The Best In Film Music

[RogerD]

I thought I would start a thread on probably my favorite category of music. Written to capture the drama,comedy,and action of the great and not so great films.

The list of composers is impressive.

Erich Korngold, Alex North,Benard Hermann,Dimitri Tiomkin,Franz Waxman, Max Steiner,Hugo Freidhofer,Elmer Burnstein,Miklos Rosa,ect.

Just to name a few.

Here is a small list of my favorite albums and soundtracks,

Spartacus, Alex North
A place in the sun, Franz Waxman, music from hollywood,Columbia CK66691
The Sea Hawk, Korngold, RCA 7800-2-RG
El Cid, Miklos Rosa, Koch 3-7604-2
The world of Suzie Wong, George Duning RCA 74321720582
The Best years of our lives, Hugo Freidhofer

Just a few to get the ball rolling. I'm sure everybody has favorites.

 

[Steve Williams]

I thought I would start a thread on probably my favorite category of music. Written to capture the drama,comedy,and action of the great and not so great films.

The list of composers is impressive.

Erich Korngold, Alex North,Benard Hermann,Dimitri Tiomkin,Franz Waxman, Max Steiner,Hugo Freidhofer,Elmer Burnstein,Miklos Rosa,ect.

Just to name a few.

Here is a small list of my favorite albums and soundtracks,

Spartacus, Alex North
A place in the sun, Franz Waxman, music from hollywood,Columbia CK66691
The Sea Hawk, Korngold, RCA 7800-2-RG
El Cid, Miklos Rosa, Koch 3-7604-2
The world of Suzie Wong, George Duning RCA 74321720582
The Best years of our lives, Hugo Freidhofer

Just a few to get the ball rolling. I'm sure everybody has favorites.

are you looking for an original score written by a composer specific for that movie or rather are you looking for a movie that has compilations from that era of the film? If so I would include Gladiator

IIRC it was George Lucas who was so responsible for getting super sound tracks with vintage songs into his movie with the first being American Grafitti. Then along came Stephen King's Stand By Me

 

[RogerD]

are you looking for an original score written by a composer specific for that movie or rather are you looking for a movie that has compilations from that era of the film? If so I would include Gladiator

IIRC it was George Lucas who was so responsible for getting super sound tracks with vintage songs into his movie with the first being American Grafitti. Then along came Stephen King's Stand By Me

Steve,

I guess it doesn't matter as the music from "American Grafitti" is counted as one of my favorites. But I mainly am interested in original film scores.

I'll add another soundtrack I play quite a bit.

Chinatown, Elmer Bernstein

 

[RBFC]

Malcolm Arnold with The Bridge over the River Kwai was a great tune that stuck in your head.

Lee

 

[RogerD]

Malcolm Arnold with The Bridge over the River Kwai was a great tune that stuck in your head.

Lee

Who could forget the Colonel Bogey march.

 

[RUR]

The Best years of our lives, Hugo Freidhofer

One of my favorites, too, Roger - both the score and the movie. A remastered Blu-ray would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath.

In the early '70s, I worked with the president of the Max Steiner Music Appreciation Society, who knew Mrs. Steiner fairly well. An odd kind of guy who wrote a book about his alien abduction(!), over time he gifted me with every LP of a Steiner score then extant.

 

[RogerD]

One of my favorites, too, Roger - both the score and the movie. A remastered Blu-ray would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath.

In the early '70s, I worked with the president of the Max Steiner Music Appreciation Society, who knew Mrs. Steiner fairly well. An odd kind of guy who wrote a book about his alien abduction(!), over time he gifted me with every LP of a Steiner score then extant.

Max wrote some great scores including " a summer place", one of my all time favorites.

Hugo was said to have learned from Korngold. I have the CD and the barkley crocker tape of best years, I treasure them.

 

[jadis]

1. OST from The Mambo Kings (I have both the CD and a German pressed LP)
2. Ennio Morricone's C'era Una Volta Il West (Once Upon A Time in the West)
3.. Bernard Herrmann's Mysterious World & Fantasy World (both on Decca PFS)

 

[amirm]

Great topic!

I am a big fan of Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard:

The Last Samurai -- incredibly emotional soundtrack
The Village. The violin is just haunting in there and superb fit to the movie. I practically see the whole movie again every time I listen to it!
The Da Vinci Code. Didn't like the movie much but the soundtrack is excellent.

On the classic front, the soundtrack for Amadeus was excellent although pretty old.

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

One of my favourites is the soundtrack from "Duck You Sucker" by Ennio Morriconi.

John

 

[MylesBAstor]

One of my favourites is the soundtrack from "Duck You Sucker" by Ennio Morriconi.

John

Yep!

 

[jadis]

Oh, I forgot to mention Mancini's HATARI OST, and OST from Missouri Breaks. Great recordings and great music.

