I have commented before about my hatred (yes: hatred) for the David Holmes' score to Out Of Sight ... multiple dialogue between tracks (one Dean Martin song is ended abruptly) and no mention of said dialogue on the sleeve notes to warn potential buyers - perhaps that's no surprise. In addition, I particularly dislike hearing four letter expletives whilst listening to the movie score.

I think Ryko made a bad mistake in their earlier OST releases - wonderful CD releases of 60s/70s UA vinyl scores (maybe others too) - having snippets of film dialogue between some tracks - I always programme these out when playing these discs (e.g. The Knack, The Whisperers, The Return of the [Magnificent] Seven], etc. Happily on their later releases they concentrated on providing additional cues and avoided dialgue (e.g. Battle of Britain, For Your Eyes Only and The Living Daylights).

Strangely, one score where I find dialogue does help (perhaps a sign that the score is not that good(?)) is Trevor Jones' Angel Heart. Some of the dialogue seems appropriate and blends well.

Another example of good dialogue inclusion is John Barry's TV score to Elizabeth Taylor in London where on several tracks the star reads selected items of historical speeches or poetry.

As a slight aside, I would also argue against the inclusion of an interview, etc. at the end of the disc - such as the David Arnold interview on his Tomorrow Never Dies' score - there is no way I want to hear this as often as the score. If this has to be included (why not in writing in the sleeve notes), why not as track 1 so that it is easily skipped. There may be a technological reason - i.e. sound quality towards the end of the CD is not as good as at the start (anyone know?) - just as on the old vinyl LPs, sound often deteriorated towards the end.

On the whole though, fireatheart, I would agree with you ... it's as though the CD producers have no faith in the music score or cannot believe that we collectors will buy the score for the music rather than as a way of re-living the movie (which quite often I/we won't have seen, anyway!)

Mitch, March 18, 2007; 6:39 AM

Recently such a big deception has been Normand Corbeil's soundtrack CD from "Napola". The music is destroyed by several useless dialogs, and it's a shame as Normand Corbeil's music is great !

Sometimes however dialogue may be suitable for a CD release. I have both Nino Rota's "Romeo and Juliet" soundtracks, one with and one without dialogues. It depends on my mood which one I choose to listen to. Same goes for "Beauty and the Beast" by Lee Holdridge.

But in these cases the dialogues are of high literary quality ! Just plain movie dialogue should be avoided in a score release, it's just disturbing and prevents you from enjoying the music. Don't even mention those releases with sound effects ! You know if you'll buy the DVD you'll get the images as a bonus ! So what the heck does a CD release including dialogue mean ?

A nice sunday to all of you !

birnam, March 18, 2007; 8:42 AM

Human Nature by Graeme Revell - there's dialogues all over this CD, but it's the only way to get this music, unfortunatley. But there are some tracks on the cd that only have dialougues at the beginning, but someb tracks, well......

philkws, March 18, 2007; 9:52 AM

It was far before internet, I saw the Kurosawa film "high and low"with great music by Masaru Satu. I found on a list an LP from Japan with the soundtrack. When I received the LP I was almost in choc when I heard that from the second track on the LP nothing but Japanese dialog highlights from the film were all that was there. On the otherside of the LP was the same story for THE BAD SLEEP WELL. Years later came the cd boxes from all the Kurosawa music and finaly I got the score.

s.tonkens, March 18, 2007; 1:34 PM

I actually didn't mind the narration on Angela's Ashes (Sony issue), though I also have the version without narration too. In this case, the narration is confined to the beginning of the tracks during relatively low-key music.

In other cases I do mind, such as the Japanese Neoplex re-recording of Barry Gray's UFO which has Japanese narration over the end titles music. I suppose I don't like it because I can't understand a word of Japanese.

In general, I think if dialogue is going to be included on a disc, it should be on separate tracks (like Ryko CD's of "Great Escape" & "Thomas Crown Affair") instead of over the music.

piano632, March 18, 2007; 4:30 PM

Some dialogue recordings are damn good. The Columbia LP's from the early 70's (Harry Kellerman, Little Big Man ect.) were produced well and are totally enjoyable.

