I have an album of film themes from the early 60's. The Clebanoff Strings recorded the theme from The Prize on this album and it was released before the 4 titles score (with additional themes by other composers) JG release which was his first soundtrack on LP. In the 60's this theme was played CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS on the radio. Station KWG in Stockton, CA actually played this theme as a single. Anybody know of anything earlier in the JG canon let me know.
I have an album of film themes from the early 60's. The Clebanoff Strings recorded the theme from The Prize on this album and it was released before the 4 titles score (with additional themes by other composers) JG release which was his first soundtrack on LP. In the 60's this theme was played CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS on the radio. Station KWG in Stockton, CA actually played this theme as a single. Anybody know of anything earlier in the JG canon let me know.
From your example I believe you want a legit release from any source possible:
Format LP Release Date 1959 Buddy Morrow's "Impact" album with cover themes.
9. Black Saddle (02:10) Originally composed by Jerry Goldsmith, under the pseudonym J.Michael Hennagin
Actually, as has been mentioned here before, BLACK SADDLE was available in it's original TV arrangement (in Stereo, no less) on the terrific 1961 Dot LP, DICK POWELL PRESENTS (THEMES FROM FOUR STAR TELEVISON PRODUCTIONS). And he even got the real credit for it, along with Arthur Morton.
The 1960 followup to the Morrow album, DOUBLE IMPACT, included Goldsmith's theme for the hour-long version of THE LINEUP, although it's a pale shadow of the gutsy JG original. This LP also has a "Lite" version of Elmer Bernstein's fine RIVERBOAT theme.
If we limit this to commercial recordings rather than film/TV sessions being released later, I'd just like to point out that Jerry's awesome theme to Black Saddle was covered not once but TWICE in 1959, with another LP version coming from the Roulette Label, with Bud Wattles and His Orchestra! (scroll to the bottom...) http://soundtrackcollector.com/title/18821/Black+Saddle
Sadly I can't find this version online anywhere, but I did find the other 1959 cover version:
This means that this theme for a short-lived single-season TV show, which Jerry initially gave credit for to his brother-in-law Michael Hennagin, was in fact Jerry Goldsmith's first “hit” themed sorts, getting ultimately covered no less than FOUR times in the next half decade (the two 1959 LPs which both credit Michael Hennagin, the 1962 Dick Powell Presents LP version conducted by Herschel Burke Gilbert, and the 1964 surf rock cover by The Revelairs!)
This thought kind of fits in with the Odyssey odyssey. I've often wondered what we might legitimately highlight as the earliest work of a composer. Are there any home movies of a 14-year-old Jerrald King Goldsmith doing an arpeggio of his own during one of his piano lessons? Would that count? What about when he (or any other composer) was a baby and banging out a rhythm on his plate of baby food with a spoon?
It's more an issue for us of finding the earliest *surviving* work, Graham. Be sure to stay tuned for our next Odyssey (we're recording it tonight).
I would say that the true answer to this question in regards to Goldsmith, is the children's record he did the music for in the late 1940s, according to his interview with Jon Burlingame. Frustratingly, he doesn't actually NAME the record in the interview, so we may never know WHAT this was!
Oh? I didn't know he did a children's record in the '40s, or maybe I just forgot. Following the Odysseys, yup. I have ten minutes free so I'll plough ahead with the next bit of "The Sergeant and the Lady" (managed to get through "Peck's Bad Girl" alive, but I don't know how you guys managed it. It might have been the laughing gas you (plural) were on, and which is quite clearly evident in the podcast, tee hee).
Should be mentioned fairly early on, IIRC. Terrible as it was, Peck's Bad Girl was probably our most fun thing to discuss so far. And SOME of us (*cough*Jens*cough) actually seemed to enjoy WATCHING it.
