Passions & Achievements
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Orchestra: Original Performances
Lable (Released Year): Milan Records (1997) Availability: **** Rating: **** |
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Ron Howard, one of the most talented directors in Hollywood, has worked with many talented composers. He has not only worked with James Horner, his collaborator, but also Thomas Newman, Randy Newman, Lee Holdridge, John Williams, Has Zimmer and famous song writer Burt Bacharach. When I first saw this CD, I ask myself why should I get this CD while I got most of the tracks already. But on second thought, it seems to be a really cool CD to have. So I got it and it turned out it gave me a few surprises. First of all, the CD has a very nice packaging. Upon opening the first cover leaf, you will see the poster artworks from all 12 of his movies. Then, it is the 27-page insert. It has very detailed notes about the music of each film. The second surprise is that the selection from Backdraft ("Show Me Your Firetruck" and Apollo 13 (The Dark Side of the Moon) are alternate versions. "Show Me Your Firetruck" is 5 minutes long and has much more sensational arrangements. Instead of the main title, a darker piece "The Dark Side of the Moon" is selected from Apollo 13. However, this one is specially remixed with dialogues and sound effects, which makes it more enjoyable. Both of the alternates are not available else where. For the selection form "Night Shift," they picked the instruemtal version instead of the song version of the famous "That's What Friends Are For." I think it is a very nice decision since it makes the CD more consistant. Also, the instrumental version is very beautiful. Moreover, if you still have not found the soundtrack to Willow, you get a chance to hear the original Willow's Theme in this CD. The only poor selection in the CD is the selection from "Gung Ho". The track is than less 90 seconds and it is very quite and not memorable. I thought the track was the ending of the selection from Cocoon (Cocoon is track 4 and Gung Ho is track 5) for a few times! Maybe you have a bunch of Ron Howard's films' soundtracks already, but I still recommand you to get the excellent album. | |
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