1492: Conquest of Paradise came out in 1992. The film was directed by Ridley Scott and featured Gerard Depardieu and Sigourney Weaver. The music for this film was composed by Vangelis who earlier composed for films such as Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner. The title cue for 1492: Conquest of Paradise would become one of the most recognized and one of the best soundtrack cues ever made. So for this weeks Retro Wednesday let’s go back to 1992 with this interview where Vangelis talks about the music for 1492 a conquest of paradise as well as some footage from the scoring sessions. Enjoy.

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It’s been 50 years since the movie Ben-Hur was released. William Wyler’s epic movie starring Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins and Stephen Boyd. 100.000 costumes, 50.000 extra’s, 300 different sets and the largest movie budget at that time. The movie won an amazing 11 oscars including the one in the Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture category. The composer was Miklós Rózsa. Composer of not only Ben-Hur but also Quo Vadis(1951), Ivanhoe(1952) and El Cid(1961) and many more. Let’s get back to the time of Ben Hur and see Miklós Rózsa compose one of the tunes from Ben-Hur live in a tv show.

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Hi everyone, I have been rustling the old archives and re-listened to some of the great scores of 1990 and compiled a list of 3 soundtracks I think everyone should have in their collection. These are some of my favorites from that year. I would love to hear your opinions. What are your great scores from 1990?

Here are my 3:

Dances With Wolves (John Barry)

This sweeping epic drama score by John Barry is one of the great scores of all time in my opinion. It has the most grandest of themes in ‘The John Dunbar Theme’ which is probably on a million “relaxing mood” cd’s. It is a very easy to just pick this up and start listening and just relax to the wonderful music presented here. If big horns, wonderful themes and epic sounding music is your thing, then you need to own this.

Highlights: The Buffalo Hunt, John Dunbar Theme, Journey to the Buffalo Killing

Music From Twin Peaks (Angelo Badalamenti)

This is the third soundtrack I bought and I did it for one reason. The super-catchy main theme of the television show Twin Peaks which was on Norwegian TV at the time. There was a lot of hype around this series and it was so fascinating. It was my first introduction to David Lynch and I immediately fell in love with the jazzy and funky music. So many great memories on this one like the little red dream man dancing. A lot of firsts, but this was also the first score by Angelo Badalamenti that I listened to.

Highlights: Twin Peaks Theme, Dance of the Dream Man, Laura Palmer’s Theme

Total Recall (Jerry Goldsmith)

One of my favorite Jerry Goldsmith scores. It has great action cues like ‘The Big Jump’ and ‘End of a Dream‘ while also having a few fleeting cues like ‘First Meeting’. It has a lot of nostalgia, but I love the main theme ‘The Dream’, which is a reminder of the electronic 80s.

Highlights: The Dream, The Mutant, The Big Jump

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The return or Retro Wedensday is finally here, but it will be very different this time around. In other words there won’t be just a bunch of videos. I plan to feature old film scores from 1920s up to the year 2000. I may be old, but I think the 90s is pretty retro and it so happens that The Rock by Nick Glennie-Smith, Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard will be the first retro review. That will be up next Wednesday.

There will be some lists, some classic reviews from even before I was born! So get ready for the return of Retro Wednesday! Hope you all enjoy it!

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So here we are again soundtrack fans. It’s another Wednesday which means its time for retro fun! This time we look at music from Rain Man, Beetlejuice, Working Girl, Beaches and A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. Guessed the tracks yet? Thought you might. Here we go!

Rain Man

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The Belle Stars – Iko Iko

Beetlejuice

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Harry Belafonte – Day O

Working Girl

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Carly Simon – Let The River Run

Beaches

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Bette Midler – The Wind Beneath My Wings

A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

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Dokken – Dream Warriors

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Every Sunday I round up the most selling scores and soundtracks on Amazon. Here’s this week’s charts.

