Soundtracks — CDs  

A sweet funky set from the 70s – originally recorded as a sound library session, but handled by Italian soundtrack maestro Alessandro Alessandroni! You might know Alessandroni's music best from the 60s, and this set is a later updating of the same groove – one that brings in a bit more electric keyboards, some bouncier basslines, and drums that snap nice and hard on the funky numbers – then lay back on the sweet mellow moments. A few cuts have vocals – ala I Cantorni Moderni – and the whole thing has a warm, sexy 70s groove that's right up there with the best Italian work of the scene from the time. Titles include "Femminismo", "Collettivo", "La Metropoli", "Pubblica Informazione", "Prima Eta", and "Ultimo Soggiorno". Very groovy stuff! CD features 5 bonus tracks too – never issued before!

This one's got it all – fuzzy instrumentals, sweet harmonies, and some nice trippy parts too – all wrapped up in a set that's easily one of the best Tower Records rock soundtracks of the 60s! Most of the schlocky biker soundtracks from the time are already pretty darn great – but this one's even a cut above – put together with a special quality that's always made us dig this one the most! The album features a great cut called "Hellcats" – a harmony rocker by The Sunrays, and just as great as their own album tracks. The set also features an instrumental "Hellcats" and "The Angry Mob" by The Arrows – plus psych oriented tracks by Davy Jones & The Dolphins, including "The Only Way To Fly", "Mass Confusion", and "Let's Live A Little" – and "I'm Up" and "The Marionettes" by Somebody's Chyldren.

What can we say? This is one of the greatest soul soundtracks ever! In a market that was dominated by the big-selling Shaft and Superfly albums, Roy slipped in this masterful blend of jazzy vibes and wah wah funk that's easily one of the best-composed records of the blacksploitation genre! The album's much more unified than your average funky soundtrack – and each track moves between styles that you'd hear on any of Roy's great albums from the time. There's heavy funk on the track "Brawling Broads", cool vibes and electric piano on "Aragon", off-beat jazz on "Coffy Sauna", and great soul on cuts like "Coffy Is The Color" and "Coffy Baby". Wonderful all the way through – and another jewel in the already-big crown of the great Roy Ayers!

A dark little western soundtrack from Luis Bacalov – one that's quite brooding overall, despite a rather catchy vocal tune on the title! There's some very odd instrumentation here – watery piano lines, floating bits of guitar, off-tuned strings – all used at different intervals, and in different ways – without as strongly of a unified feel as other albums of this nature. But it's those shifting sounds that make the record great – always creating an unsettling sort of mood, and one that's almost always in the darker, starker side of the spectrum. CD features a whopping 37 tracks in all – including 2 vocal renditions of the "Django" theme by Rocky Roberts, and 2 more by Roberto Fia – plus loads of instrumentals from the film!

An Italian film set in the US – also released under the title Black Is Beautiful, with some sweet funky sounds to match! Half the record's got the usual bag from Luiz Bacalov – numbers that echo his Italian soundtrack roots, especially the comedic side – but these cuts are mixed with sharper, funkier numbers that clearly represent some of the American scenes of action – all scored nicely in a way that's not exactly blacksploitation funk, but which has some of the best Italian sound library grooves in place! The set features 24 tracks from the film – and also features some sweet harmonica lines from Franco De Gemini!

A lost Burt Bacharach treasure – a bit later than classic vintage, but a wonderful album from the mature maestro – and sometimes overlooked, due to its status as a soundtrack! The work here is totally great – that mellow, easy-flowing style that Burt really perfected around the time of Living Together – served up here in a batch of sweet instrumental tracks, plus a few key vocal numbers with lyrics sung by Jackie DeShannon, Libby Titus, and Michael McDonald – all of whom slide down more into the Bacharach ethos than stand out as their usual selves – and we mean that in a good way! Titles include "I Don't Need You Any More", "In Tune", "If We Ever Get Out Of Here", "On The Beach", "I've Got My Mind Made Up", "Find Love", "Luisa", and "I Think I'm Gonna Fall In Love".

An obscure and wonderful chapter in the career of Burt Bacharach – material penned for a 1967 TV musical starring Rick Nelson and Joanie Sommers – all of it perfect 60s Bacharach pop all the way through! The plot of the musical is a bit silly, but the performance isn't – tightly-crafted vocal numbers that often mix Burt's older Brill Building style with a bit more of a Sunshine Pop kind of approach. Although penned by Bacharach, the music is actually conducted by Peter Matz – who does a great job of retaining the maestro's sense of space and timing, but also unlocks some bolder flourishes in the tunes, and manages to get some really amazing vocal performances out of both Sommers and Nelson! There's a sophistication here that goes beyond the roots of both singers – and the record's filld with lesser-known tracks that still sparkle with plenty of Bacharach brilliance – including "It Doesn't Matter Anymore", "They're Gonna Love It", "Juanita's Place Montage", "Try To See It My Way", "They Don't Give Medals", "Fender Mender", and "Juanita's Place".

