Category: Soundtracks

John Wayne Movie Soundtrack Suites!

1/13/2016

Cruising around YouTube recently, I came across several videos of soundtrack suites from several of John Wayne's films. Eleven to be exact, and combined they constitute approximately two hours of great music from some of John Wayne's great films. Included are:
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance | Soundtrack Suite (Cyril J. Mockridge)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc1iYRrMBWk

The Comancheros | Soundtrack Suite (Elmer Bernstein)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfBPQcMZjzA

True Grit | Soundtrack Suite (Elmer Bernstein)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG6ygzZw2II

Circus World | Soundtrack Suite (Dimitri Tiomkin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H7jh0gmgR8

Rio Bravo | Soundtrack Suite (Dimitri Tiomkin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9wU8AhP2LU

North To Alaska | Soundtrack Suite (Lionel Newman)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUP5vEP9Nsw

The War Wagon | Soundtrack Suite (Dimitri Tiomkin)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1o0cU8xqdg

The High And The Mighty | Soundtrack Suite (Dimitri Tiomkin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-y4m89Z5n4

The Alamo | Soundtrack Suite (Dimitri Tiomkin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5epfRO-jHPo

The Cowboys | Soundtrack Suite (John Williams)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf4u4X_mRtw

Hatari | Soundtrack Suite (Henry Mancini)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2Kt2YardYA

Enjoy!

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New Soundtrack Release from Kritzerland!

12/6/2013

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Kritzerland is proud to present a new limited edition release – three great scores on two CDs at a 1-CD price:

JOHN WAYNE AT FOX – THE WESTERNS

THE COMANCHEROS, NORTH TO ALASKA, THE UNDEFEATED

Composed by Elmer Bernstein, Lionel Newman, Hugo Montenegro

From Kritzerland: John Wayne at Fox – not a lot of films, but some extraordinarily entertaining ones.

The Comancheros (1961), based on the 1952 novel by Paul I. Wellman, was directed by Michael Curtiz, the great director who’d done any number of classics, including some of the most beloved films of all time – Casablanca, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Captain Blood, Angels With Dirty Faces, The Sea Hawk, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Mildred Pierce, White Christmas, to name just a handful. Starring were Wayne, Stuart Whitman, Ina Balin, Lee Marvin, Nehemiah Persoff and Bruce Cabot. It’s a wonderful film with colorful performances, gorgeous photography, and a rousing musical score by Elmer Bernstein. At the time, Bernstein had just written what would become one of the most iconic western scores ever, The Magnificent Seven. The Comancheros was his follow up western score, and it, like the film it graces, is colorful, bigger than life, and filled with action and adventure. You know what you’re in for as soon as the first chords of the main title music begin, one of Bernstein’s all-time classic themes. But the score is rife with melody and invention and Bernstein’s music is as iconic and big as the Duke himself.

A year earlier, the John Wayne Fox western was North to Alaska, a big, sprawling comedy western starring the Duke, Stewart Granger, enticing Capucine, Ernie Kovacs and teen heartthrob Fabian. The score, credited solely to Lionel Newman, but containing music by several others, fits the film like a glove. It’s got a tuneful title song by Mike Phillips, a nice song for Fabian called “If You Knew” and some fun original orchestral cues by Newman.

Next we jump to the third of the Fox Wayne westerns, the 1969 film The Undefeated, starring Wayne and Rock Hudson, along with Roman Gabriel, Lee Meriwether, Bruce Cabot, Ben Johnson, Jan-Michael Vincent, Harry Carey, Jr., Paul Fix, Richard Mulligan, John Agar and Dub Taylor. Hugo Montenegro’s music for The Undefeated is big as all outdoors, with strong themes and a real sense of storytelling. As with many Western scores, there’s a lot of Copland “Americana” as well as a stirring main theme, some great dramatic scoring, some Mexican-flavored cues and even a hoedown

Both The Comancheros and The Undefeated were previously released on CD by FSM, and North to Alaska was released on CD by Intrada – all are out of print – in the case of The Comancheros, for many years. But we’re pleased to bring them all together in one great 2-CD set – they’ve all been newly remastered for this release.

John Wayne at Fox – The Westerns is limited to 1000 copies only and is priced at $19.98, plus shipping.

Our hope is that CDs will ship by the last week of December or hopefully even sooner, but this is the busiest time of year for pressing plants, so there is the off chance that it could be early January. But the hope is to have them out the door before Christmas.

For track listings and music samples, visit Kritzerland at: http://www.kritzerland.com/johnWayne_Fox.htm

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New True Grit Soundtrack Released by La-La Land Records

9/25/2013

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True Grit

-Limited Edition of 3,000 Units
-La-La Land Records (LLLCD 1260)
-Release Date: September 24, 2013
-Conducted by Elmer Bernstein
-Format: CD

I am very excited about the new True Grit soundtrack release from La-La Land records. Not to take anything away from 2006 Tadlow Music release (which is fantastic), nor even the originally released soundtrack, in spite of it’s easy listening/jazzy sound (note: it is not a true soundtrack from the film). But the new La-La land release is everything a True Grit fan could possibly hope for. It is without doubt the definitive True Grit soundtrack CD.

