great soundtracks

Casino Royale. Played this for my 4-year-old recently and he loved it; at least once a week he asks me to play "the tape with all the trumpets". I like it too (my favorite cheesy soundtrack), though not every week!

 

"Things to do in Denver When You're Dead."
dennis

 

After watching "the story behind the movie" from VH1 this passed weekend(great story with John Travolta explaining some of the scenes), I must choose: Saturday Night Fever

 

Well, I took all the obvious/easy ones I guess...

One soundtrack specific to a movie (as opposed to a compilation) that I simply adore, and probably isn't terribly well known (unless you're a big Ry Cooder fan) is the soundtrack to "Blue City". Great original soundtrack by Mr. Cooder. Not only a great soundtrack, but a fantastic album in its own right.

 

I liked the soundtrack, too ... some other good ones are ...

Any Henry Mancini Soundtrack
A Touch of Evil
Chinatown
Body Heat
Young Man With A Horn

 

To all the other great soundtracks listed here. I'll add Nightmare Before Christmas (unless someone else did and I missed it)

 

"The Stunt Man" (Dominic Frontiere), with a great song by Dusty Springfield

 

I love almost anything by Jerry Goldsmith! He has been a favorite of mine sice my early vinyl day's...my least favorite if any...Planet Of The Apes...

 

Hip pick! Lots of Cheap Trick on there! Pretty nasty little movie too.

Reminded me of the 1980 Tim Curry movie Times Square. The soundtrack is a very cool collection of punk/new wave tunes. Never on CD.

 

Agreed!!! It was long out of print for years, I was happy I picked it up when it first came out. Even then I did not see many copy's. When the CD of it came out, I could not believe it. Bought that one to. Today the title is easier to find.

 

rjp,

I started a thread like this back in 9/2/2002. I will link in this post so you can go there and read all the great reccomendations from back then. At any rate I am going to repost what i posted there.

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6657&highlight=movie


REPOST-
How about favorite movie soundtracks and if you feel so inclined a note or two about the sound quality. In my experience they can sound quite good.

Edit-
Good point about the two ways. So let's keep this to original musical scores for movies. We can do the compilation thread separately.

I'll start with-

Hamlet(1996 version)-
This Patrick Doyle soundtrack really has some amazing pieces on it. It is all over the map in the emotion it evokes from me. Royalty, desperation, anxiety, pride, envy, etc, etc. Borrowing heavily from several areas/disciplines of classical music it still manages to stay fresh throughout its long length. It has very good sound quality, though it sounds a little compressed. The parts with vocals however sound impressively in the concert hall.

Glory-
A soundtrack that works 100% on the emotional level, elevating the movie far above what it would be without such a work. Exhilarating and alternative sad, it evokes even more emotion for me after 9/11. Definitely steals from Carmina Burana for its "Charging Fort Wagner" piece; however that doesn't distract from the exhilaration of that cut. Excellent sound quality from another Shawn Murphy engineered recording. Take your flavor cd, vinyl, or DAD they all sound excellent in varying degrees. Huge sound stage be it the depth or width, good dynamic range, and excellent overall balance to the sound.

Batman(Tim Burton version)-
I love this Danny Elfman soundtrack. Dark, brooding, and in my opinion the best match to any comic type movie soundtrack. I still get goose-bumps listening to the "theme" cut. Early digital recording, but surprisingly good sounding thanks to Shawn Murphy the engineer. Excellent bass response, huge depth and width to the sound, definitely weak(as in lacking) on the top end though.

 

Never heard of the film music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold. I bought the DCC Gold disc solely because of the SH mastering. This is a 1962 recording of classic film scores from the 30s and 40s, conducted by Lionel Newman, Randy's uncle I think. If you see this disc ($7.50 at Music For A Song it was) , pick it up on blind faith! When I played it for my family, they said "hey, starwars!". John Williams may borrow from Kings Row as well as The Planets but at least he has good taste in sources. Has anyone else picked this up? Nice work, Steve.

 

Yup..it's a heck of a disk, great scores and great sound quality. HUGE soundstage...

 

For scores I'd add Rush, Requiem for a Dream and Last of the Mohicans. For compilations, I'd add Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Dazed and Confused (both), and The Harder They Come.

Can someone give some more info on Zabriski Point. I know it is Pink Floyd, but I have never heard it. And at one point when I searched for it, it was out of print (on CD). That was in 1996. Is it available again?

 

Paris, Texas

 

I've seen it around as a 2-CD set. Rhino/Turner Classic Movies, I think. Has a lot of extra stuff on it, obviously. Haven't tried it out myself.

ED

 

Thanks for the quick info, Ed. I'll keep my eyes open.