One of Ennio Morricone's most famous film scores – and certainly the one that got him recognized as a genius on a global level! The whole thing's pretty damn eerie – about as eerie as the movie, which is a real stunner – and it shifts from dark orchestral themes to sparer numbers that use guitar, banjo, and some really creepy whistling to set the mood – that landmark Morricone sense of space that really transformed film music in the 60s. Some tracks feature vocal work by I Cantorni Moderni, directed by Alessandro Alessandroni – and titles include "C'Era Una Volta Il West", "Cheyenne", "Armonica", "L'Uomo Dell'Armonica" and "L'America Di Jill". Plus, this bonus version features loads more extra tracks – making for a total of 27 in all, the fullest version of the score we've ever seen! CD

Classic kitschy biker material from Davie Allan and The Arrows – one of the best-ever groups to play on schlocky soundtracks during the 60s! There's lots of guitar and lots of fuzz – and guessing from the photos of the movie, the music was the best thing about it! Toddler Mike Curb put the whole thing together – but the vibe is much more like some of Allan's excellent guitar instrumental albums of the time – apart from the few more standard rock band tracks you'd find in Curb's other productions from the period. Most of the album's instrumental Arrows work – and tracks include "The Chase", "Bongo Party", "Blues Theme", "Theme From Wild Angels", and "The Unknown Rider" – plus the vocal cuts "Theme From The Wild Angels" by The Visitors and "Midnight Rider" by The Hands Of Time. LP, Vinyl record album

A weird little record from John Barry – the soundtrack to a 1963 television special recorded by Elizabeth Taylor at the height of her early popularity, and featuring Taylor reciting a variety of poems and speeches over music by Barry! There's a relatively high concept feel to the album – as Barry's backings are fairly string-laden and serious, penned to match the mood of Taylor's presentation of material written by William Wordsworth, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, William Pitt, Winston Churchill, and Queen Victoria. And although Taylor speaks on about half the record, the best tracks here are actually the instrumental ones – which have more of the depth of Barry's serious soundtrack work from the time, and manage to have their own sense of presence apart from the star quality of Liz on the set. Arrangements are by Johnnie Spence, and titles include "Elizabeth", "London Theme Jazz Waltz", "Queen Elizabeth At Tilbury", "Queen Victoria", "English Garden", "The Fire Of London", "Lovers & Browning", and "London At Dawn". CD

A weird little record from John Barry – the soundtrack to a 1963 television special recorded by Elizabeth Taylor at the height of her early popularity, and featuring Taylor reciting a variety of poems and speeches over music by Barry! There's a relatively high concept feel to the album – as Barry's backings are fairly string-laden and serious, penned to match the mood of Taylor's presentation of material written by William Wordsworth, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, William Pitt, Winston Churchill, and Queen Victoria. And although Taylor speaks on about half the record, the best tracks here are actually the instrumental ones – which have more of the depth of Barry's serious soundtrack work from the time, and manage to have their own sense of presence apart from the star quality of Liz on the set. Arrangements are by Johnnie Spence, and titles include "Elizabeth", "London Theme Jazz Waltz", "Queen Elizabeth At Tilbury", "Queen Victoria", "English Garden", "The Fire Of London", "Lovers & Browning", and "London At Dawn". LP, Vinyl record album

Hilarious! This is the soundtrack to a goofy late 60s shocker film about the time when hippies and young folks would take over America. Les Baxter handled the musical score for the film, but the real treat is the schlocky rock tracks – written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, with arrangements by Mike Curb in that fuzzy Tower/AIP mode! The lyrics are hysterical, but also oddly catchy, even though they're trying to make fun of 60s rock. Titles include "Psychedelic Senate", "Fourteen Or Fight", "Wild In The Streets", "Sally LeRoy", and "Free Lovin". LP, Vinyl record album

Mostly lush and laidback tunes, written by Cosma for this strange little French film from the early 70s – about a guy who spends most of his time as a shut in! The track does have a great theme – the tune "Where Is The Summertime", which is performed in a great bossa nova version at one point – with tightly dancing rhythms, and some great whistling organ that makes the track sound a bit like a Lalo Schifrin tune! There's one or two other numbers with a similar groove on the set – and tracks include "Piano Sweet Piano", "Rhythm In The Afternoon", "Bird Watchers", "Flirtation In The Grass", and "The Dog". LP, Vinyl record album