1. Wall*E (Thomas Newman)
2. Wanted (Danny Elfman)
3. The Incredible Hulk (Craig Armstrong)
4. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Harry Gregson-Williams)
5. The Dark Knight (Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard)
6. Pride & Prejudice (Dario Marianelli)
7. The Last of the Mohicans (Trevor Jones & Randy Edelman)
8. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Howard Shore)
9. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (John Williams)
10. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Howard Shore)
11. Get Smart (Trevor Rabin)
12. Iron Man (Ramin Djawadi)
13. X-Files: I Want To Believe (Mark Snow)
14. The Mission (Ennio Morricone)
15. Kung Fu Panda (Hans Zimmer & John Powell)
16. Batman Begins (Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard)
17. Cold Mountain (Gabriel Yared)
18. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (Harry Gregson-Williams)
19. Dances With Wolves (John Barry)
20. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Howard Shore)
21. Out of Africa (John Barry)
22. The Last Samurai (Hans Zimmer)
23. The Illusionist (Philip Glass)
24. Meet Joe Black (Thomas Newman)
25. A Perfect Place (Mike Patton)

1. Camp Rock
2. Once
3. Juno
4. Sex And The City
5. Into The Wild
6. August Rush
7. Across The Universe
8. Mamma Mia!
9. O Brother, Where Are Thou?
10. Hairspray
11. Shine a Light
12. P.S. I Love You
13. The Sound of Music
14. Enchanted
15. Shrek
16. Death Proof
17. Grease
18. I’m Not There
19. The Darjeeling Limited
20. Love Actually
21. Cars
22. Eddie & The Cruisers
23. Dan In Real Life
24. Annie
25. Walk The Line

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So here we are again soundtrack fans. It’s another Wednesday which means its time for retro fun! This time we look at music from Back To The Future II, When Harry Met Sally, National Lampoon’s Vacation, See No Evil, Hear No Evil and Black Rain. Guessed the tracks yet? Thought you might. Here we go!

Back To The Future II

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Huey Lewis & The News – The Power of Love

When Harry Met Sally

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Harry Connick Jr. – It Had To Be You

National Lampoon’s Vacation

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Lyndsay Buckingham – Holiday Road

See No Evil, Hear No Evil

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Was (Not Was) – Anything Can Happen

Black Rain

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Gregg Allmann – I’ll Be Holding On

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So here we are again soundtrack fans. It’s another Wednesday which means its time for retro fun! This time we look at music from Superman, Life of Brian, 9 to 5, Arthur and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderome. Guessed the tracks yet? Thought you might. Here we go!

Superman (1978)

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John Williams – Can You Read My Mind?

Life Of Brian (1979)

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Monty Python – Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life

9 to 5 (1980)

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Dolly Parton – 9 to 5

Arthur (1981)

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Christopher Cross – Arthur’s Theme

Mad Max – Beyond the Thunderdom (1985)

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Tina Turner – We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)

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Welcome to another Retro Wednesday. We continue in our series of great movie music. This time we have music from Streets of Fire, The Blues Brothers, Saturday Night Fever, Grease and Rocky Horror Picture Show. Enjoy!

Streets of Fire (1984)

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Fire Inc. – Nowhere Fast

The Blues Brothers (1980)

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Aretha Franklin – Think

Saturday Night Fever (1977)

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Bee Gees – Stayin’ Alive

Grease (1978)

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Olivia Newton Jr. & John Travolta – Summer Nights

Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

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The Time Warp

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I thought it was only fitting since I did an Arnie edition last Wednesday to have a little tribute to Sly. Sly and Arnie, why couldn’t the team up? That would be every action fan’s dream come true, certainly mine. At least old Sly is still making movies which is something. I have found some great music videos from his movies Cobra, Over The Top, Lock Up, Tango & Cash and Demolition Man. Enjoy!

Cobra (1986)

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John Cafferty – Voice Of America’s Sons

Over The Top (1987)

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Sammy Hagar – The Winner Takes It All

Lock Up (1987)

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Jimi Jamison – Ever Since The World Began

Tango & Cash (1989)

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Bad English – The Best Of What I Got

Demolition Man (1993)

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Sting – Demolition Man

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