Julius Wechter - Midnight Madness Soundtrack
- Thread starter CherryStreet
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I'm not exactly sure why... This was a Disney theatrical feature and by this time Disney was in the pits of the "Ron Miller" era where they were losing money and frightening their shareholders. I would suspect they did not think a soundtrack album was a viable risk of capital.
It's also important to note that it was around this time frame that soundtracks as records were not the big sellers they once were (though anything with John Williams's or Jerry Goldsmith's name seemed to do well).
Beginning in the 1980s often a "soundtrack album" would contain not the composer's musical score, but rather full tracks of pop songs featured in the film (or in some case not even featured but only tangentially related to the film or specially written for the "soundtrack" album). The major labels would have a deal where a number of artists from that label would be in the soundtrack and the label would have a large say in the marketing of the album.
Just think of the Batman album featuring music by Prince, even though is only contribution in the film was one background pop song and a piece for the end credits. COmposer Danny Elfman's score album followed months later and only after fan demand swayed Warner Brothers to do so.
Today it's pretty much the same thing... We get an album of pop songs from the film and meanwhile the composer's score gets a later release on a specialty soundtrack label like Varese Sarabande, Rykodisc or Bruce Kimmel's Kritzerland label.
--Mr Bill
It's also important to note that it was around this time frame that soundtracks as records were not the big sellers they once were (though anything with John Williams's or Jerry Goldsmith's name seemed to do well).
Beginning in the 1980s often a "soundtrack album" would contain not the composer's musical score, but rather full tracks of pop songs featured in the film (or in some case not even featured but only tangentially related to the film or specially written for the "soundtrack" album). The major labels would have a deal where a number of artists from that label would be in the soundtrack and the label would have a large say in the marketing of the album.
Just think of the Batman album featuring music by Prince, even though is only contribution in the film was one background pop song and a piece for the end credits. COmposer Danny Elfman's score album followed months later and only after fan demand swayed Warner Brothers to do so.
Today it's pretty much the same thing... We get an album of pop songs from the film and meanwhile the composer's score gets a later release on a specialty soundtrack label like Varese Sarabande, Rykodisc or Bruce Kimmel's Kritzerland label.
--Mr Bill
In the 80s, too, the movies lost money while the soundtracks made the profit; some mentioned that the throwaway films were just extended music videos to sell the profitable albums, and I'd have to agree. Think of all those lousy 80s films that burst into a music video partway through the film, or featured a lot of oldies. And oldies were cheaper still--they were already recorded, and the record labels could mine the vaults once again by slapping them on yet another generic film.
Henry Mancini was one of the most prolific soundtrack composers around, but his workload was crazy back then. His RCA contract called for three albums per year, and often during each year, he was scoring one or two films. For each film he scored, he had to write and record the music for the film (including all of the cues), then turn around and create another version of the film's music in three-minute completed songs so RCA could issue the soundtrack album. So basically, music from each film was recorded twice. His "theme" albums were actually less work for him--pick the songs and write the arrangements, or just write/arrange the whole song. That's almost like creating four or five albums' worth of material in a year. (These days, you're lucky to get an album from an artist once every four or five years!)
His approach to soundtrack albums kind of spoiled me though. I liked some of the musical themes for the film "After The Fox", for example, but the soundtrack CD is a bore since a lot of the same themes appear three or four times. It's not a fault of Bacharach, who wrote the score, but more of the record company for attempting to turn out a soundtrack album for a film that really didn't have much in the way of genuine songs. (The majority of the tracks on the CD, for example, are just extended versions of the musical cues...and they don't work very well outside the context of the film.)
Henry Mancini was one of the most prolific soundtrack composers around, but his workload was crazy back then. His RCA contract called for three albums per year, and often during each year, he was scoring one or two films. For each film he scored, he had to write and record the music for the film (including all of the cues), then turn around and create another version of the film's music in three-minute completed songs so RCA could issue the soundtrack album. So basically, music from each film was recorded twice. His "theme" albums were actually less work for him--pick the songs and write the arrangements, or just write/arrange the whole song. That's almost like creating four or five albums' worth of material in a year. (These days, you're lucky to get an album from an artist once every four or five years!)
His approach to soundtrack albums kind of spoiled me though. I liked some of the musical themes for the film "After The Fox", for example, but the soundtrack CD is a bore since a lot of the same themes appear three or four times. It's not a fault of Bacharach, who wrote the score, but more of the record company for attempting to turn out a soundtrack album for a film that really didn't have much in the way of genuine songs. (The majority of the tracks on the CD, for example, are just extended versions of the musical cues...and they don't work very well outside the context of the film.)
CherryStreet
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bk said:
That's strange, because companies like "Anchor Bay" are re-releasing Disney material all the time and they have nothing to do with Disney.
I sure would like to see Julius' work see the light of day. In fact, I'd rather see "Midnight Madness" get released before a remaster of "New Deal".
One more thing Bruce, whey was Jerry Moss a no-show at the amazing Julius Tribute you produced in 2002 and is there any plans to remaster and sell the DVD of that night?
CherryStreet said:
Different departments, I'm afraid. And Disney, as far as I can tell, has stopped licensing video to other companies in the last couple of years. Licensing soundtracks from them is almost impossible, save for the label Intrada, who seems to have gotten an in there. But I know they've not done a lot because the advances are, apparently, very large.
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