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| John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (1965) |
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| Music by John Williams |
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| Click to enlarge images. |
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| Line: Silver Age |
| CD Release:
November 2001
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| Catalog #: Vol. 4, No. 17 |
| # of Discs: 1 |
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If you want to hear the world's most famous film composer write Arab go-go music, here's your chance!
John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! is a 1965 comedy starring Richard Crenna, Shirley MacLaine and Peter Ustinov. Crenna plays a U-2 pilot who crash lands in the mythical Arab kingdom of Fawzia and is blackmailed into coaching the king's football team in an exhibition game against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Perhaps the film's biggest claim to fame is that Notre Dame University sued in an attempt to block the film's release, so offended were they by the picture's raucous humor, racial stereotypes and ridiculous situations.
John Williams is not the only famous figure to be associated with the film—it was written by William Peter Blatty (The Exorcist). For Williams, it was par for the course of his early career, in which he labored for years on comedies, B-pictures, musicals and television pilots before establishing himself as the dean of American composers. Make no mistake: this score does not sound like Star Wars, Jaws, Superman, Jurassic Park or E.T. It does not even sound like 1941. If anything, it resembles Williams's pilot score to Gilligan's Island, written the same year, with bouncy melodies, '60s pop tracks, wild and wacky "Fawzian" effects, and a crazy title song (performed by Shirley MacLaine) which needs to be heard to be believed.
If you buy every single John Williams soundtrack—god bless you. This one will go between JFK and Jurassic Park on your shelf. If you are interested in Williams's early career, this makes for a fascinating listen, as the composer displays amazing versatility and skill, even when creating an Arab dance version of the Notre Dame Fight Song. (His military theme from Close Encounters has an ancestor in his theme for the U-2 plane in John Goldfarb.) And of course, if you love Shirley MacLaine belting out crazy '60s pop songs, your ship has come in!
Liner notes are by Williams expert Jeff Eldridge. As an added bonus, the stereo tracks have been preserved in excellent shape, and this is one of the best-sounding Fox recordings from the '60s we have released. |
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| John Williams Scores on FSM |
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| About the Composer |
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John Williams (b. 1932) is not only the composer of most of the biggest blockbusters of all time—including Star Wars, E.T., Jaws, the Indiana Jones films, Harry Potter, Jurassic Park and many more, many of them directed by Steven Spielberg—but he has transcended film music to become the world's most famous living composer, and an American institution. His popular symphonic scores are so iconic that they often overshadow the fact that he has been equally proficient at sophisticated, adult fare (Schindler's List, Images) and had a successful career in composing (for television and often comedy features), arranging and performing well before he even met Steven Spielberg. FSM, like most labels, will release everything it can of Williams's music, and has concentrated (for reasons of availability) on his early years as "Johnny" Williams when he was doing sterling work on relatively little-known television and films—always with an amazing attention to melody and detail. In fact, his early works are fascinating for the ways in which they foreshadow his later, world-renowned efforts. IMDB |
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| Track List |
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Click on track TIME for MP3 sound clip. Click on track title (selected tracks only) for Real Audio. John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! Music Composed and Conducted by Johnny Williams - Main Title 3:40
- The Plot Begins 5:50
- Fawz TV 1:18
- Our Hero's Flight 0:34
- The Red Sea 2:01
- Nothing Ever Works 1:16
- Goldfarb Focuses 2:12
- Wrong Way Lawrence 2:49
- Mandy Tells 2:39
- The Ladies Enter 2:55
- The Music Train 2:26
- Iceberg Melts 4:19
- Mongoose Blues 1:45
- Samir's Fate 0:52
- Sleeping with Asps 3:29
- Jenny and Goldfarb 1:51
- King Fawz Feast 6:42
- The Football Game 2:22
- Jenny's Big Play/Snake Dance/End Title 4:34
Total Time: 54:03 Bonus Material - Alternate Main Title #1 [unused] 2:27
- Alternate Main Title #2 [unused] 2:27
- Original Main Title [unused] 2:18
- Fawz Cha-Cha #1 [mono] 1:50
- Pom-Poms [mono] 1:55
- Fawz Cha-Cha #2 [mono] 1:55
- The King Primps [bonus cues] 3:06
- Original End Title [unused] 1:15
Total Time: 17:30 Total Disc Time: 71:33 |
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