Well, Prometheus has been doing Columbia titles for some time including older titles like Breakout and Bite the Bullet or recent like Images and Robin and Marian. Varese also did for example Stripes! so unless I'm mistaken somewhere the release of Body Double is not exactly breakthrough in licencing.

But of course any library that is open and cooperative in releasing the vintage scores should be praised for that. The Deep would be great to come out on CD.

42zaphod, December 23, 2008; 9:42 PM

Columbia Pictures isn´t longer a no-go, FSM released the first Columbia titles years ago, with scores such as The Swimmer. Ghostbusters is a Columbia property too, and it was released by Varése.

But The Deep is another matter, since the LP-recording was released by Casablanca and that was a difficult company in the past. Maybe this changed too. I´m not sure if Casablanca is part of UMG music. If this is case, maybe Intrada can release it.

Columbia, by the way, has another problem: Nearly all tapes, from the 30s to the 70s are lost.

moenter.melle, December 25, 2008; 5:18 PM

Thanks for your comments. You're quite right. My comments unintentionally suggested that Columbia has never licensed anything at all! What I was trying to pose was, whether it safe to assume that, with "Body Double" finally getting a release (only took 24 years!) and the few selected titles that have come before it...are the Columbia vaults opening wide like 20th Century Fox or MGM's?

If anyone had told me ten years ago that I would hold in my hands legit releases of Pete Rugolo's music for "The Fugitive" and Percy Faith's score to "The Oscar" on CD, and Barry's "The Deep" non-existent, I would have thought that impossible.

Hope 2009 finally sees CD releases of "The Deep" and a remastered edition of Bernard Herrmann's "Obsession" too....and a hell of a lot more important things...

Anything from the Columbia vaults that anyone else wants? If they even still exist...?

Continued Regards,
James - Toronto

johnbarryisgod, December 29, 2008; 12:34 PM