This is another entry in my Complete Score Breakdown Series, focusing on the complete scores to films that have had abbreviated previous releases or have gone unreleased.
Today we are looking at Beverly Hills Cop II (1987) by Harold Faltermeyer.
While Harold Faltermeyer’s score to the first Beverly Hills Cop movie is iconic, his music for the sequel Beverly Hills Cop II is much richer, more varied, and stylistically diverse. There is also plenty more score in the second film, and it has much more room to breathe and take shape. As in the first film, some of the motifs do repeat a bit too often, but I think that’s part of the intent of the score, a core musical identity for an audience to hold onto, and I get that’s kind of how Faltermeyer operated. Traditional musical depth and variation isn’t to be found in Beverly Hills Cop II, but a lot of fun can be had if you like this kind of thing.
The second film’s score features the main themes and motifs from the first film but expands on that material, featuring some great new action music based around a terrific villain motif played typically on bass. Sometimes the villains will get some Lethal Weapon 2-esque high-pitched percussion (along with other acoustic percussion). The rock vibe of the score, amped up considerably from the first film to match incoming director Tony Scott’s hypervisual storytelling, contains some really cool stuff with some great beats and rhythmic sections. Beats and rhythms are the backbone of these scores, but they are more complex this go around and to me just more interesting. Again, the Axel F tune, great as it is, is overused in the film so whenever the new action music or sequel’s original suspense and rock music kicks in, it keeps things fresh and fun. The cues I call “Jewelry Heist” and “City Deposit” are awesome fast-paced action tracks that I yearn to hear one day on CD.
As far as I know there has never been anything officially released from Beverly Hills Cop II. Just watching the film, I learned there are 41 minutes of unreleased music. A lot of these cues are very short, so in hoping that one day this score is released, it would make the most sense that many cues are combined together to make for a good listening experience. And what a good listening experience it would be…I get very excited at the prospect of driving around in my car listening to this score. Hopefully one day…
EDIT: Thanks to user jfallon who brought it to my attention, at the end of this post I have posted the song "Bad Guys" which blends Faltermeyer Beverly Hills Cop II score with Keith Forsey's vocals into a pretty decent song that really represents some of the sequel score's material pretty well, especially the villain/action material. Thanks again to jfallon for pointing it out!
COMPLETE/UNRELEASED SCORE RUNTIME: 40min 50sec
Complete Score Cue Titles and Cue Times (unreleased cues named by me for the sake of identification):
1. Jewelry Heist (2:51) 2. Bogomil Investigates (0:38) 3. “B” Crime (1:49) 4. News Story (1:04) 5. Foley at the Station (0:33) 6. California (0:37) 7. Alphabet Evidence (0:59) 8. The Shooting Club (1:43) 9. Russ Fielding (1:11) 10. Target Practice (0:28) 11. Dent and Cain (2:21) 12. The Next Letter (0:54) 13. Leaving the Gun Club (0:58) 14. Dirty Shoes (1:25) 15. Taggart’s New Clothes (0:38) 16. Strip Club Hit (0:52) 17. Wild Kingdom (0:40) 18. Calling Jeffrey (0:27) 19. Fingerprint (0:28) 20. Break-in (1:32) 21. Needle in a Haystack (0:32) 22. Jeffrey’s Busted (0:56) 23. City Deposit (4:10) 24. Abandoned Truck (0:48) 25. To Bernstein’s (1:03) 26. Racetrack Robbery (5:00) 27. Dent Industries (2:23) 28. Sneaking In (1:42) 29. Gunfight (4:12) 30. Commendations (0:57) 31. Goodbyes (0:52)
Damn I want this. There is a song called "Bad Guys" written for the film that is essentially the Jewelry Heist cue reworked into a song. I think Keith Forsey sang it. Closest thing we have to a score release for this. Google it and I am sure you can find it. Haven't seen the film in a long time but dont think the song is in it.
Part 2 is my least favourite of the trilogy so I've only seen it a couple of times, but I think it's the Jewellry Heist cue that bears a striking resemblance to "President at the Train" from ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK.
Damn I want this. There is a song called "Bad Guys" written for the film that is essentially the Jewelry Heist cue reworked into a song. I think Keith Forsey sang it. Closest thing we have to a score release for this. Google it and I am sure you can find it. Haven't seen the film in a long time but dont think the song is in it.
Interesting, didn't know this! Looking it up right now. Thanks for the heads-up!
Let me know if you have any luck Deputy. I have the song... Believe it or not actually found it on napster back in the day while searching for Faltermeyer stuff. Couldn't believe when I heard it.
Let me know if you have any luck Deputy. I have the song... Believe it or not actually found it on napster back in the day while searching for Faltermeyer stuff. Couldn't believe when I heard it.
Well I found it on youtube. It's actually totally badass. I just love that particular bit of BHC II Faltermeyer score. The vocals aren't very good at all, I could do without them, but the overall song is pretty decent and it's a good presentation of the material. I'm so glad you mentioned its existence, otherwise I wouldn't be aware of it. I'm adding it to the above original post...
Other users, for a taste of Faltermeyer's Beverly Hills Cop II score, check out:
Thanks to user jfallon who brought it to my attention, at the end of this post I have posted the song "Bad Guys" which blends Faltermeyer Beverly Hills Cop II score with Kenny Forsey's vocals into a pretty decent song that really represents some of the sequel score's material pretty well, especially the villain/action material. Thanks again to jfallon for pointing it out!
