The Music
I did not know, until I read Music by John Barry, what a debacle this movie was. Director Richard Lester went with Michel Legrand for the music, who had scored his previous Three Musketeers movie. Lester asked Legrand to give him a particular style and Legrand delivered, in spades. Lester loved it. The producer, Ray Stark, hated it.
Ray Stark is the 800-lb. gorilla on his films, not the director. So Stark junked the Legrand score and commissioned John Barry to do it. Considering that Barry and Lester had worked together well before (The Knack, Petulia, and Boom!), this was a great idea. But Lester wanted Legrand's score. Stark and the studio wouldn't allow it. But they did bring in Richard Shores to redo three scenes based on Barry's themes.
The result was that Lester disowned the film, no OST was released, and Barry and Lester never worked together again. |
Release Notes
This is arguably Barry's most bootlegged score, though The Black Hole may beat it if you count CD-Rs. The most common bootlegs are the two Sherwood (get it? Sherwood Forest?) LPs, which I'm told were sourced from the recording sessions and include out-takes. I have one of the Sherwoods (I think SH 1500) and each side is presented as one long, untitled track. The more recent CD bootleg, Sherwood 500 AX2, I am told was sourced from the laserdisc. I haven't heard it so I can't make any comparisons.
So it was with great joy that Nic Raine released a rerecorded score.
If that's not enough, two pieces ("John Bursts In" and "The End") are available on the CD Music from the Films of Audrey Hepburn (Big Screen 9 24503-2). A piece called "Robin & Marian" shows up on A Tribute to Sean Connery by Orchestra Seattle, and Nic Raine has a version on his The Collecton. And a suite of music by Nic Raine is on The Classic John Barry. |
