I guess I discovered him when my brother brought home LP's for The Ten Commandments, The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, and To Kill A Mockingbird. I love those scores as well as all of his westerns like Hallelujah Trail, The Commancheros, Big Jake, Scalphunters, and others.
What I want released are Love With A Proper Stranger, Captain And The Kings, and A River Runs Through it.
Those would all be wonderful. I keep forgetting about rejected scores, they seem so mythical! A River Runs Through It as composed by Elmer Bernstein would surely be bliss.
QUESTIONS 1. Tell me when did you first discover the music of Elmer Bernstein? 2. What are your favourite scores? 3. What Elmer Bernstein CD releases do you wish in the future?
1. Heavy Metal at the impressionable age of 12 (yep, my parents were THAT cool to let a prepube watch a psychotic R rated cartoon... jealous? ). The music stuck with me during my awakening to the power of film scores, yet it would be some time before realizing that they were available for sale, excepting of course Heavy Metal.
2. Ghostbusters, Heavy Metal, Great Escape, Last Man Standing, Saturn 3, Legal Eagles, 10 Commandments, Magnificent Seven.
3. An American Werewolf in London, Airplane, Meatballs, Slipstream, Robot Monster, and an expanded CD of Legal Eagles.
QUESTIONS 1. Tell me when did you first discover the music of Elmer Bernstein?
The Magnificent Seven theme without any doubts. The first time I recall it was used as a radio jingle on a local station.
2. What are your favourite scores?
To Kill A Mockingbird The World Of Henry Orient Summer And Smoke My Left Foot Rambling Rose (I could list all of his scores here but I'm choosing just the first few that come to mind)
3. What Elmer Bernstein CD releases do you wish in the future?
Baby The Rain Must Fall Class The Great Santini I Love You Alice B. Toklas ...and anything else!
Those would all be wonderful. I keep forgetting about rejected scores, they seem so mythical! A River Runs Through It as composed by Elmer Bernstein would surely be bliss.
In the list of rejected scores that was recently posted on Film Music Daily, Elmer Bernstein had around ten such rejected scores, near the tops for any composer.
Well, now nine years have gone by since the world of film music lost one of it's best men... just bumping this thread (the most appropriate I could find) as a wee reminder...
1. Tell me when did you first discover the music of Elmer Bernstein?
Probably the first LP of his I heard was WALK ON THE WILD SIDE, which I loved and still love madly. Soon after I saw and heard TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and became a permanent lifetime fan.
2. What are your favourite scores?
Other that the first listed, in no particular order: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD [#1] WALK ON THE WILD SIDE SUMMER AND SMOKE THE GREAT ESCAPE THE CARPETBAGGERS THE CARETAKERS THE MAGNIFICENT 7 THE RAT RACE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS CAHILL U. S. MARSHAL and too many others that deserve mention
3. What Elmer Bernstein CD releases do you wish in the future?
Still waiting on full OSTs for TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, WALK ON THE WILD SIDE and THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Recent releases such as Kritzerland's expanded/remastered SUMMER AND SMOKE and Intrada's THE CARPETBAGGERS have reduced my "grail" list to a very short one...
Though I admire many composers and many scores, no other film music composer so consistently plucked my heart strings as did Elmer Bernstein. Still mourning the loss.
1. I heard his music a number of times before I took note of his name on THE GREAT ESCAPE. In 1965 you could get LPs OF his soundtracks to: THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM THE TEN COMMANDMENTS DRANGO MEN IN WAR SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS GOD'S LITTLE ACRE KINGS GO FORTH THE BUCCANEER SOME CAME RUNNING SUMMER AND SMOKE WALK ON THE WILD SIDE TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD THE GREAT ESCAPE THE CARETAKERS THE CARPETBAGGERS THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER BABY THE RAIN MUST FALL THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL TV soundtracks to: JOHNNY STACCATO GE THEATER and interpretations score LPs to: THE RAT RACE THE MAGNFICENT SEVEN
ALL WITHIN THE FIRST TEN YEARS OF HIS FIRST SCORE RELEASE! For someone who wanted to hear more from the guy, there was plenty around to buy, more than Henry Mancini, Miklos Rozsa, Dimitri Tiomkin or any composer around. He was the John Williams of his time.
