Intrada Soundtrack Forum

What a great year for film music! Actually, it's one of my favorite years, period. So many great memories from that time. Of course, I was in high school at the time.

That was the year Goldsmith was on a roll with BABY, RAMBO II, KING SOLOMON'S MINES, LEGEND, and EXPLORERS. Ah, EXPLORERS what an amazing score. Henry Mancini gave us one of his most dramatic scores ever: LIFEFORCE as well as the heroic SANTA CLAUS - THE MOVIE. Maurice Jarre wrote his gorgeous score to THE BRIDE, his action-oriented, yet Laurence of Arabia-like sweeping MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME and the sci-fi film ENEMY MINE. James Horner not only gave us his wonderful COCOON, but also my favorite of his, THE JOURNEY OF NATTY GANN (sadly still not available). Not to mention his brief, but dynamite VOLUNTEERS (also...still not available).

No theatrical films from John Williams, but we got that NBC News Theme, not to mention AMAZING STORIES. Lalo Schifrin provided the miniseries A.D. with a nice orchestral score with some very lovely themes. Basil Poledouris gave us his epic FLESH & BLOOD.

And where was John Barry....penning his Oscar winning score for the late entry that year of OUT OF AFRICA, as well as writing a thriller for JAGGED EDGE, featuring some of the coolest stalking music I've ever heard. And of course his second to last James Bond entry, A VIEW TO A KILL. Brian May gave us the action packed MISSING IN ACTION 2. Ennio Morricone gave us his sword and sorcery entry with RED SONJA. And Quincy Jones and a host of others gave us the passionate THE COLOR PURPLE.

Elmer Bernstein was in full form delivering the score for Disney's THE BLACK CAULDRON and the action comedy SPIES LIKE US. Bruce Broughton delivered two of his finest, SILVERADO and YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES. Even Dominic Frontiere made an appearance with the sweeping, flying score to THE AVIATOR. Jay Chattaway had a double header with his fine scores to INVASION U.S.A. and SILVER BULLET (both finally on CD this year!!)

Dear Laurence Rosenthal composed his epic score to MUSSOLINI: THE UNTOLD STORY and Richard Band made some waves with his tongue-in-cheek score to RE-ANIMATOR. And let's not forget that stunning score by David Shire to RETURN TO OZ.

Then there's Alan Silvestri, who's magnificent score to FANDANGO remains unreleased, and an adequate release to BACK TO THE FUTURE has yet to surface. His all electronic score, with a similar theme to BACK TO THE FUTURE, from CAT'S EYE did get an LP release, but no CD release yet.

Christopher Young was surfacing, with his score to WHEELS OF FIRE (released partially on the Cerberus CD to U-BOATS).

Back to unreleased stuff, Bill Conti's adventure score to GOTCHA! still needs a respectable release, as does Dave Grusin's THE GOONIES. I am partial to Allyn Fergusons' miniseries MASTER OF THE GAME which had an okay LP release, but no CD. And I still have hopes that Varese will re-issue the horror farce TRANSLYVANNIA 6-5000 by Lee Holdridge.

Phew...what a year. And of course, this is the year Intrada released it's first LP, Basil Poledouris' RED DAWN from 1984 (that'll be the subject of another column!). And the year of my first girlfriend.

What can I say? It was a winner all around.

Also Georges Delerue gave us Agnes of God (and several other scores I haven't heard).

Yavar

_________________
"Questions are a burden to others; answers a prison for oneself"
"Unlike me, many of you have accepted the situation of your imprisonment and will die here like rotten cabbages."
"Everyone votes for a dictator."
THE PRISONER

In 1985 Yoshihiro Kanno also wrote one of my favorite animated film scores of alll time for Mamoru Oshii's Angel's Egg.

I've always said that 1985 is my favorite year for film music. This was the apogee of a new golden age for film music back then !

I wanted to add some more gems from this fantastic year :

Bill Conti was creating big epic miniseries music for NORTH & SOUTH.
Craig Safan followed his great heroic score to The Last Starfighter with REMO WILLIAMS (with new asian flavor).
James Horner delivered heavy action score to Schwarzenegger's COMMANDO.
Michael Kamen wrote epic and twisted score to BRAZIL.
Andrew Powell from Alan parsons Project made a fantastic entry into film scoring with his pop-symphonic music in LADYHAWKE.
One year after his hit score for Terminator, Brad Fiedel created an eerie electronic music for FRIGHT NIGHT.
And Vince Dicola was replacing Bill Conti with energetic electronic score for ROCKY IV.

About movie hit songs we heard on the radio that year: We Don't Need Another Hero (Tina Turner), Burning Heart (Survivor), The Power of Love (Huey Lewis), Good Enough (Cindy Lauper), When the Goings Gets Tough (Billie Ocean), Weird Science (Danny Elfman).

Thank you Roger for this great topic. 1985 was the best year ever !