 

[rblnr]

Love Ennio Morricone -- Once Upon a Time in America is an all time fave movie and soundtrack.

Pino Dinaggio has also done some great scores for DePalma, Body Double in particular. Alex North on Chinatown, anything by Bernard Herrmann -- there are so many. I've got some great compilation disks.

A great contemporary soundtrack is David Holmes' work on Out of Sight -- really cool. The CD is a lot of fun too because it mixes in dialogue from the movie, and the licensed music is great as well. The 'Tub Scene' cut on the CD is representative of much of the scoring.

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

Not a score per se, but an excellent soundtrack nonetheless: Ry Cooder's "Crossroads"!

Now if only they'd release this on Blu-ray!

John

 

[RBFC]

Jasom Bloom of Apogee turned me onto Danny Elfman's Music for a Darkened Theater, which has snippets of his movie soundtracks. The original Batman soundtrack was iconic.

Lee

 

[MylesBAstor]

Jasom Bloom of Apogee turned me onto Danny Elfman's Music for a Darkened Theater, which has snippets of his movie soundtracks. The original Batman soundtrack was iconic.



Lee

Haven't heard it in years but tthe original Batman sountrack on CD sounded pretty good in its day!

 

[MylesBAstor]

Here's a few from my shelves, some on HP's list, others not and one or two that I suggested to HP

Carpenter: They Live Enigma (pretty good movie too!)
Philip Glass: Koyaanisqatsi Antilles New Directions
Mark Knofler: Music from the Film Cal Polygram
Cousteau Amazon Varese Sarabande (tests them subwoofers!)
Horner: Glory Virgin (orignal release)
John Williams: The Missouri Breaks UA (also original release)
Rozsa: Ben Hur Decca PF (UK release)
Rozsa: Quo Vadis Decca PF (UK release)
The Hot Spot (45 rpm) Analogue Productions
Laurence Rosenthal: Rashomon Carlton Records
Jarre: Equinoxe Polydor
Jarre: Oxygene Polydor
Jarre: The Professionals
Bacharach: Casino Royale Colgems (original)
Duck You Sucker UA
Vangelis: Opera Sauvage Polygram
Herrmann The Fantasy Film World of Bernhard Herrmann Decca PF (UK release or MFSL)
Herrmann: The Mysterious Film World of Bernhard Herrmann Decca PF (UK release or MFSL)
Holmrich: Emerald Forest Varese Sarabande
Herrmann: Four Faces of Jazz Decca PF (UK release or MFSL)
Flight of the Condor BBC Records (original release)
Bernstein: Ghost and Mrs. Muir Film Music Classic

 

[RogerD]

Here's a few from my shelves, some on HP's list, others not and one or two that I suggested to HP

Carpenter: They Live Enigma (pretty good movie too!)
Philip Glass: Koyaanisqatsi Antilles New Directions
Mark Knofler: Music from the Film Cal Polygram
Cousteau Amazon Varese Sarabande (tests them subwoofers!)
Horner: Glory Virgin (orignal release)
John Williams: The Missouri Breaks UA (also original release)
Rozsa: Ben Hur Decca PF (UK release)
Rozsa: Quo Vadis Decca PF (UK release)
The Hot Spot (45 rpm) Analogue Productions
Laurence Rosenthal: Rashomon Carlton Records
Jarre: Equinoxe Polydor
Jarre: Oxygene Polydor
Jarre: The Professionals
Bacharach: Casino Royale Colgems (original)
Duck You Sucker UA
Vangelis: Opera Sauvage Polygram
Herrmann The Fantasy Film World of Bernhard Herrmann Decca PF (UK release or MFSL)
Herrmann: The Mysterious Film World of Bernhard Herrmann Decca PF (UK release or MFSL)
Holmrich: Emerald Forest Varese Sarabande
Herrmann: Four Faces of Jazz Decca PF (UK release or MFSL)
Flight of the Condor BBC Records (original release)
Bernstein: Ghost and Mrs. Muir Film Music Classic

Nice list! Thank you Myles...

 

[rblnr]

Forgot an obvious one -- Shaft by Isaac Hayes. Love it

 

[RogerD]

I also want to mention "Grand Prix" by Maurice Jarre
Interesting in that in 1966 I attended a hi-fi show at the then Thunderbolt hotel in Milbrae -Burlingame Calif. James Gabbert was there and demonstrated a 4 channel recording of the soundtrack anyone from the Bay Area will remember Jim and his passion for 4 channel ,KPEN and then K-IOI were owned by him.The soundtrack was spectacular played through JBL L300 monitors if I remember correctly...a long time ago anyway the cars were racing around the track creating a sound field that was very real.I will never forget the experience and it made me a hifi nut to this day.I know there are a lot of Bay Area contributors on the board if anybody attended it would be great to hear there experiences with the show and K-IOI ect.
The Thunderbird Hotel was in the movie "Bullit" by the way.

Roger