The Compilation Complication

1M1 7/7/99

By Jason Foster

This edition of 1M1 is admittedly a thrown-together column, thanks to the July 4th holiday and a bit of procrastination. But I will still try to come up with something interesting to say. Here goes...

The other day I was browsing the soundtrack section in a local record store and it hit me just how many film music compilations are out there. It also hit me that many of them border on boring and unnecessary.

I would say that around 10 percent of film music compilations offer anything worthwhile. Granted, many of these compilations are geared toward people with a very casual interest in film music. But still, a compilation that will impress a serious film music lover is hard to come by.

For me to even give a compilation a second look, it must meet two very important qualifications. I think these will apply to other people as well, since most of us aren't interested in the millionth recording of 'Adventure on Earth.'

1. The recording must be by a prominent orchestra - i.e. The London Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops, Royal Scottish, etc. None of these "Music Performed by the Main Street Pops Ensemble" you see for $5.99.

2. The album must contain a substantial amount of unreleased/out of print/otherwise unavailable music. Granted, these kinds of albums rarely happen, but occasionally we get something like the suite from THE GOONIES on Edel's 'Best of Adventure' or the BLACK SUNDAY suite from Silva. Usually I'm even happy with the one or two unreleased cues on Varese compilations like 'Hollywood '95' and '96.' Speaking of Varese, they're probably the best at doing good compilations, both of re-recordings and original tracks. For my money, their original tracks "samplers" from the early part of this decade ('Hollywood Soundstage,' 'Highway to Hollywood,' and 'Hollywood Backlot') remain three of the best compilations ever. I can think of at least ten full albums I bought because of tracks I heard on these three CDs. I wish they'd do more.

3. If a compilation must consist of otherwise readily available music, at least let it be music that hasn't been re-recorded a thousand times. It's always fun to hear two or three different interpretations of a particular piece.

As far as re-recordings go, the Eric Kunzel/Cincinnati Pops CDs used to be top notch. Several of their recording are actually better than the original soundtrack recordings - most notably for me their take on the SPACECAMP suite found on the Star Tracks II album. Their 'Hollywood's Greatest Hits, Vols. I and II' are also fine albums, each having a good amount of stuff that's not readily available elsewhere. But lately, the Kunzel CDs haven't been so hot. 'The Big Picture' album from a couple of years ago borders on terrible: tempos so slow they're painful -- orchestrations and arrangements so different from the originals that some pieces are almost unrecognizable at times. However, their recent baseball compilation, 'Play Ball,' looks like it might be worth buying. Anyone have it and want to comment?

Even with all the negativity most people have toward generic compilations, it's good to see interesting compilations coming from some major labels like Warner Bros. recent 4CD box set of film music (though only one disc featured score, but had some rare/unreleased pieces). Rhino, Rykodisc, and, of course, Varese also have had recent notable compilation releases.

Here are suggestions for future compilation releases:

-Unrecorded John Williams concert pieces. While technically not film music, there are some great concert pieces by Williams that haven't been commercially released.

-A Williams or Goldsmith album that has a good deal of music never been re-recorded or released at all. Stuff like THE MAN WHO LOVED CAT DANCING (a great Williams REIVERS-like Americana score from 1973), HEARTBEEPS, and THE SPIRAL ROAD and THE CHALLENGE. I'd buy that.

Here are some reader comments about last week's column on film music used outside of a film.

>From <takisjoh@pilot.msu.edu> (John Takis):

"In response to your film-music outside of film query:

You can't get through most major baseball or football games without hearing THE IMPERIAL MARCH played from the bleachers by the marching band. I often hear Goldsmith's march from PATTON playing over Golf montages or updates. Recently I heard THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK playing over the highlights of a tennis match."

>From <Bryan.Erdy@nbc.com> (Bryan Erdy):

"1993 NFC Championship Game.... "The feast" from HOOK.

1995 Dallas Vs. Washington.... Cut #2 from BAD GIRLS.

1997 Greenbay Vs Carolina... "The Dream" from TOTAL RECALL

That's all I could think of."

Yeah, I remember the 1996 NFC Championship Game between Green Bay and Carolina. My hometown Panthers had amazed us all by going 12-4 in only their second season. I vividly remember Fox using the big finale music from TIN CUP during the lead in. It was pretty cool. That was a fun season. Then came the sucking.

>From <kurkoskt@oit.edu>

"I don't know if you listen to public radio (my parents started this when I was in the womb), but on NPR they use all sorts of music as transitions between news bits. Usually the music used has a relation to the commentary or news just previous to the transition- this morning they played Jimmy Buffet after reading a listener's comment about a Buffet interview. Quite often, though, they use film music. Sometimes it's a classic bit, like a certain Morricone theme we all know very well, or maybe Psycho or the Magnificent Seven. Sometimes they pick some of the less well known scores. There was a really good example I heard just the other day, but now I can't remember it.

Some other uses I've noticed of film music- a radio promo for the army used the heroic march from Glory; on the Austin Powers video, during one of the alternate endings the theme from the Great Escape was used.

>From <acope@aristotle.net> (Alex Cope):

" A lot of film music was used in Saturday Night Live. I'm talking about the older episodes with Mike Myers when the show was really good. One episode- a really bizarre one- had one of Myers' characters falling asleep in a movie theater and dreaming something that resembled a cologne commercial. The music underscoring the first part was from Goldsmith's score to the Twilight Zone episode THE INVADERS. The second part used a selection from Herrman's Twilight Zone score WALKING DISTANCE. One skit with Christopher Walken doing a parody of his Dead Zone character used music from Young's HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER 2. Its use was hilarious, using the same shock chord every time Walken would grab someone and tell them that a sesame seed would hurt their tooth or that they would soon get an ice cream headache. "It's gonna hurt.. real bad.""

Yes, I remember that sketch well. I'd always wondered what that music was, though, so thanks for informing me. SNL has used a lot of film music over the years. The most unusual I can remember was a sketch where Prince Charles (Dana Carvey) was dressed to look like a, shall we say, "feminine hygene" product. The background music was from Georges Delerue's MEMORIES OF ME. Quite interesting.

>From <roman.deppe@metronet.de> (Roman Deppe):

"I just wanted to mention, that our beloved Simpsons attended in one show a concert, where STAR WARS was played. Homer is totally disappointed with the laser show and the performance, so he cries out: "John Williams would rotate in the grave if he could see this!".

I can't think of any other film composer who was ever used for such a great joke. I mean, this shows that Williams must even be very popular among the general public (and not only us freaks) or at least the producers thought he is."

I've always loved that joke. Yet another reason why 'The Simpsons' is the smartest and funniest show on television today.

Thanks to everyone for the comments.

FYI: I saw a sneak preview of AMERICAN PIE last night. Go see it if you like toilet humor. It's great.

Feedback: jgfoster93@hotmail.com