A wonderfully trippy record – every bit as trippy as the film – and if you remember that mad psychedelic trip from your childhood, you probably remember it as pretty darn trippy! The record nicely follows the film, and includes some key dialogue too – which made the whole thing a crucial cultural artifact in the days before DVDs and videotape, and which still makes it pretty weird, hearing all this stuff away from the screen. Walter Scharf arranged and conducted the tracks – based on the original score by Bricusse & Newley – and titles include "Charlie's Paper Run", "The Candy Man", "Oompa Loompa", "The Wondrous Boat Ride", "Wonkavator", "The Bubble Machine", and the sublime classic "Pure Imagination". CD

A sexy little soundtrack from Piero Piccioni – penned for an early 80s film, but done with a slinky style that's pure Euro 70s all the way! Keyboards mix nicely with strings on many tracks – almost in a way that Piccioni seems to borrow from American soul maestros of the previous decade – but there's also some more Italian-styled touches too – including some later bossa inflections that really round out the sound of the record in a wonderful way. And a few especially nice gems have this sense of space that almost makes the music float in the air – recalling the sounds that first made us fall in love with the 60s music of Piccioni. Most solo piano is by Piero, and Toquinho plays guitar on one track – and titles include "Anche Se Sai", "Notte Preziosa", "Occhio Discreto", "Volo Di Mezzanotte", "Bona Nox", and "Ritmo Macumbeiro". This expanded 2CD edition adds in 36 more bonus tracks to the original record – 25 more bonus tracks than the previous release! CD

Wonderful late work from Ennio Morricone – penned for a film that was one of his last few soundtrack projects on this planet! The music matches some of the maestro's best period pieces from decades back – done with a style that's got some traces of the time in which the story is set, but always delivered with a personal approach that's pure Morricone – especially once things get going, and the instrumentation is even more spacious and moody! Violin is one of the main solo instruments, but there's also a few nice trumpet parts too – and titles include "New Attack", "The Publisher", "For My Father", "On The River", "The Flag", "Shot", "Pursued", and "For Three". CD

A killer soundtrack from Henry Mancini – a record that's got both the terror promised in the title, and some sweeter moments that are pure Mancini all the way! Instrumentation is relatively jazzy overall – with some tight horn passages that shift between swinging saxes and lighter woodwind moments – a mixture of west coast cool and grittier elements that really does a nice job of marking the generation of the score. Players aren't listed, but we're betting they're some of Hank's hippest associates – and titles include "Flutter's Ball", "Kelly's Tune", "Tooty Twist", "Teen Age Hostage", "White On White", and "Down By The Wharf". LP, Vinyl record album