The Henry Mancini You May Not Know

[Teasing the Korean]

This topic came up in a thread about box sets, and I did not want to hijack the thread, so I thought I would create my own.

Regarding his film score albums, Mancini wrote in his autobiography, "A problem arose from the re-recording of those scores. Because the albums were made up of the most melodic material from each film, a lot of the dramatic music, which is what I really loved to do and really thought I had a feeling for, was left out. It may have hurt my reputation as a writer of serious film music. To this day I would love to have an album of some of those scores as they were heard in the films. The albums gave me a reputation, even among producers, as a writer of light comedy and light suspense, and at that time it was not easy for them to think of me for the more dramatic assignments. I did that to myself."

In recent years, some of the film score boutique labels have located Mancini's actual film score tracks and released them on limited edition CDs. Among the gems are the original full versions of Charade, Hatari, Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Thief Who Came to Dinner. Scores that never had an LP release, such as Wait Until Dark and The Days of Wine and Roses, have also been released.

These albums are a real revelation, especially Charade. In addition to the light stuff, you get to hear Mancini's skill with spooky, dramatic, and poignant moods that rarely made it to the LPs. Most of the discs I mentioned are still in print, but they are limited.

You can find them here: Screen Archives Entertainment You can browse by composer or search by title.

Edited March 12, 2015 by Teasing the Korean

[AllenLowe]

thanks, just ordered Charade.

[Teasing the Korean]

thanks, just ordered Charade.

Charade has always been one of my favorite Mancini film scores and one of my least favorite Mancini albums. I will be interested to hear your thoughts when you receive it.

[Daniel A]

I Will get Charade, too. The music for the final chase/subway scene is a piece of classic scoring that is about as great as anything written for the movies in the 60s. It sounds more modern than the year of release might make you think and it's clearly outside what many people expect of Mancini.

Edited March 16, 2015 by Daniel A