Oh, I believe that market targeted collectors. Those marketers just didn't/don't understand what we value.
1967 was not only the year I started buying soundtrack LPs, it was the same year that Sergio Leone's first three Westerns saw US release. (Yes, all three of them, months apart.) I had found FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE even more impressive than FISTFUL OF DOLLARS (both film and score) a few months earlier, so I was increasingly disappointed with each week that went by without a FEW DOLLARS MORE album release.
Well, eventually I came across "FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE and other great motion picture themes," conducted by somebody named Leroy Holmes -- who? Even as a 13-year-old novice I was hesitant to risk money on that; it wasn't credited as "the original motion picture soundtrack" and wasn't conducted by the composer, so I understood it might be "different" from what I heard in the movie. And FAFDM was only half the LP, with themes by other composers comprising Side 2. BUT then it was on the United Artists label (the movie's distributor), so maybe this release WAS kind of "official;" the jacket did feature the movie's poster art; and even if FAFDM had only one side of the record, so did the FISTFUL score on its album, which was on a different label. And dang it (since people didn't swear so freely back then), I wanted that music! After a couple of weeks I finally caved in and bought it.
Some lessons are best learned early in life and like a sharp slap across the face, so you can recognize mistakes to avoid. I was extremely disappointed with the distance of Holmes' arrangements from Morricone's orchestrations; and some of those tracks I found insulting (with a 13-year-old's heightened capacity for indignation). But despite hating the arrangements, at least I learned the melodies and mentally reconstructed cues from the movie. Soon I forgave myself since at least I had learned not to buy "cover" versions of film scores again. Here's where the tale turns dark.
Two years later brought what I still believe is Morricone's true masterpiece: ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. And once again, no soundtrack release; which this time was even worse for me, because OUATITW had become my all-time favorite movie (temporarily) -- so I craved that music even more intensely than I had wanted FAFDM. At some point I walked into one record store, asked if they knew anything about a soundtrack album for WEST, and was thrilled when the staffer told me, "Yeessss, I think we've got that in." I followed him elatedly to the middle of the store, where he pulled and passed me an LP: "ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST and Other Themes" by Leroy Holmes & His Orchestra.
I didn't want to be rude to the guy; and yeah, I certainly wish I had walked out of the place. But while this time there was only a single track from WEST rather than one whole LP side, one of those other themes was from another sadly unreleased recent score I was crazy about: Goldsmith's 100 RIFLES. I knew what I should have done, but ...
Well, I never needed a third lesson about either film-score covers OR Leroy Holmes. I knew resolutely at 15 that I didn't prefer to laugh at renditions of music I loved -- especially when paying for the privilege.
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