I did a quick comparison of the Tadlow and the La-La Land CD’s, and although the Tadlow CD is longer by a couple of minutes, the La-La Land CD contains more “True Grit” music. This is due to the bonus tracks. Where the Tadlow CD also contains bonus tracks, they are not all “True Grit” music (i.e.: music from Katie Elder, The Shootist, Comancheros, Cahill, and Big Jake). The La-La Land CD on the other hand, contains nine bonus tracks – all of which are “True Grit” music, including some rare demo tracks featuring Glen Campbell, John Hartford (Grammy award winner who passed away in 2001), Michael Dees (singer/composer), and Elmer Bernstein (actually singing the title song). Rather than looking at these two great soundtrack CD’s from the point of view of “which one is better,” I think the two of them actually complement each other. Both contain True Grit music that is not on the other, and between the two of them, overall, they are the ultimate True Grit soundtrack collection.

As with the Tadlow CD, the La-La Land CD is limited to 3000 copies, so it is sure to sell out fast. If past experience has taught me anything about these soundtracks, it is to get one as soon as possible. I am confident that there are some folks out there who will buy up as many as they can, and when the supply of 3000 is gone, they will sell theirs at inflated prices on eBay and other online sale outlets.

The new True Grit soundtrack CD can be purchased online direct from La-La land records for $19.98. And for those who are wondering, the answer is yes, they do accept PayPal. Here is a link to their site: http://www.lalalandrecords.com/TrueGrit.html

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Special Note About The Shootist Soundtrack

2/13/2013

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Just a quick note here, regarding the release of The Shootist: Original Soundtrack Recording. I am sorry to say that it is a rumor and nothing more, and one I am even sorrier to say, that I fell for. Over the past few years there have been rumors that a very limited release of an original soundtrack recording of The Shootist, John Wayne's last film, had been recorded and released by Varese Sarabande, in October of 1990.

This rumor was "validated" by the All Music Guide (which published it) as well as Amazon.com and StarPulse.com. Although I had previously tried to contact Varese in order to ascertain if this was indeed true, I had no success, as Varese would not answer my emails. While researching the Complete John Wayne Discography for this website, I tried one more time to contact Varese before adding this soundtrack to the discography.

Finally, they did answer my request for information, and Varese has confirmed that they have never released a complete soundtrack recording of the score for The Shootist. The only legitimate release of any music from The Shootist was on the Varese Sarabande release of "The Digital Premiere Recordings of the Films of John Wayne" (Volume Two), which is noted in the discography here: http://dukefanclub.weebly.com/10/post/2013/02/digital-premiere-recordings-from-the-films-of-john-wayne.html.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

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Cahill: U.S. Marshal Soundtrack Finally Released

2/13/2013

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CAHILL UNITED STATES MARSHAL
World premiere of action-packed Elmer Bernstein western score!

Some great news for all of us John Wayne fans! Intrada is proudly offering the world premiere release of Elmer Bernstein's powerful score for the iconic John Wayne western from 1973, Cahill: U.S. Marshal, directed by Andrew V. McLaglen, and also featuring George Kennedy, Neville Brand, Clay O’Brien, Harry Carey, Jr., Jackie Coogan, and Gary Grimes. Bernstein wrote a larger-than-life main theme for Wayne's U.S. marshal figure, then surrounds him with action music as Cahill tracks down, and does battle with a trio of bank robbers. A lengthy initial robbery sequence ("Killers") is an action music highlight, but equal in excitement is the climactic showdown ("Various Troubles"). The night time scene in "Cemetery" allowed the composer to display his gifts for quiet child-like musical gestures and atmospheric ideas.

To present the complete score, courtesy of Warner Bros., Intrada was given access to the entire scoring session masters, recorded on 2" 16-channel tape, one of earliest scores recorded in then state-of-the-art multi-track format. This allowed for a creation of brand new stereo mixes of every cue in magnificent, vibrant audio with instrumental details as clear as if recorded today!

In the way of a very nice treat, while the film itself uses a vocal version of the theme during the middle search scene and as a closing wrap-up; the masters included orchestral cues originally written for both sequences and which have not been heard until now. An especially exciting find is the powerful orchestral ending to the score, which had been completely dropped in the film in favor of a quieter Charlie Rich vocal which gently faded into silence. The Intrada CD presents both the unused orchestral cues as well as the respective vocal sequences, written by Bernstein with lyrics by Don Black. The original Warner Bros. artwork campaign, an array of color stills, complete cue assembly details, plus informative notes by Jeff Bond complete handsome package. A must for John Wayne, Elmer Bernstein & western soundtrack buffs! Elmer Bernstein conducts. Intrada Special Collection release available while quantities and interest remains!

Now available on the Intrada website: http://store.intrada.com/

Track Listing:
1. Cahill: US Marshal (Main Title) 2:11
2. Train 0:38
3. Billy Joe 0:58
4. Thickening Plot 1:11
5. Killers 7:35
6. Venture 2:01
7. Apology 1:15
8. Smoke 1:29
9. New Money 0:38
10. Surrounded 0:39
11. Necktie Party 3:49
12. Oath 0:48
13. Born To Hang 1:18
14. A Man Gets To Thinkin' (Instrumental) 1:49
15. A Man Gets To Thinkin' (Vocal) 1:59
16. Cemetery 4:27
17. Lightfoot 1:30
18. Danny - Billy Joe 1:20
19. Various Troubles 5:02
20. Finale 0:48
21. A Man Gets To Thinkin' (End Cast) 1:05

Time = 43:13

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John Wayne Movie Soundtrack Suites!

New Soundtrack Release from Kritzerland!

New True Grit Soundtrack Released by La-La Land Records

Special Note About The Shootist Soundtrack

Cahill: U.S. Marshal Soundtrack Finally Released

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