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I suspect the big sales of the original album were much more to do with the Rachmaninoff excerpt rather than the Barry content. Like a couple of Strauss excerpts being responsible for millions of "2001" albums despite negligible interest in any of the other music, and people buying "Apocalypse Now" albums just for three minutes of Wagner.
I can't tell if you're joking, but it doesn't sound like it.
I don't think that's the case at all. Barry's score for this film is one of the few orchestral film scores to have ever crossed over into the world of mainstream music consumers. The album was a massive hit because of Barry's score.
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Mr. Rathbone,
Respectfully, I think there is enough evidence to confirm that the Somewhere in Time album, now 40 years on the market, sold primarily because of Barry's music. This is not a case of some composer writing transitional cues between the big songs; Barry's score takes on all the major scenes with a masterful sense of love and loss.
And the Out of Africa album did not sell because of the Mozart piece, and Dances With Wolves did not sell because of . . . oh, yeah, only Barry on that one.
The Rachmaninoff selection (chosen by Barry, by the way, over the producer's initial preference of Mahler) added to the album's appeal, but the main appeal was the score.
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I suspect the big sales of the original album were much more to do with the Rachmaninoff excerpt rather than the Barry content. Like a couple of Strauss excerpts being responsible for millions of "2001" albums despite negligible interest in any of the other music, and people buying "Apocalypse Now" albums just for three minutes of Wagner.
I bought the original album to Somewhere In Time long before I discovered Rachmaninov. I bought it solely because of John Barry's name on the cover, and a little something to do with being a fan of Christopher Reeves.
I eventually became an admire of Rachmaninov through his 2nd Piano Concerto and 2nd Symphony, but those experiences were completely unassociated with the Somewhere In Time score since those discoveries were about a decade apart.
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I suspect the big sales of the original album were much more to do with the Rachmaninoff excerpt rather than the Barry content.
Any evidence to support this "suspicion"?
NK
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This is a title that has a much larger audience then us die hard film score fans so the 5000 copies makes sense. Way to go LLL!
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Any evidence to support this "suspicion"?
NK
Not really. Though I do remember hearing regular playings of the Rachmaninoff on the radio many years ago, always being described as the theme from "Somewhere in Time". After hearing it, I'm sure many people would have bought it by going into their local record shop and asking for the music to "Somewhere in Time" without knowing who the composer was.
I also attended a wedding reception where music was announced as being "Somewhere in Time" and they played the Rachmaninov piece.
Well those poor people, getting duped into spending money because of ignorant radio DJs. I doubt there were enough of them to represent a majority though. Wasn't John Barry already a recognizable name because of the James Bond series by 1980?
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I really cannot understand any film music fan who says the Varese re-recording is enough. This is classic John Barry - how can there even be a thought about purchasing it? The Debney re-recording is one of the better ones in terms of sound, but it won't hold a candle to this release, sorry. It just won't. This is a must-have.
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Any evidence to support this "suspicion"?
NK
Not really. Though I do remember hearing regular playings of the Rachmaninoff on the radio many years ago, always being described as the theme from "Somewhere in Time". After hearing it, I'm sure many people would have bought it by going into their local record shop and asking for the music to "Somewhere in Time" without knowing who the composer was.
I also attended a wedding reception where music was announced as being "Somewhere in Time" and they played the Rachmaninov piece.
I can only speak for myself and the experience I had at the time of the movie and soundtrack release. This was a rare soundtrack purchase for my mother, who adored the movie and fell in love with the music. The only piece that compelled her to make the purchase was the music from Rachmaninoff. She was not aware that it was a classical piece and not written by John Barry. She couldn't have told you who John Barry was, nor could I.
I was in the very early years understanding my love of soundtracks and had a very small collection at the time that consisted mostly of John Williams scores to Spielberg films. I was vaguely familiar with Goldsmith only through ST:TMP. I knew I liked the music to the Bond films but couldn't have told you who composed them. I just hadn't educated myself yet.
I digress. As for the Somewhere in time score, I too thought the Rachmaninoff piece was from the film composer. It wasn't until listening to the soundtrack a few times before I paid attention to who composed what piece. I suspect that there were many other casual listeners to soundtracks, like my mother, who thought that it was all original music from the film, and who did not know about John Barry.
Very happy for this expanded release after all of these years. A must buy for me.
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Also, does anyone know if John Debney had Barry's original sketches for his recording. Sure sound's like he may have?
Probably more—they probably had the full scores. But I don't know for sure.
Cheers
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If I remember certainly in U.k after I.T.V first showed film on terrestial T.V a few years after the cinema release demand for soundtrack soared, this was also true in U.S after cable company first showed film .M.C.A even did a reprint of album. People fell in love with Barrys score and it was played multiple times on radio shows. It is the peak of Barrys melancholic writings, which he was to repeat constantly for years more.
Here is a brief paragraph from official somewhere in time site-
Somewhere In Time was used by Universal to test the market for Soundtrack sales, once the movie hit cable. An article in "Variety" in `81 said studios had expected that soundtrack sales were basically over after a movie finished its theatrical release, and did not expect cable showings to have impact. But with SIT, the music stores were so overwhelmed with requests for the soundtrack, that 50,000 more album pressings had to be done to satisfy the initial need. Thus Universal used SIT as a barometer, on all cable stations then in existence, for post-theatre impact a soundtrack could generate.
The music soundtrack for Somewhere In Time, by John Barry, is his all-time best selling score, outselling all his other soundtracks put together. The production could not afford John Barry, and did not approach him to be composer until Jane Seymour, a longtime friend of the Barry's, offered to get John involved. Impressed with the story, he was pleased to be part of the production, but his fee was an issue. He accepted a percentage of soundtrack sales for the first time in his career. It turned out to be a fortuitous move, because the soundtrack still sells impressively throughout the world.
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