Here's to movie soundtracks! Once again, tell us about some of your favorites. Soundtracks, too, have changed much in recent years. They are part of a cross-marketing tool. Many soundtrack songs now have videos that heavily promote the movie. Some soundtracks have little to do with the actual movie-- the movie, in effect, was just an excuse to produce an album of which the songs were never used. Examples: 1988: We all know Danny Elfman had the real soundtrack to the Batman movie. Prince desperately tried to convince the public his album was the real one. In truth, however, we didn't have all the music used on *one* album; only one of Prince's songs was used. 1996: I don't think any of the songs of the official soundtrack were ever used on Mission: Impossible. It is still fairly traditional to use orchestral styling for a movie soundtrack. But pop songs, apparently, are what producers figure the public will buy. It used to be that most all the songs were fit somewhere in the movie-- take Ghostbusters, for example, and you'll find all the songs.. somewhere.7 responses total.
I've got the "Batman" score CD (this is the Elfman orchestral stuff) which is really one of the best soundtracks I can recall. I also recently bought the "Planet of the Apes" score CD (more Elfman), which is cool but not quite as cool as "Batman". "Apes" also has a really hokey remix dance track at the end; if I listened to the CD more often I'd probably burn a copy with that track snipped. Anybody else here a Stewart Copeland fan? I've managed to accumulate most of his soundtracks (did "Wide Sargasso Sea" ever get released as a soundtrack?).
I don't go in much for the orchestral movie scores, but occasionally find a soundtrack compilation I really like. My favorite is probably the soundtrack from the film "Repo Man" but the soundtrack for the film "Velvet Goldmine" gets a lot of listening time (however, I wouldn't recommend the film..) My pet peeve about movie sountracks is soundtrack-exclusive tracks from favorite artists. I usually won't buy an entire album to get a single track and I hate having to make the decision..
What, I wonder, is with the absence of songs from the movies featuring them? I remember seeing "Ghostbusters" in a crowded theatre, full of people ready to clap along to the title song, which was a hit of the time, remember. Many times, the riff started up ... but they never played the song in full. The Addams Family film was made in the first place because the producer liked the TV show theme song, or so he said in an interview. But he didn't explain why it never appears in the film. I tend to like big, atmospheric orchestral music in my soundtracks. Ones I've enjoyed enough to buy over the years include Elfman's "Edward Scissorshands" (I might have liked his "Batman", too, but the film was otherwise so lousy) and Horner's "Apollo 13". I also bought Shore's "Fellowship of the Ring" but didn't consider it particularly good: competent hackwork by a competent hack.
I like the soundtrack to "Harold and Maude." 100% Cat Stevens.
Was it ever released as an album? "Trouble", "If You Want to Sing Out,
Sing Out", and maybe one other song ("Don't Be Shy"?) were released on
greatest hits collections but I can't recall ever seeing a soundtrack
release for the movie.
I had to make my own "Harold and Maude" soundtrack tape.
I agree, though, that it's both great music and complements the movie nicely..
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