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Posted: |
Mar 10, 2008 - 8:42 AM
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By: |
Recordman
(Member)
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“The Longest Day” is a huge 1962 178 minute film about “D Day”, the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. The film poster notes “42 International Stars” and it really delivers – such as John Wayne, Richard Burton, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, Sean Connery, Gert Frobe, Curt Jurgens, Robert Ryan, Rod Steiger and many many more. It is based on a documentary history by the highly respected author, Cornelius Ryan and consists of many individual war stories of the Allied and German forces, as well as the civilians involved in the invasion of Europe. A must see, highly regarded “war film.”
The film’s main theme was scored by Paul Anka (1941- )[this is the credit on the LP - later credited jointly with Jarre], and appears throughout the film as conducted by Maurice Jarre, with a vocal chorus by Mitch Miller singers.
So where is the CD soundtrack for this film? Not available. Why? Well, other than the title theme and some background music, the bulk of the LP released “soundtrack” (20th Century Fox Records SXG-5007 [stereo]; FXG-5007 [mono] consists of dialogue in “condensed version of the original film story with the actual stars”, as narrated by Lowell Thomas. Why would they do that, you might ask. Well, alas VCR tapes and DVD’s were far in the future when this film was released and as with LP soundtracks generically, many bought them at the time simply to be able to “live” the movie again, as later TV showings were not frequent, and if they did appear they were often truncated, censored and broken up by commercials. The “soundtrack” with dialogue stories was often a feature of the many Disney films as well. Now that we have DVDs of this film, it would seem to make no sense to have a CD of the soundtrack as it has existed to date, unless the score could receive an isolated CD release.
In any event, I thought you might like to see the LP covers for the soundtrack. The original release on the left with the abstract soldiers is the quite common one. However, the second release on the right featuring the helmet in the sand, as based on the film poster, is quite rare and has become a valued collectible over the years.
Mike
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In all my years, I've never encountered the white cover version. I mean, it's impossible to find. Is it significantly different?
I've seen talk that the cover and poster art are the work of Saul Bass & Associates but could never confirm it.
By the way, do you think Jarre's name was played up later when he won the Oscar that same year for LAWRENCE?
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Posted: |
Mar 11, 2008 - 4:06 PM
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By: |
blue15
(Member)
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The French ep on Barclay (70474) from 1962 (9-62 on jacket) features 7 tracks from the film: Le Debarquement A Omaha Beach, Les Bag Pipes De Lord Lovat, Scene Du Radar, BBC Drums, Harmonica Solo, Don't Fence Me In, and Marche. The first 6 tracks have the credit "Orchestre Sous La Direction De Maurice Jarre" on the jacket and labels, and Marche is credited to "Allied Army Band - Eddie Barclay." All tracks are music only, no sound FX, as heard in the film.
The front cover features a b&w photo of the beach scene, and the back cover has a b&w photo of Darrell F. Zanuck sitting with Robert Wagner, with a couple of cast members behind them during a break in the action. The entire cast list and a few production credits are also on the back cover.
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Posted: |
Jun 20, 2011 - 10:18 AM
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By: |
Jim Doherty
(Member)
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I have always liked the LP on the budget Diplomat label. I am not at home to pull the record off the shelf and go into great detail, but it is conducted by Niklos Andriano. It's recorded in nice, big stereo, and contains the main theme from THE LONGEST DAY in a huge, rather faithful, male chorus version, then fills out the rest of the LP with orchestral pieces that sound just like a score for a war movie, but were apparently written especially for this LP by Al Goodman. If you ever see it in a used record shop, grab it.
Diplomat Record
12" and 33 1/3 speed
Theme from The Longest Day
Sounds of D-Day to VE-Day in Dramatic, Stirring Music!
Film spectacular soundtrack orchestra conducted by Niklos Andriano
Original score by Al Goodman
Side 1
The Longest Day
Preparation For Invasion
Crossing the Channel
Side 2
Invasion March
The Attack
Counter-Attack
The End in Sight
Finale
It's up on ebay at the moment:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Diplomat-Records-Longest-Day-Al-Goodman-33-1-3RPM-/350332141044
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This score could never sustain a CD release. Even less a re-recording.
Apart from the End-Title (which is the blandest tune on earth, with the most banal cartoon lyrics .... it works well enough inside the film, a sort of 'universal Joe' soldier anthem, but never worked as a re-recorded march) there's precious little to it. That minimalist approach works well for modernised warfare movies. The success of the album is in its nostalgia/minimalistic/modern feel, and it probably doesn't transfer to CD.
Jarre's percussion gift is obvious throughout, as in the prologue sequence ostinato for occupied France, but apart from a few brass arrangements of the main theme, the only other thing necessary would be a performance of Beethoven's Fifth, or rather the 'V for Victory' movement. You'd need to fill it out with nostalgia music or something.
There is one arrangement of the Anka theme by Stanley Black for the London Festival Orchestra on Decca Phase 4, which uses a full chorus and is quite evocative, maybe better than the original, with an elgaic, ominous, soft passage in the middle.
A better D-Day treatment might be a compilation CD with suites from 'The Longest Day', 'D-DAY, the Sixth of June', 'Overlord', 'Saving Private Ryan', Elmer Bernstein's 'D-Day', the D-Day passages from 'Victory at Sea', and Davis' relevant section from 'The World at War'.
That'd work.
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Posted: |
Jun 20, 2011 - 11:49 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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The French ep on Barclay (70474) from 1962 (9-62 on jacket) features 7 tracks from the film: Le Debarquement A Omaha Beach, Les Bag Pipes De Lord Lovat, Scene Du Radar, BBC Drums, Harmonica Solo, Don't Fence Me In, and Marche. The first 6 tracks have the credit "Orchestre Sous La Direction De Maurice Jarre" on the jacket and labels, and Marche is credited to "Allied Army Band - Eddie Barclay." All tracks are music only, no sound FX, as heard in the film.
The front cover features a b&w photo of the beach scene, and the back cover has a b&w photo of Darrell F. Zanuck sitting with Robert Wagner, with a couple of cast members behind them during a break in the action. The entire cast list and a few production credits are also on the back cover.
The French EP runs a little under 10 minutes.
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This score could never sustain a CD release. Even less a re-recording.
This would seem to be the case. A new MP3 compilation of music from the film has been released by Milan. It eliminates all of the dialogue and narrative of the original LP, and purportedly, its 20 tracks contain 44:20 of music from the film. But upon close inspection, one sees that only 10 of the tracks (running 19:12) have any relation to THE LONGEST DAY. And even some of those (renditions of "Yankee Doodle," "Dixie" and Cole Porter's "Don't Fence Me In") are suspect. Even so, these 10 tracks don't seem to include all of the tracks on the French EP described in the post above. The remaining 10 tracks on the download are from other films entirely (TAXI FOR TOBRUK, IS PARIS BURNING?, THE BATTLE OF THE RAILS, MR. ORCHID, and FORBIDDEN GAMES).
Anyway, here's the link to the download.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00DYAUQ5C/soundtrnet-20
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