Teasing the Korean

Here are a couple that I like to spin around Halloween. Mr. Freeze: Sewer Lady:

Robert Robert - The Night Stalker and Other Classic Thrillers A compilation of Cobert's work for Dan Curtis, not including his Dark Shadows music (readily available elsewhere).

Popular music is not designed to have a long shelf life. Dated is the norm, and timeless is the exception.

With an excellent score by the underrated and underrepresented Billy Goldenberg, who coincidentally scored the episode of Ghost Story that we watched last night.

That was my thought with two Hefti albums I unloaded, Concert Miniatures (Vik) and The Band with the Young Ideas (Coral). 65 years later, it is hard to get into the mindset of someone who was doing work like this at that time, while trying to pay the rent and put food on the table. I would guess Hefti was shooting for some sort of crossover appeal, which he obviously achieved to a certain degree.

For all the attention that Frank's Capitol albums receive "Swingin' Brass" with Neal Hefti" and "Ring a Ding" with Johnny Mandel, both on Reprise, are two of the best albums he ever made.

Congratulations! Raymond Scott - Soothing Sounds for Baby There are three volumes for different ages. This is volume 1.

The definitive version of "Serenade in Blue."

"Repitition" is included on Hefti's 1964 20th Century Fox album "Li'l Darlin," which has an ensemble with strings, flutes, and harpsichord. This tune was pretty ubiquitous for a while in the states. Everyone included it in their sets. This album was released in that most pivotal of years, 1964. Could buyers of this album, listening to these arrangements, have had any idea that the Beatles would permanently ruin popular music?

Twilight Zone wasn't one of the three things that we watched in a 24-hour period and which we didn't know Matheson was involved with, hence my original post.

Last night, after dinner, Ms. TTK and I decided to watch the Roger Corman AIP House of Usher, starring Vincent Price, and featuring a lush, romantic score by Thee Great Les Baxter. When the end credits rolled, I saw that Richard Matheson wrote the screenplay. We then had some time to kill before bedtime, but there wasn't enough time to watch a whole movie. So we put in the last segment of Dan Curtis' Trilogy of Terror, in which Karen Black is terrorized by a Zuni warrior fetish doll. Screenplay by Richard Matheson. And tonight we watched the first episode of a short-lived anthology series from 1972/73, originally titled Ghost Story, and rebranded as Circle of Fear. The first episode starred Jason Robards as a sheriff whose TV showed scenes from his life. It was written by - you guessed it - Richard Matheson. Thank you for reading this post. Actually, I did not write it. It was written by Richard Matheson.

See the original post. Hefti said that writing the Batman theme was one of the toughest assignments he ever had.

We don't seem to have a thread on Neal Hefti, so here it is. Neal Hefti is an important figure in that he occupies an important middle ground between jazz and mood music. I guess "Cute" and "Li'l Darlin'" are his two most famous tunes. Going through my LPs, I was surprised at how many Neal Hefti albums I have. Soundtracks: The Odd Couple Barefoot in the Park Duel at Diablo Synanon Lord, Love a Duck Sex and the Single Girl How to Murder Your Wife Oh Dad, Poor Dad Harlow Two of his RCA Batman albums, which strictly speaking are not soundtracks, but rather knockoff albums. Absolute Music Definitely Hefty Li'l Darlin' Jazz Pops Basie Plays Hefti Pardon My Doo-Wah Sinatra & Swingin' Brass Sinatra & Basie I also had a 1950s album on RCA's Vik subsidiary - Concert Miniatures - but I unloaded it because it was kinda L7. Barefoot in the Park wonderfully captures that 1960s young-couple-in-the-city sound. Among Hefti's absolute music, my two favorites are Li'l Darlin' and Jazz Pops. Both albums find the Hefster working in Mancini-like territory, easy-breezy, with sophisticated, polite jazz touches. In retrospect, he should have scored a crime/private eye TV show circa 1960. I wonder why that didn't happen for him. What are your thoughts on Neal Hefti, and which albums do you have?

James Bernard - The Devil Rides Out Compilation of Bernard's music for Hammer films.

Completing our dinner Morricone/Argento trilogy, we are now listening to Cat O' Nine Tails.

For dinner, Ms. TTK and I made red sauce from scratch. Now playing: Morricone - Four Flies on Grey Velvet

Morricone - The Bird with the Crystal Plumage

Earlier, I mentioned Hübler & Schwab's music for Jes Fanco's horror exploitation flicks. The other composer Franco worked with quite a bit was Jerry Van Rooyan. Here is the companion album to Vampyros Lesbos: Jerry Van Rooyan at 250 Miles per Hour.

Munster, Go Home - Jack Marshall

Very interesting that he says this. One of my pet peeves is soundtrack albums in which the producers allow those very long sustained final notes the full decay that you would hear in the film, in which the decays essentially act as a crossfade into the visuals. As a standalone listening experience, these kinds of decays slow the momentum. Joel McNeely's Bernard Herrmann albums, The Twilight Zone in particular, suffer from this. Glad to hear Kenyon Hopkins reinforce my opinion.

What did Kenyon Hopkins have to say?

Agreed, if I had to choose one combo over the other. But mercy mercy, I would choose Wurly and acoustic bass over Rhodes and acoustic bass.

One of the reasons I generally prefer Wurlys over Rhodes is that you can play relatively fat, dissonant chords on a Wurly the same way you would on a piano, and everything comes out clearly. Rhodes tend to have a very chimey sound, and fat chords on a Rhodes end up sounding like mud, at least on the Rhodes that I've played.

Gary McFarland - Eye of the Devil I need to re-watch this film. I have been drinking wine on previous viewings.