Speaking of dialogue recordings. From the story I've heard. Thats the exact reason why composer Max Steiner had production stopped on the Caine Mutiny recording. His objection to the inclusion of audio highlights from the film.


victoravalentine, March 18, 2007; 5:34 PM

Speaking of Caine Mutiny, here is a link to an article about why the soundtrack release was halted.
http://www.musicfromthemovies.com/article.asp?ID=377

And a copy of the LP just sold on ebay for US $6,676.00.

df789, March 19, 2007; 11:24 AM

I would have loved to have the War of the worlds (John Williams), without the narration of Morgan Freeman. He has a nice voice though!
also the for your consideration promo has the narration over the music.

rmensing, March 19, 2007; 2:21 PM

War Of The World's narration is accepting to me. That's nothing and the music would be strange without it, it belongs there in my opinion.

How about the score to The Fog with the narration telling in the Prologue cue and the worst ever the dialogue throughout Escape From New York?

Speaking of EFNY, when Varese released the album back then they put a yellow star symbol over Kurt Russel's character running in the streets and the image looks pittyful. I bet they could have droped that symbol and print the words that was used in the symbol you know Music By John Carpenter sowhere else on the cover where it won't interfer.

Check out the image on this site you will know what I mean, compare it? The lp cover had the yellow star symbol dropped when they released it on cd and correct the Music By names on the bottow. Geezzzzzz!

aclockwork_oranges71, March 20, 2007; 3:24 AM

The Devil's Advocate.
I got rid of the CD because of the dialog.

Blade Runner.
I kept the CD for it's excellent music, but don't like the dialog. It's a little less obtrusive, because I don't like the vocal songs either.

Das Boot.
Outstanding music, but they should have kept the dialog out of the expanded release. It's barely tolerable, and only because it's in German and I don't speak the language.

betenoir, March 23, 2007; 4:49 PM

I think the dialogue is cute on the soundtrack of How To Eat Fried Worms but one dialogue track sounds like it was taped through a running fan. Track # 25: All Because Of A Worm

aclockwork_oranges71, March 25, 2007; 11:42 AM

Just this morning, I re-listened to "Big Top Pee Wee" that I really used to like, but hearing those cartoon-like dialogues... Yeech! I'm ready to sell my copy! I've had it!!!

Otherwise, this week, I received "ROME" by Jeff Beal, and on ONE of the tracks (in the middle, somewhere), there's one bit of dialogue track from the series, not very long. I thought I was going to hurl! But, thank god, it was just that one bit, so... ok, I'm keeping the CD for now. Lol

Don't do it again, Jeff!

fireatheart, March 25, 2007; 12:56 PM

I'm very happy to have the dialogue included on Nascimbene's DOCTOR FAUSTUS. In fact I think this is one of those rare instances where the recorded music and dialogue actually enhances the listening experience !!

powley, March 25, 2007; 10:49 PM

I have a couple soundtracks that I can think of with dialogue, one of them is "Apollo 13" and the other is the vinyl version of the 1977 NBC miniseries "Jesus of Nazareth" by Maurice Jarre.

Neither one has dialogue that's too obtrusive.

tbirddmnd, March 27, 2007; 7:33 PM

I very recentley aquired the soundtrack to Mississippi burning. I purchased this OST purely for the 'murder in Mississippi' themes. There are three on the CD. All have dialogue plastered all over them. Ruined. Why they do this is anyones guess. Very annoying.

royteague, April 2, 2007; 9:50 AM

I HATE I HATE HATE HATE HATE!!! Soundtrack's with dialouge!!! This is the ONLY thing I detest about Tarantino!

The first soundtrack I encountered with this terrible idea was Apollo 13. I wrote MCA and told them how terrible this was and they sent me the complete promo score without dialouge, that was cool! Then they explained that it's up to the director if he/she wants dailouge on the soundtrack.

symetristudios, April 3, 2007; 3:18 PM