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I've been looking at the CDs to E.T (both 1997 and 2002 versions) sitting on my shelf for some time and trying to figure out if I really needed both of them. I certainly preferred the packaging on the 1997 version, but the 2002 version had some additional cues. So I rolled up my sleeves, dug in, and figured out which was what. Here is what I ultimately found.
First, the sound quality between the two are the same. They clearly used the same elements for each release. It is possible that the 2002 is mastered at a slightly higher level, but with going back and forth I couldn't tell if it was my imagination or not. So if it is a little louder, then it's *very* minimal.
I decided I needed to make a CD using the 2002 release as a base, and adding the "End Title" from 1997 release. It's not the film version, but I like it better. It opens with a flourish and then has flutes and percussion noodling over the piano part. This is not on the 2002 release, where the "noodling" comes in around 20 seconds after solo piano and then is the same piece from there as the 1997 recording. I thought these were the exact same recordings, actually, with the flourish edited onto the beginning and sweeters overdubbed onto the first 20 seconds, but as it turns out I hear a couple of horn mistakes not on the 2002 version. The version on the 2002 release, which does appear in the film, opens with just piano and sounds a little more naked than the 1997 with the added bells and whistles! I used the film version as a bonus track at the end. I think in the film itself they add in some of the bad guy action music as well.
So I did this and then had to recut the CD, because I found out that the 1997 version actually edits the big 15 minute "Escape" cue into the end title. I was listening to my new CD and the Escape piece ended dramatically. Then it ended again as the End Title cue started. So I recut the CD using "Escape" and "End Title" from the 1997 edition to fix that problem.
Then I had to recut the CD AGAIN. As I was listening to the new CD, there was clearly a problem in "ET is Alive" around the 2:30 mark. There was something wrong. It was a crossfade that comes in too early. Way too early. The cues overlap giving it a choppy, clunky listen. The edit was perfect on the 1997 release. This explained to me why the timings of what should have been two identical cues was so far off. So I recut the CD again, now with three cues from the 1997 version.
Other observations. There are three additional cues on the 2002 release, which are kinda cool (like the main title), and I decided to keep them. They don't really add too much, but the main title is referenced later in the score. The very end of "ET's New Home," one of the additional cues, actually *is* on the 1997 recording, as the opening of "Beginning of a Friendship." . So it's like 2.8 new tracks, not really 3. "Beginning of a Friendship," incidentally, on the 2002 release has a piano figure edited onto the end. I can see why they did it because it edits against the same piano figure that comes out of the main part of that cue...except it's in different key so it doesn't work as well. This little tail of a piece works better on the 1997 edition because it is edited onto the opening of "Toys" instead. However, I had to keep the one from the 2002 version with the inferior edit because of what is mentioned above....otherwise the ending of "ET's New Home" and the beginning of "Beginning of a Friendship" would be the same.
My only real frustration is what is missing from both 1997 and 2002 versions. During the "Escape" cue, at the moment where the kids bicycles take flight, there is supposed to be triangles and xylophone. These are missing from both albums. They're in the film. They're on the original album rerecording, which is where I came to admire it because they just hovered their colorfully, crisply in the center of my living room. But mysteriously they are missing from both these CDs...and that moment was one of my favorite sounds in the score. I assume it was recorded as a sweetener that needed to be overdubbed and when they assembled the 1997 and 2002 versions they didn't know what it was or what to do with it so they left it off. Or, more unlikely, it was missing.
Phew. What a project. But I needed to make my own definitive E.T.
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