The Film Music of Clifton Parker CD.

[darrenburnfan]

I just received my copy of this CD off amazon uk and it's splendid. Released on Chandos CHAN 10279 and newly recorded by The BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Rumon Gamba, nearly half an hour of the CD is taken up with an excellently played suite from Walt Disney's Treasure Island (1949) and also of note is the theme from Night of the Demon (1957) and the march from Sea of Sand (1958), which is so catchy that you'd have thought it would have been released on a single at the time...but as far as I know, it wasn't. The rest of the CD features music from Western Approaches (1944); The Blue Lagoon (1949); The Sword and The Rose (1952); Virgin Island (1958); Blue Pullman (1960) and Sink the Bismarck! (1960).



Clifton Parker (1905 - 1989) was one of the great British composers and this CD certainly does justice to his talent. Coming with a well illustrated and well written booklet about Clifton and his scores, this CD is highly recommended.









ABOVE: The cover of the CD, featuring a Treasure Island design, complete with tropical island; palm trees; a green parrot and a sailing ship and below that, a frame of Bobby Driscoll and Robert Newton in Walt Disney's version of Treasure Island (1949). This still is not included in the booklet that comes with the CD.

[Gerald Lovell]

I think I'll ask Santa for this!

[darrenburnfan]

Well, Gerald, don't forget to leave him a glass of Sherry and a mince pie on the sideboard. Santa drinks a lot of Sherry on his rounds on Christmas Eve. But he never gets drunk on it...just merry!

[vic pitcher]

A fine composer, neglected for years until the Rumon Gamba release.



His "Western Approaches" "Seascape" was released in the 78rpm Decca red label



film music series in the late 40s.



Another fine score of his was for "HMS Defiant" (aka "Damn the Defiant")

This is on CD FSM Silver Ace Classics, coupled with Maurice Jarre's "Behold a Pale Horse"



Parker excelled in scores for films with a nautical theme; another excellent one was for "Passage Home."



Vic Pitcher

[darrenburnfan]

I have an original 1962 soundtrack LP for H.M.S. Defiant, except it's an American pressing with Damn the Defiant! on it. A fine score with an excellent main theme. It's on the Colpix label, catalogue number CP 511. As far as I know, the original session tapes of H.M.S. Defiant were lost and so when the American Film Score Monthly CD was released, they had to use a transcription of the old LP (probably the stereo version, SCP 511). I wonder if the old LP was released in the UK under the film's British title. If it ever was, I've never come across it.

[Stephen Pickard]

I remember clearly collecting soundtrack LP's in the 60's. They were about One Pound and 30 pennies each. The US imports were about five pounds each, which was a lot of money back then. A lot of soundtracks were not available in the UK so the US was the only way to go. "Planet of the Apes" and "The Wrong Box" were two such examples. The soundtrack (a re-recording) of "Our Man Flint" I am 99% certain was only issued in the UK in mono but it was available in stereo and mono in the US.

The unfortunate thing about soundtrack collecting back then is that you didn't always know if you were getting the original film recording sessions or a recording made just for the LP. Some of these recordings were very good and people thought they were hearing the original tracks. A good example was Elmer Bernstein's score to "The Great Escape". LP's often had 'original soundtrack' and 'original score' at the top of the cover which I learned much later indicated the distinction between original and re-recording. Even then, sometimes the 'original score' LP contained original recordings and vice versa. Thank goodness we don't have that problem now as people like Lukas Kendall of Film Score Monthly makes it very clear when original film sessions are not being used.

[vincenzo]

name='Stephen Pickard']The soundtrack (a re-recording) of "Our Man Flint" I am 99% certain was only issued in the UK in mono but it was available in stereo and mono in the US.

My Our Man Flint album (on Stateside) is also the mono version.

[Stephen Pickard]

Yesterday I received the FSM cd of "Bullitt" and it contains the LP (re-recording) AND the original tracks. The sound quality is really excellent as are all the FSM releases.



I hope to pick-up this CD soon. I would have liked his score to "Tarzan and the Lost Safari" to have been on it.

[Dr. Schreck]

Night of the Demon! Yay!

[Nikonos]

Trouble with Night of ther Demon is that all my sympathies lie with the wicked satanist (Carswell?). I would have much preferred the demon to haul off Dana Andrews instead.... :-)