Over the years, we've come to realize that the best thing about the Peanuts cartoons isn't the actions of Charlie Brown and Lucy, but the wonderful music from Vince Guaraldi – perhaps the one aspect of the cartoons that's kept on giving over the years, and which we can proudly carry into adulthood! Vince's music is sublime – often simple, but groovy – a mix of rhythmic vamps and more lyrical passages that perfectly underscore the melancholy that graced the characters of Charles Schultz, and which perhaps defines them even better than the clunky stories or voiceovers on the screen. This set features all the best numbers from the glory days of those cartoons – mostly holiday numbers, but some other gems too – titles that include "Skating", "Little Birdie", "Baseball Theme", "Linus & Lucy", "Happiness Is", "Oh Good Grief", "Christmas Is Coming", "Great Pumpkin Waltz", "Thanksgiving Theme", and both vocal and instrumental versions of "Christmas Time Is Here". (Jazz, Soundtracks) LP, Vinyl record album

The jury is sometimes out on the Mick Jagger on-screen performance in the Nicolas Roeg film Performance – but the soundtrack is something pretty separate entirely, and really says a lot more about the spirit of late 60s Warner Brothers Records in LA than it does the arthouse cinema scene in England! The great Jack Nitzsche composed a number of instrumental tracks for the score – maybe his first time in this mode, and prefacing some later 70s successes to come – with titles that include "Rolls Royce & Acid", "Harry Flowers", and "Natural Magic". Other Warner talents get a hand in the music too – as Randy Newman conducted all of Nitzsche's charts, and also sings "Gone Dead Train" – while Ry Cooder delivers bottleneck solos on "Get Away" and "Powis Square". There's also some nice soul-based moments – the cut "Wake Up N*ggers" by The Last Poets, and "Poor White Hound Dog" and "Performance" by Merry Clayton. And yes, Mick does get to sing on one tune – the album's "Memo From Turner" – and the set is completed by Buffy St Marie work on "The Hashishin" and "Dead Dead Red". LP, Vinyl record album

A trio of western soundtracks from the great Riz Ortolani – music that's not in the usual spirit of his bigger film scores of the 60s! I Tre Spietati begins with the sort of theme that should have been huge – a driving, powerful melody that has the best anthemic modes of the generation, and which appears in instrumental variations through the dozen tracks within – mixed with some more dramatic moments as well – but all with a vibe that's very different than more standard spaghetti western styles. Next up is Requiescant – a beautiful western score with a big, brooding use of guitar – and a sound that's even more robust than usual! About half the tracks feature the guitar strongly – used in a twangy way, unfolding slowly, with lots of echo – very cool, very striking, and almost more powerful than use of the instrument on most other spaghetti western scores of the time! Other numbers are more scene-setting – some brassy trumpet flairs, barroom piano, or harmonica lines on the trail – and overall, the soundtrack features 21 short numbers from the film, with guitar tracks nicely juxtaposed against the others! CD also features two tracks from the film O'Cangaceiro – the excellent percussive "Mulhe Rendra", and the mellower vocal track "Vou Caminhando". CD

One of our favorite soundtracks of all-time!! Piero Piccioni's score for this one is an insane mix of weird grooves, crime jazz, sound effects, and some of the coolest organ riffs you'll ever hear! (At times, we'd swear we were listening to Sun Ra on the keys!) All this fantastic music is the backdrop for an insane film starring Ursula Andress and Marcello Mastroianni that's about a crazy assassin game that's played in the future. If that sounds a bit wild, it is, and the music is in perfect step with the nutty plot. Features the great version of the title theme with vocals by Mina, plus "The Chase", "Spiral Waltz", "The Trap", "Reprieve", "The Pawn", and "Keep Running". LP, Vinyl record album

A groovy little soundtrack – played by The Sandals, the same group who worked on the film The Endless Summer – director Bruce Brown's strange documentary about surfers around the world. This time around, the theme is skiers – and The Sandals more than rise to meet the challenge – crafting some tight and groovy 60s instrumentals, with lots of guitar riffing over crackling bass and drum parts. Check out the tracks "Soul Something" and "Porsche" for some real grooviness – and keep on grooving through "Ski Bum", "Yellow Dove", "Return From The Casino", and "Water & Stone". LP, Vinyl record album