2. This week, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, HEAVY METAL, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL.
3.CAPTAINS AND THE KINGS, I LOVE YOU ALICE B. TOKLAS, THE INCREDIBLE SARAH, WHERE'S JACK and MR. QUILP.
1. When did you first discover the music of Elmer Bernstein?
Without a doubt THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN was my first exposure to Bernstein's music sometime in the early 60s. My parents had a an LP of movie themes (later replaced by "Music from Marlboro Country" after I wore out the other album). The first film I saw with Bernstein's music that I can recall, though, was THE GREAT ESCAPE.
2. What are your favourite scores?
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD WALK ON THE WILD SIDE SUMMER AND SMOKE THE GREAT ESCAPE THE CARPETBAGGERS THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN THE BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ HEAVY METAL THE GRIFTERS (and others)
3. What Elmer Bernstein CD releases do you wish in the future?
I'm most desirous of WALK ON THE WILD SIDE with both the OST and the Ava album. Complete OSTs of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and THE TEN COMMANDMENTS are also long overdue.
1. When did you first discover the music of Elmer Bernstein?
Without a doubt THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN was my first exposure to Bernstein's music sometime in the early 60s. My parents had a an LP of movie themes (later replaced by "Music from Marlboro Country" after I wore out the other album).
I also owned "Music From Marlboro Country" at some point, but can't remember whether this was a regular store item or one of those "special products" I might have picked up at a used record store or somewhere... Anyone know the info on that? Bernstein must have made a fortune selling cigarettes...
I also owned "Music From Marlboro Country" at some point, but can't remember whether this was a regular store item or one of those "special products" I might have picked up at a used record store or somewhere... Anyone know the info on that? Bernstein must have made a fortune selling cigarettes...
Dana, I vaguely recall my parents sending away for the "Marlboro Country" record, and I wouldn't be surprised if it required a few Marlboro packets to get it (they were smokers at the time). However, since that was almost fifty years ago (!) I won't swear that my memory is accurate. I'm sure one of the experts will be able to tell you the whole story.
I also owned "Music From Marlboro Country" at some point, but can't remember whether this was a regular store item or one of those "special products" I might have picked up at a used record store or somewhere... Anyone know the info on that? Bernstein must have made a fortune selling cigarettes...
Dana, I vaguely recall my parents sending away for the "Marlboro Country" record, and I wouldn't be surprised if it required a few Marlboro packets to get it (they were smokers at the time). However, since that was almost fifty years ago (!) I won't swear that my memory is accurate. I'm sure one of the experts will be able to tell you the whole story.
You may well be onto something there, Essankay, though I can say with certainty that sending in cigarette wrappers was not how I got my copy. I was about 12 when MFMC came out, and my modest career as a smoker was as yet a number of years away... Fairly certain it was a specialty item of some kind, as I remember it having an atypical sort of stock number (though I'm pretty sure it came out under the United Artists label). I seem to remember it being stereo as well, suggesting perhaps that the music on MFMC was lifted from "Return of the Seven"? The actual M7 tracks (which were mono) would not be released until many years after that time, as we know. Anybody have the lowdown on this?
Bernstein was the first film music composer I really loved and this love has remained with me to this day. I'd have to say my favourite scores of his are:
Magnificent Seven Man With The Golden Arm To Kill a Mockingbird Age of Innocence (equal fave with Mockingbird) The Ten Commandments (I loved that whole cheesy film) Some Came Running (which is absolutely magnificent!)
The very wonderful thing about this composer is that his scores never sounded the same and were all quite distinct and different from each other. The familiar parts of "Magnificent Seven" have been played to death, but the parts which accompanied the action in the film and which had Mexican rhythms was quite wonderful. This composer was a rare genius and is much missed.
1. When did you first discover the music of Elmer Bernstein?
Without a doubt THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN was my first exposure to Bernstein's music sometime in the early 60s. My parents had a an LP of movie themes (later replaced by "Music from Marlboro Country" after I wore out the other album).
