Yesterday I stayed to watch a bit of the film "Charro" with THE King. I stayed and stayed because of the music. Although it's theme is played to death in 15 minutes, it's fantastic and a really inventive melody. A quick look on the web showed that that is the work of Hugo Montenegro. Ah the man who gave me those wonderful covers of the "Man from U.N.C.L.E." music gave me a new great sound. I now have to have the music, and I fear it will once again be a frustrated wish for I'm confident it will never be released on CD.
Just in case you wonder what I'm rambling on about:
Yesterday I stayed to watch a bit of the film "Charro" with THE King. I stayed and stayed because of the music. Although it's theme is played to death in 15 minutes, it's fantastic and a really inventive melody. A quick look on the web showed that that is the work of Hugo Montenegro. Ah the man who gave me those wonderful covers of the "Man from U.N.C.L.E." music gave me a new great sound. I now have to have the music, and I fear it will once again be a frustrated wish for I'm confident it will never be released on CD.
Just in case you wonder what I'm rambling on about:
And that isn't even the best bit!!!!
Disco Stu
Well spotted Stu, I've liked the music in Charro ever since the film first came out, the vocal is pretty good too! I also have my doubts whether this music will ever see a release but I'd love to see it happening. Similiarly, Hugo Montenegro's music for Hurry Sundown(1967) is simply terrific, maybe someday we'll see a CD release?
Nice! I haven't seen that film in ages (never a big Elvis fan...especially his generally abysmal movies), but I remember this one being an exception. The score sounds like prime Montenegro in his Western style. My absolute favorite score of his is THE UNDEFEATED.
CHARRO! is a strange case. The film was produced by Cinema Center Films (CBS), but unlike most of the Cinema Center Films, whose rights reside with Paramount, CHARRO! is with Warner Bros. Some years back, when Lukas allowed us to search through an online listing of the holdings of CBS for score materials worthy of release, I don't recall anything from CHARRO! being there, but I may be mistaken. Perhaps Warners has some score elements. Then of course, there is the RCA (Sony) connection with Presley's music, which certainly would come into play with the song, if nothing else. Only the title song and one other that was cut from the film ("Let's Forget About the Stars") have ever been released from the film.
That is indeed excellent music, Disco. I've always loved Hugo Montenegro's punchy takes on the UNCLE scores, and his lightweight tongue-in-cheek approach to things like LADY IN CEMENT is a joy. But I sometimes forget that he was a more than capable composer of fairly straight dramatic music. Glad that Niall mentions HURRY SUNDOWN. Absolutely splendid score for that, one of those LPs I simply "had to have" on one of my yearly pilgrimages down to 58 Dean Street more than thirty years ago.
Charro! was on TV here a couple of days ago and I too felt compelled to watch it, mostly for the main theme (the film itself isn't quite as bad as they say, certainly it doesn't merit the "BOMB!" rating in Leonard Maltin's book). The action music is a bit thin and tinny, but there are so many satisfying variations on the theme that it would merit a CD release, though perhaps coupled with another Montenegro or at least late 60s western score.
I always liked Montenegro's score for The Undefeated, which, like Charro!, mostly pleases with variations on its main theme. Too bad he didn't do many more feature films.
CHARRO! is a strange case. The film was produced by Cinema Center Films (CBS), but unlike most of the Cinema Center Films, whose rights reside with Paramount, CHARRO! is with Warner Bros. Some years back, when Lukas allowed us to search through an online listing of the holdings of CBS for score materials worthy of release, I don't recall anything from CHARRO! being there, but I may be mistaken. Perhaps Warners has some score elements. Then of course, there is the RCA (Sony) connection with Presley's music, which certainly would come into play with the song, if nothing else. Only the title song and one other that was cut from the film ("Let's Forget About the Stars") have ever been released from the film.
Intereseting information but also a sad implication that a soundtrack so caught up in rights will definitely not happen especially since it isn't a much loved film (I liked it though).
I'll have to buy the DVD then and learn to ignore the non music sounds.
The title song states the following credits : Words and Music by Billy Strange and Scott Davis
Question : is Billy Strange the actual composer of that long recurring - - and exciting! - - theme or did he only work as an arranger ? I mean, is the CHARRO theme genuine Montenegro's material?
The title song states the following credits : Words and Music by Billy Strange and Scott Davis
Question : is Billy Strange the actual composer of that long recurring - - and exciting! - - theme or did he only work as an arranger ? I mean, is the CHARRO theme genuine Montenegro's material?
Copyright records for the song show the same thing: Billy Strange and Scott Davis. "Scott Davis" is a pseudonym for country singer-songwriter-actor Mac Davis.
Copyright records for the song show the same thing: Billy Strange and Scott Davis. "Scott Davis" is a pseudonym for country singer-songwriter-actor Mac Davis.
Thank you for your answer! Can we so assume by that the melody is Billy Strange's own composition?
Oh yeah this is good stuff! Thanks for sharing. I hear shades of The Undefeated in there, but I might like this even better. That Montenegro score has been released (twice!) so maybe this one will come out eventually...if tapes survive of course.
The recent talk on this site about Charro made me bump it up in my to-view pile. I also really like the Hugo Montenegro score. I hope someday this gets some kind of release. I also have some fondness for the title song (written by Billy Strange and Scott (Mac) Davis). That track to Charro was on the Elvis Presley Camden budget album, Almost In Love, which was literally one of the very first record albums I owned as a kid (I have a whole story about that).
I had recently picked up the DVD of this Elvis Presley film and finally sat down to watch it. I thought Elvis was fine in the title role, and the film was watchable up to a certain point (no spoilers). I’m a huge western fan and the film does something so phenomenally dumb, it takes me right out of it. If you’ve seen the film, you probably know what that is, LOL. Overall the film has a solid set-up, but a weak payoff. But yeah, that score.
Yesterday I stayed to watch a bit of the film "Charro" with THE King. I stayed and stayed because of the music. Although it's theme is played to death in 15 minutes, it's fantastic and a really inventive melody. A quick look on the web showed that that is the work of Hugo Montenegro. Ah the man who gave me those wonderful covers of the "Man from U.N.C.L.E." music gave me a new great sound. I now have to have the music, and I fear it will once again be a frustrated wish for I'm confident it will never be released on CD.
Just in case you wonder what I'm rambling on about:
And that isn't even the best bit!!!!
Disco Stu
I haven't seen this in a while but there is a scene where the film is flipped. EP walks into the cantina and hits a few notes on the piano. Although he is hitting notes in the low bass register, we hear high treble notes. I know. Picky, picky, picky.