A killer little soundtrack – and one that's quite different than the usual blacksploitation set, but still pretty funky overall! The film Black Girl was a surprisingly sensitive movie directed by Ossie Davis in the early 70s – not as much about action as it was about the everyday life, and the hopes and dreams of the lead characters – all of which made for some really well-rounded music, of the sort you'd find on some of the other great Fantasy Records soundtracks of the time, especially the classic Cornbread Earl & Me score. Ed Bogas and Ray Shanklin put together the whole thing, and the album's a mix of hip instrumental tracks with some other vocal ones – a really nice range that draws from singers like Betty Everett, Rodger Collins, and JJ Malone – and jazz players like Sonny Stitt and John Hunt (plus organ from Merl Saunders on one cut.) Titles include "BJ's Step", "Black Girl", "Sister", "Earl (Still A Pearl)", "Mothers Day Song", "Power", "Get Me To The Bridge", "Chock-lite Puddin", and "Black Girl Cue". LP, Vinyl record album

A killer little soundtrack – and one that's quite different than the usual blacksploitation set, but still pretty funky overall! The film Black Girl was a surprisingly sensitive movie directed by Ossie Davis in the early 70s – not as much about action as it was about the everyday life, and the hopes and dreams of the lead characters – all of which made for some really well-rounded music, of the sort you'd find on some of the other great Fantasy Records soundtracks of the time, especially the classic Cornbread Earl & Me score. Ed Bogas and Ray Shanklin put together the whole thing, and the album's a mix of hip instrumental tracks with some other vocal ones – a really nice range that draws from singers like Betty Everett, Rodger Collins, and JJ Malone – and jazz players like Sonny Stitt and John Hunt (plus organ from Merl Saunders on one cut.) Titles include "BJ's Step", "Black Girl", "Sister", "Earl (Still A Pearl)", "Mothers Day Song", "Power", "Get Me To The Bridge", "Chock-lite Puddin", and "Black Girl Cue". (Soul, Soundtracks) CD

A very groovy little soundtrack for this original film version of Lolita – directed by Stanley Kubrick with a screenplay by Nabokov himself. The album sports the famous "Lolita Theme", with a weird vocal part that goes "nya nya", and which became something of a minor instrumental hit at the time. About a third of the album is variations on that theme, and the rest of the album features darker tunes that get at the inherent sadness of the movie – standing in stark contrast next to the sillier theme numbers. This CD version includes a number of previously unreleased selections and versions. Tracks include "Love Theme From Lolita", "Two Beat Society", "Thoughts Of Lolita", "School Dance", "Quilty's Theme", and "Lolita Ya Ya", "Music To Eat By", "Diary Entry", "The Strange Call", "Twenty Five Paces" and many more. 23 tracks in all! CD

A pair of very cool soundtracks from the 70s – both penned by Carlo Savina, one of the lesser-known maestros of the Italian scene! Ragazza Tuta Nuda Assassinata Nel Parco has a surprisingly beautiful quality – especially for a film about a nude girl killed in the park – slow, sensuous music that's often touched by these really lovely melodies played on piano, warmly swelling up from the bottom, with a quality that's like some of Morricone's best from the time! There's some surprisingly redemptive moments, especially given the murderous theme – and the CD features 23 great tracks from the score. The second half of the collection features music from L'Occhio Del Ragno – overall, a bit darker than the first soundtrack – with some stark instrumental moments, and great brooding elements on basslines, keyboards, and horns – intercut with a few occasional sweeter bits. CD features 12 more tracks from the score – making for a total of 25 cuts in all! CD

A very groovy little soundtrack for this original film version of Lolita – directed by Stanley Kubrick with a screeplay by Nabokov himself. The album sports the famous "Lolita Theme", with a weird vocal part that goes "nya nya", and which became something of a minor instrumental hit at the time. About a third of the album is variations on that theme, and the rest of the album features darker tunes that get at the inherent sadness of the movie – standing in stark contrast next to the sillier theme numbers. Tracks include "Love Theme From Lolita", "Two Beat Society", "Thoughts Of Lolita", "School Dance", "Quilty's Theme", and "Lolita Ya Ya". LP, Vinyl record album