I also owned "Music From Marlboro Country" at some point, but can't remember whether this was a regular store item or one of those "special products" I might have picked up at a used record store or somewhere... Anyone know the info on that? Bernstein must have made a fortune selling cigarettes...
As Elmer mentioned many times he had no control of who the publishers sold the rights to his music to. They, which I assume were United Artists, were the ones who made the deal with Marlboro. Bernstein said he never would have done that. Anyway I don't know if he got a piece of that deal but the most you could say was he made some money from others selling cigarettes but saying he made a fortune selling cigarettes would make probably make him bristle. It certainly did me. Luckily most notable composers had their music rights revert to them after a few years because after that it seemed a useless item for studios to hang onto (in those days).
Without knowing his name, one of my earliest musical memories was loving the theme from The Magnificent Seven and it was that theme that I knew best on my first LP (Geoff Love's Big Western Movie Themes).
The Sunset re-release of the (re-recorded score) album Return of the [Magnificent] Seven was my fifth or sixth album ... and I've since bought four CD releases of that wonderful score. It remains my favourite Western score.
Over the years I've bought a lot of Elmer Bernstein's scores and he remains my second favourite film score composer.
From various TV and radio interviews, he came across as a very nice human being, too!
1. When did you first discover the music of Elmer Bernstein?
Without a doubt THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN was my first exposure to Bernstein's music sometime in the early 60s. My parents had a an LP of movie themes (later replaced by "Music from Marlboro Country" after I wore out the other album).
I also owned "Music From Marlboro Country" at some point, but can't remember whether this was a regular store item or one of those "special products" I might have picked up at a used record store or somewhere... Anyone know the info on that? Bernstein must have made a fortune selling cigarettes...
As Elmer mentioned many times he had no control of who the publishers sold the rights to his music to. They, which I assume were United Artists, were the ones who made the deal with Marlboro. Bernstein said he never would have done that. Anyway I don't know if he got a piece of that deal but the most you could say was he made some money from others selling cigarettes but saying he made a fortune selling cigarettes would make probably make him bristle. It certainly did me. Luckily most notable composers had their music rights revert to them after a few years because after that it seemed a useless item for studios to hang onto (in those days).
I have great respect for Mr. Bernstein and would never suggest that he was responsible personally for promoting an unhealthy habit. I suspect however that he did earn a lot in royalties for the use of his music for commercial purposes. No shame in that, as the music was outstanding and worthy of compensation, and he was not responsible for the transaction that led to its use in selling cigarettes.
I am still interested in finding out more about how the MFMC album was distributed and the source of the cues, if anyone here can illuminate that for us.
I am still interested in finding out more about how the MFMC album was distributed and the source of the cues, if anyone here can illuminate that for us.
“The Music From Marlboro Country” was produced by United Artists’ Special Projects Division (catalog no. SP 107) in 1967, and was available through Marlboro Cigarettes as a premium. Technically, it was available only to people over 21 years of age, but all one had to do to obtain it was send a check or money order for $1.00 to Record Offer, Box 6651, Clinton, Indiana 47832. Order blanks were also available at Marlboro retailers.
Here is the track listing for the LP:
A1 The Magnificent Seven (2:04) A2 Bossa Nova (1:18) A3 Return Of The Seven (2:28) A4 Mariachis De Mexico (2:01) A5 The Journey (3:30) A6 Border Town (3:18) A7 Symphony Seven (2:30) B1 Guracha (1:05) B2 Seven Miles From Home (1:55) B3 El Toro (3:22) B4 Lazy Night In Nashville (1:24) B5 Bandidos (2:16) B6 Swingin' Through (1:24) B7 Petra's Declaration (3:03) B8 The Longhorns (1:55)
Tracks A1, A3, A4, A5, B3, B5, and B7 are from the original motion picture score "Return Of The Seven"
The remaining tracks are variations on the original motion picture scores "The Magnificent Seven" & "Return Of The Seven" and were arranged and conducted by someone other than Elmer Bernstein.
). The music stuck with me during my awakening to the power of film scores, yet it would be some time before realizing that they were available for sale, excepting of course Heavy Metal.
