I think it is great to have 2 scores on 1 CD. Mostly because I save money.

philkws, May 16, 2008; 6:38 PM

David, I agree wholeheartedly, with the proviso that one score is not sacrificed in order to fit a second, that both scores compliment each other - 'Klute & All The President's Men' imho is a wonderful pairing. It would be interesting to hear from others of pairings that work and pairings that don't. I find some of Cams doubling & trebling up of Morricone's scores deeply unsatisfying.

Thanks
Domnic

dljmann, May 16, 2008; 7:23 PM

Film Score Monthly does that a lot. FSM's "The Thing From Another World" / "Take The High Ground" is an odd pairing that shows Dimitri Tiomkin could write for science-fiction as well as action films. Back in `99, Ryko released "Battle Of Britain" with Ron Goodwin's score and Sir William Walton's rejected score and that has always left me wishing that future DVD-releases like "Battle Of Britain" could have an extra audio track for rejected scores or unused cues so that we could hear what that composer was thinking. Anybody else feel that way?

Tim
Burbank, CA

brothertimmy, May 16, 2008; 8:57 PM

My ONLY complaint with more than one title on a CD is where to file it and then trying to find it later. :)

hammon, May 17, 2008; 4:17 AM

I'm one of those guys who only listens to iPods these days, out of convenience. So I guess
the pairing doesn't matter as I will split them on different playlists and leave out any track I
don't like (source music can be annoying). Still, here are some pairings that are great;

Murder on the Orient Express/Lady Caroline Lamb (Bennett)
The Message/Lion of the Desert (Jarre)
My Left Foot/Da (Bernstein)
Grand Prix/Ryan's Daughter (Jarre)
In Like Flint/Our Man Flint (Goldsmith)
Vincent, Francois, Paul et les autres/Les Seins de Glace (Sarde)
etc.

I like Johnny Mandel but his music is not widely released so I guess his rejected/unused
scores for The Seven-Ups and Author! Author! would not have seen the light of day if they
had not been coupled with the Don Ellis and Dave Grusin scores (that I don't care for). I
bought these only for Mandel's music. On the other hand there is another fine pairing of Point
Blank (Mandel)/The Outfit (Jerry Fielding), both great scores.

A pairing that I don't like is Homo Faber (Stanley Myers)/Die Blechtrommel (Jarre). Both films
by Schlondorff but totally different scores. I don't care for Myers but Blechtrommel is a
masterpiece that I have been fond of for years. Instead of the great artwork from the LP by
Roland Topor you get the Homo Faber artwork even though that score is the shorter one.

Another odd pairing is The Pick-up Artist (Delerue)/Sherlock Holmes in New York (Bennett),
totally different composers, totally different films. I would rather have a CD with two Bennett
scores and one with two Delerue scores. Maybe the Delerue CD would sell out in days (this
composer is very popular with collectors) while the Bennett CD would take years to sell out.
In this case it may be a clever idea by Intrada to make available on CD a short score of
doubtful soundquality and still sell out.

In general these days I feel ripped-off when I buy a full price CD with an old LP-length 30 odd
minutes of music. So any extra music is welcome in that case, preferably by the same
composer (rather than same director/movie star/genre/editor/best boy (never knew what he
does).

chris, May 17, 2008; 12:59 PM

Hi David,

A very interesting question indeed - and very interesting contributions too! To briefly add my
two Cents, I personally distaste couplings which combine scores which do not have anything
in common - neither composer, nor director or genre. Some of the combinations mentioned
here, seem completely senseless to me - by any other means than perhaps mercantile ones.

I can perfectly understand why someone enjoys getting two scores for the price of one. But
mostly, this seems to me like buying a Kafka novel which is bound together with one by
Barbara Cartland. That looks like a mercantile advantage of course, but not in respect of the
content.

My reason for sounding upset sometimes, is because of personal frustration. As much as I'd
long to have a score like The Verdict on my shelves, I definitely do not want to have the
other music included in this release. And as I still prefer CDs to my iPod, there's no way of
getting rid of it. Yes, I could surely use the skip button, but I do not want to spend my money
for something I do not want at all.

Cheerz,

David

coma, May 17, 2008; 5:25 PM

Hello,

Thank you all for your opinions on this post.

For me I never play the two scores together on one cd at the same time anyway. for example I love both the Delurue score "The Pick Up Artist" and the Bennett score "Sherlock Holmes in New York". I either burn a cd-r for each or use my ipod or use the preset on my stereo. I want to hear them seperate because I don't want think of the one score every time I listen to the other. I want to enjoy them for their individual qualities. However am am glad I only had to buy one cd to get them.

Best Regards,
David Phoenix, AZ.

deg63iami, May 17, 2008; 5:41 PM

The grandaddy of double score recordings are the old USA, Decca label LP's. Omar Khayyam/The Mountain, Written Of The Wing/Four Girls In Town, Golden Earrings/For Whom The Bells Toll and some others. The old Capitol "Doubles" released two 10" LP's on a 12" LP. Streetcar Named Desire/Music By Max Steiner, Quo Vadis/Spellbound...

victoravalentine, May 17, 2008; 8:48 PM

Thanks, knives! This is completely new to me. Too sad that these releases can hardly be found
in the database (yet).

coma, May 18, 2008; 3:34 PM