Book Excerpt of the Day

"A notorious example of post-porn mainstream cinema is Pretty Baby, which scandalously stars an occasionally nude 12-year-old Brooke Shields as a virginal sex object. The soundtrack presents Jerry Wexler's adaptations of ragtime piano tunes by Scott Joplin and Jerry Roll Morton that serve as source cues in the film's principle location, a seedy New Orleans Storyville brothel at the turn of the 20th century. The music is perfect for the film, but doesn't make for an especially compelling soundtrack listening experience."

– from Chapter 3: Sexploitation Serenade of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

"For sexy '60s camp, nothing beats Valley of the Dolls. Based on the best-selling novel by Jacqueline Susann, Valley is the sordid story of a trio of ambitious young women wrestling with the trappings of fame and fortune in New York while popping a steady stream of 'dolls' (uppers and downers). Much of John Williams' instrumental cues epitomize the swanky easy listening of the period. On 'Chance Meeting,' cascading harps and swirling strings accompany gently strummed acoustic guitar and bossa nova rhythms. And the era's attitude toward sex without marriage is perfectly summarized in the lyrics to 'Come Live with Me.'"

– from Chapter 3: Sexploitation Serenade of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

"On one of the few occasions when an Italian composer scored a British spy film, the soundtrack proved to the hard-edged and dark compared to the music featured in all-Italian productions. Piero Piccioni's intense music for Alistair Maclean's Puppet on a Chain (1971) suited its subject matter (drug trafficking) and its gritty era. The track list reads like an Amsterdam police report: 'Drug Dealers,' 'Psychedelic Mood,' 'Narcotics Bureau,' 'Drugs Hypnosis' and 'Night Club' – all of which live up to their seedy promise."

– from Chapter 2: Spy Symphonies of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

"Kill! – about an Interpol agent on the take from international drug rings – has a (pardon the pun) killer score by Berto Pisano and Jaques Chaumont. The theme sticks in one's mind like an ice pick. Its stabbing rhythm, pounding congas, death ray electric guitar and stroboscopic orchestration are brilliantly executed. The score is rife with mysterious melodies, superb abstract orchestral cues, psycho beat, sitar exotica and a sexy whispered vocal performance by actress Jean Seberg. Kill! is a critical Italian soundtrack."

– from Chapter 2: Spy Symphonies of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

"Hollywood legend Bernard Herrmann's final score accompanies the gritty Taxi Driver, about a cabbie turned vigilante. The jazz-tinged orchestral score harkens back to the early years of crime jazz film and television scores, but with a darker sensibility rarely heard in the soundtracks of the '50s. The track 'Diary of a Taxi Driver,' featuring Bickle's monologue about the 'scum' on the streets, is a mini-masterpiece of brooding menace, with pulsating snare and cymbal echoing the cabbie's restlessness like a ticking time bomb."

– from Chapter 1: Crime Jazz and Felonious Funk of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

"The Mack, one of the legendary blaxploitation productions due to its lethal behind-the-scenes politics and its fact-as-fiction footage of the notorious Player's Ball, features one of Willie Hutch's bold blaxploitation scores. Hutch got the job when the filmmakers offered a cameo appearance to the Hutch-produced singing group Sisters of Love. The score features some of Hutch's best songs, including the affirmative soul number "Brothers Gonna Work It Out," the stirring ballad "I Choose You" and the hard-driving theme. For The Mack's home video release in 1983, the studio foolishly replaced Hutch's score with an R'n'B-lite soundtrack by Alan Silvestri that pales in comparison."

– from Chapter 1: Crime Jazz and Felonious Funk of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979

Book Excerpt of the Day

"Guaranteed to thrill is the composite score for the classic It Came from Outer Space. Irving Gertz, Herman Stein and Henry Mancini contributed to this sometimes sentimental, often times spooky theremin-enhanced soundtrack. Shrill strings, agitated brass and woodwinds, harp glissandi and otherworldly vibrato sounds on the organ and theremin make this one of the most effective sci-fi scores of the era."

– from Chapter 5: Sci-Fidelity and the Superhero Spectrum of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979