Really early sounds from the great John Barry – a huge amount of tracks recorded with his combo for the Drumbeat TV show in the UK! The program had a strong focus on the emerging rock and roll sounds of the late 50s – and the John Barry Seven were a perfect group to provide musical accompaniment – professional enough to handle the gig in just the right way, but youthful enough to come up with plenty of sharp-edged sounds! The instrumentation's often heavy on guitar, but features some trumpet lines from Barry too – and although the set features some instrumentals by the group, there's also a lot of vocal numbers – with singers who include Derry Hart, Adam Faith, Bob Miller, Sylvia Sands, Roy Young, Vince Eager, and others. 40 tracks in all – including "Mad Mab", "Bees Knees", "Don't Leave Me", "Slippin & Slidin", "Rockin Sandy", "Get Happy", "Italian Style", "Beatnik", "Catwalk", "I Go Ape", "Shame On You Miss Johnson", and "Buzzin".

Quite an unusual soundtrack from Les Baxter – not just because it's a rare one done for an early 60s horror film, but also because this presentation of the music features a handful of very long songs – rather than the usual shorter film score numbers! In a way, the music works like one long suite, divided up into a few passages – heavy on the kind of exotic scoring that Baxter was using in his key Capitol Records sides a few years before – but also turned towards darkness a bit more, as you'd guess from the setting! Instrumentation isn't far off from Baxter's exotic records – light strings, percussion, vibes, offbeat woodwinds, and more – but the phrasing is a lot more eerie – and at points, a lot more dramatic too. Titles include the short "Main Title" – plus the longer "Drop Of Water", "The Telephone", and "The Wurdalak".

A beautiful little soundtrack for this late John Wayne western – scored by Elmer Bernstein in a wonderfully expressive way – with a quality that goes way past the usual entries in the genre! There's almost a slight undercurrent of sentimentality to the music – not in a cloying way, but with a quality that seems to reference the entire history of the western with sensitive ears – in a way that the film almost seems to do with its story, as well – carrying things forward without too much drama, but this subtle depth that really makes the music special! The recording quality is excellent, and Bernstein's scoring shows some instrumental modernity he wouldn't have had a few years before – complex use of subtle elements that really comes through in the production. Titles include "Born To Hang", "Necktie Party", "Smoke", "New Money", "Surrounded", "Thickening Plot", "Billy Joe", "Train", and "Venture".

Elmer Bernstein at his greatest – working here with the best mix of drama and energy he could bring to a film score during this golden age – a perfect blend of older orchestrations and a new sort of emotion that was perfect for the 60s! The score follows strongly off some of Bernstein's best from the late 50s – and has that amazingly evocative way of setting a new scene with each new tune – an almost-visual way of putting things forward that works quite strongly, even away from the film! This great CD edition features a whopping 31 tracks in all – 21 numbers from the film, plus 10 more from the 1964 album, which offers a re-recording of the score. Titles include "Speak Of The Devil", "Forbidden Room", "New Star", "The Producer Asks For A Divorce", and "The Carpetbagger Blues".

Two bold soundtracks from Elmer Bernstein – back to back on a single CD! First up is The Shootist – a late John Wayne western, but scored with a very classic feel – that driving, dramatic, very Americanist mode that Bernstein brought to his best action scores for the west in the 60s – where each new tune feels like a rich, fresh theme – even though there's a great sense of variety in the record! As with the best Bernstein, the orchestrations are always lean and focused – never too overblown, and able to pack just the right punch for the specific mood of the moment. Titles include "Shootout", "Farewells", "Ride", "Attack", "Pain/Promise", and "Sweeney". Next is The Sons Of Katie Elder – a great 60s western with Dean Martin in the lead next to Wayne – given a soundtrack by Bernstein that showcases some of the lighter elements that Martin brings to his performance – not comedic, but a nice balance to the usual John Wayne modes. The title track is served up in a vocal version by Johnny Cash, and John Wayne narrates "Texas Is A Woman" – alongside other tracks that include "The Elders Fight", "Trouble In Town", "Return To Town", "Memories Of Clearwater", and "Hastings Ranch".

A great compilation of rare versions of legendary recordings by Big Star – and also the soundtrack to the acclaimed feature length documentary Nothing Can Hurt Me – with demos, alternate mixes, studio banter and more. Includes perviously unreleased versions of classics that include "Oh My Soul", "In The Street", "Don't Lie To Me", "Stroke It Noel" and many more. 20 tracks on 2LPs.