Telegraph's 100 Best Movie Soundtracks - "Dead Presidents" (1999)

This is a very good album full of nostalgic 60's tunes--my favorite are the Miracles. The movie itself is disposable.

 

Haven't seen the movie, but that's a great soundtrack. I've always liked Aretha Franklin's "A Natural Woman" and "My Girl" as well.

 

I love the music here; particularly the instrumental bits. The nine minute At the Dance is just pure frenzy. Great movie, one of my favorite musicals and a lot of the songs hold up on disc, America for one, Gee, Officer Krupke for another.

 

West Side Story definitely has a very good soundtrack.

West Side Story Official Site.

 

The lyrics of "Maria" are pretty sappy. The rest is good.

 

It's always interested me that Stephen Sondheim doesn't have the highest opinion of his own lyrical work on WEST SIDE STORY. He's got high standards, that's probably why he's had so much success. I think he was happy that he got the chance to do it and establish himself as a very young wunderkind (age 27!) on Broadway. It certainly made him rich, but I think he's still got the itch to go back and rewrite some of those songs.

From Wiki

Sondheim's big break came when he wrote the lyrics to West Side Story, accompanying Leonard Bernstein's music and Arthur Laurents's book. The 1957 show, directed by Jerome Robbins, ran for 732 performances. While this may be the best-known show Sondheim ever worked on, he has expressed some dissatisfaction with his lyrics, stating they don't always fit the characters and are sometimes too consciously poetic.

In 1959, he wrote the lyrics for another hit musical, Gypsy. Sondheim would have liked to write the music as well, but Ethel Merman, the star, insisted on a composer with a track record. Thus, Jule Styne was hired.[6] Sondheim questioned if he should write only the lyrics for yet another show, but his mentor Oscar Hammerstein told him it would be valuable experience to write for a star. Sondheim worked closely with book writer Arthur Laurents to create the show. It ran 702 performances.

By the way, to my amazement, Sondheim has a myspace page!!!
But he hasn't visited it in over a year. Assuming it's REALLY his.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=53962791

 

What a coincidence!

WEST SIDE STORY is on Turner Classic Movie channel right now.
It's 11:20 Central Time.

Wow...that actor that plays the shrink that gives a lecture at the end of PSYCHO gives a lecture to the gang members at the start of WEST SIDE STORY. Lectures seemed to be his
specialty in the early sixties!

 

I watched it myself, and noticed something I never knew before. Those very creative credits at the end of WESTSIDE STORY were done by none other than the legendary Saul Bass, who also created title sequences for SPARTACUS and PSYCHO, pleasing both Stanley Kubrick and Alfred Hitchcock, no small feat indeed.

I was surprised to see this musical was shot in 70mm.

At the end of this showing, host Robert Osborne mentioned that there will soon be a revival on Broadway of WESTSIDE STORY to be directed by (!) Arthur Laurents who wrote the book for the original in the 1950s!!! He's in his 90s and just had a success with a revival of his GYPSY on Broadway.

Anyone interested in Westside story should check out the trivia section on the movie at IMDB.
I was amazed to learn that Robert Wise wanted ELVIS PRESLEY for the role of Tony.

TCM showed WESTSIDE STORY as part of it's tribute to legendary producer Walter Mirisch who made some excellent films back in the day. He was the Jerry Bruckheimer of his time, only with quality projects, for the most part. He produced SOME LIKE IT HOT, THE APARTMENT, THE PINK PANTHER and IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, to name a few.

The soundtrack was hugely successful, and there were battles over the royalties from all sides. Some of the singers who dubbed the actresses felt snubbed and one of them sued. In another case, composer Leonard Bernstein gave up a portion of his royalties and gave them to one of the vocalists, to keep the peace.

The film ran in Paris for a grand total of 249 weeks, making it the longest running film in French history.

The song "Gee Officer Krupke" was banned by the BBC because of its mentions of drug use and sexual ambiguity.

The second highest grossing film of 1961, coming in just behind One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961).

With its win of 10 Academy Awards, this became the biggest Oscar-winning musical of all time, beating the record Gigi (1958) set three years before with its nine Oscars.

At the time, this became the biggest selling soundtrack album ever.

Russ Tamblyn (Riff) was dubbed for "The Jet Song" by Tucker Smith, who played Ice, his lieutenant in the movie.

"Cool" was such a demanding number for the performers, Harvey Evans (aka Harvey Hohnecker), who played Mouthpiece, later stated that the actors ritually burned their kneepads upon wrapping the scene.

In 1962, the Columbia Records soundtrack release commanded the number-one spot on the "Billboard" popular albums chart from May 5 through June 16, and again from October 6 through October 13.

And Zaz, the TOMMY soundtrack, while uneven, does have some highpoints, especially Tina Turner on the ACID QUEEN, and Elton on PINBALL WIZARD. On the other hand, Jack Nicholson's musical talents, or lack thereof, are a low point.

 

This movie is shown a lot on TCM, and I have to admit I often watch it, as the cast is excellent, and the cinematography and music match them.

Here's the credit sequence, with the main theme, and you can see how cleverly the theme is matched to the images: The Big Country Main Theme

 

More research shows that Saul Bass designed the title sequence on "The Big Country"...no wonder it's so striking.

Here's the dance scene: The Big Country

The music is also used well in this sequence: Major Terrill Rides Alone

 

As Jag4Me is ill, and is now recovering, I will update this thread for awhile.

Next:

"Grace of My Heart"
Various, 1996

"The film may have verged on parody, but its soundtrack of 1950s and 1960s pop facsimiles is lovely, touching and fun and enough to pass for a long-lost Phil Spector project."

Not seen this film, but You Tube is a great benefactor:

Born to Love That Boy

God Give Me Strength

Truth is You Lied

Hey There

And Wiki has an extremely interesting article on the film as well:

Grace of My Heart

 

QT loves old pop and obscure newer stuff, and the whole range is represented here.

Glad you are better, Jag4Me, even if you do torture your dog.

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!