soundtrack library for its latest release, a two-for-one CD. The disc, a limited edition of 1,000, contains the score to Bryan Forbes' 1967 thriller The Whisperers composed by the legendary John Barry as well as Richard Rodney Bennett's score to Sidney Lumet's 1977 adaptation of Peter Shaffer's play Equus. (Barry's very different score to The Deep has already enjoyed a terrific reissue earlier this year, courtesy our friends at Intrada, and it's been