The piece in Body Heat was based on a Harry James performance, but what you hear in the film is not Harry James. It is Barry arranging it. Don't know who the trumpet player was--Malcolm McNabb? Tony Terran?
Rózsa wrote so many great source cues (dances, fanfares, etc.) that it’s really hard to choose a favorite (this guy was just a natural when it comes to source music).
The piece in Body Heat was based on a Harry James performance, but what you hear in the film is not Harry James. It is Barry arranging it. Don't know who the trumpet player was--Malcolm McNabb? Tony Terran?
Like in 'How To Marry a Millionaire" Ziggy Colombo' s orchestra's rendition of 'You'll Never Know' sounds 'quite' similar to Harry James' interpretation, even fooling Lana Turner's character!
The Parade of the Charioteers from BEN-HUR has long been one of Miklos Rozsa's "greatest hits." Source music? The line between diagetic and nondiagetic is often subtle. We see the trumpeters but not an entire band. As Rozsa scored the film music for band (unlike the album and concert arrangement), I assume this is intended as source music.
I feel it would be like in Carmen (the March and chorus) Where the orchestral background is diegetic but the singing of the chorus isn't
Hi! I'm very passionate about these cues, my personal favorite is 'Fashion Show' from Designing Woman, the orchestration is just about perfect and I feel encapsulates the sophisticated feeling of most dance music, what's yours?
Herrmann's use of "It's A Most Unusual Day" as Cary Grant is kidnapped in "North By Northwest".
Hi! I'm very passionate about these cues, my personal favorite is 'Fashion Show' from Designing Woman, the orchestration is just about perfect and I feel encapsulates the sophisticated feeling of most dance music, what's yours?
Herrmann's use of "It's A Most Unusual Day" as Cary Grant is kidnapped in "North By Northwest".
Quite the foreshadowing, for it was indeed, A Most Unusual Day
Can't think of a single favorite, but Mancini, Barry, and Schifrin were the three masters of turning source music into "real" music. A lot of the source cues they did became standout tracks on the albums. It was probably their background as arrangers that made them so talented with pop/rock/jazz source tunes that other composers (even very talented composers) often used as throwaways. TOUCH OF EVIL in particular is fascinating in how it threads the line between underscore and diegetic material.
Aimee Mann's "Wise Up" in MAGNOLIA was one of the most interesting uses of original "source" music I have ever seen, where in a pivotal scene every main character in that movie happens to hear that song as diegetic music at the same time and sings along with it.
And I love the use of source music in THE TRUMAN SHOW, where the diegetic music in the scene when Truman re-unites with his presumed dead father becomes also the dramatic underscore for the viewers of the show in the movie AND functions as dramatic underscore within the movie.
I also love the use of Annie Lennox' version of "Don't Let It Bring You Down" in AMERICAN BEAUTY.
