Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
Victor Young's classic score, in an early-stereo issue with vivid if unrefined sound. Young conducts an unidentified orchestra. This was one of his last scores - he won an posthumous Academy award for it.
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Victor Young
Magnificent Obsession (1954)
Another in the series of Decca soundtracks from the mid-50s, this one from Magnificent Obsession, with a cover featuring Rock Hudson's magnificent compression against Jane Wyman's chest. The music is by Frank Skinner, riffing on a some fellows named Beethoven, Chopin, and Johann Strauss. The story is a soupy one, with Rock as a drunken playboy who becomes a great surgeon after causing the Jane's husband to die and Jane to go blind. A contrite Rock operates and restores Jane's sight. I think in the sequel (Magnificent Resurrection) he brings the husband back to life, but I'm not sure about that.
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Frank Skinner
The Happy Prince (1944)
Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince was adapted for radio by Orson Welles in 1944, featuring a musical score by Bernard Herrmann. It was aired on CBS' Orson Welles Show on December 22. In 1944 it was rerecorded for the Philco Hall of Fame Christmas broadcast on December 24. This time featuring Bing Crosby along side Orson Welles, with Herrmann's music conducted by Victor Young. This version was released on a 78 rpm album (Decca DA-420) in 1946 and later rereleased in various vinyl versions.
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Bernard Herrmann
This Is Kim As Jeanne Eagels (1957)
This is one of the more peculiar quasi-soundtracks from the 1950s. It is largely an homage to Kim Novak in the title role of Jeanne Eagels, a 1957 fictionalized biopic of an actress who died young. The record includes a song called This Is Kim by George Duning and theme music by the same composer, along with a selections of standards that are presumably associated with the Eagels/Novak character in the film. All this is presented by Morris Stoloff, his Columbia band, and a cooing chorus. Novak's vocals in the film were dubbed by Gogi Grant, or so I have read, but they are not here - or issued anywhere else that I have found. One final note: this is another late mono record that (despite the jacket claim) was not processed properly for RIAA playback. I have corrected that in this transfer.
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George Duning,
Morris Stoloff
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