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Quartet Records presents Santa Claus: The Movie
4-Dec-2012 -

Quartet Records, in collaboration with Capitol Records and Calash Corporation, proudly presents the premiere
release of Henry Mancini’s complete score for this 1985 Christmas movie Santa Claus: The Movie.
 
The film, directed by Jeannot Szwarc, starred Dudley Moore, David Huddleston and John Lithgow. An ambitious and
expensive project produced by Alexander Salkind, it was not the box-office hit it was expected to be. 
One of the most important aspects of the film was its soundtrack, for which Salkind hired the great Henry Mancini.
The composer was deeply involved in the production, composing more than 85 minutes of original music for the 109-minute film.
 
Mancini’ score is so beautiful, diverse and emotional, it is not strange that it has become the film’s most remembered
and appreciated feature. Recorded in CTS Studios in London with The London Metropolitan Orchestra, the score
also features The Ambrosian Children’s Choir performing several charming songs written by Mancini and Leslie Bricusse.
 
For the original album, released in 1985 by EMI America, Mancini and sound engineer Rod McMaster prepared
a program of highlights: 13 tracks lasting only 37 minutes (from an 85-minute score!).
Some themes were modified for their album version – with different durations, slightly different mixes
or the addition of pop elements. Almost all of Mancini’s symphonic effort was missing.
 
After a long search for all the source material and an effort to bring together the different rights owners (the film
was a complicated coproduction), we can now present Mancini’s masterful score in its entirety, remixed
from ½″ 3-track stereo and 2" 24-track session masters vaulted in mint condition in Abbey Road Studios, London
(where McMaster mixed the EMI disc). In addition to the complete score, it has been great to discover a lot of
extra material that Mancini recorded for the film: songs with alternate lyrics, different orchestrations, etc.
Courtesy of Capitol Records, Quartet has also included the original 1985 album version, mastered from first
generation master tapes stored in the Abbey Road vaults.
 
This deluxe, 3CD release includes a 32-page full-color booklet with liner notes and track-by-track analysis by Jeff Bond.
For more info and ordering, visit Quartet Records.


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