Excerpts from the *160* page booklet:

4 Introduction: Music That Becomes an Icon
6 Overview: A History of Heroic Music
8 Superman: The Movie: This Is No Fantasy
11 John Williams: Composer of Legend
29 Disc 1: Superman: The Movie, Part 1
44 Disc 2: Superman: The Movie, Part 2
55 Interview: In Williams's Own Words
58 Musical Analysis: The Making of the "March"
60 Superman II: A Return to Glory
64 Ken Thorne: Composer of Choice
68 Disc 3: Superman II
84 Superman III: Laughter in the Air
87 Disc 4: Superman III
104 Superman IV: The Quest for Peace: Facing New Challenges
109 Alexander Courage: The Consummate Musician
114 Disc 5: Superman IV, Part 1
126 Disc 6: Superman IV, Part 2
133 Source Music and Songs by Paul Fishman
136 Superman (1988): Animated Rebirth
141 Disc 7: Superman (1988)
152 Alternates, Source Music and Songs: Extra!
153 Disc 8: Superman: The Movie, Superman II and Superman III
156 Yes, Giorgio! Songs by Giorgio Moroder
160 Album Production Credits

Superman The Movie:

Williams has spoken often of the great difficulty in creating what seem to be, after the fact, the simplest of constructions. "I had fun with a little device…a four-bar introductory gesture that the music does all the time in the film that precedes when you hear the theme." The music is heard as early as the main title, and recurs throughout for Superman’s appearances, particularly his transformations from Clark Kent. “It’s a kind of three-bar ramp-up and then as he, Superman, opens his shirt, you hear the musical three-note ‘Superman.’ But you always get three bars preparation, whether he’s turning his back, his back’s to the camera, or he’s hiding, so that the orchestra will play that, I think I’m safe in saying, every time that happens. That just occurred to me in the process of writing this theme, that if the theme could be preceded by some key—some clue—it would cue the audience in a way that was meant, in my mind at least, to be fun."

During the first three days of recording, Donner listened with approval, but none of the cues being recorded contained full statements of the main Superman theme. That happened on July 11, when Williams recorded his first version of the main title, and Donner famously ran onto the scoring stage in delight. The first round of orchestral sessions ended on July 14. One week later Williams recorded all of his source music with a small ensemble, then flew to Los Angeles,
where he substituted for an ailing Arthur Fiedler at Hollywood Bowl concerts on July 28 and 29.

John Williams on Richard Donner:
"We worked at Pinewood Studios in England and I certainly had many meetings with Dick Donner at the studio about the spotting of the film, various scenes. I really don’t recall any particular conversations we had, other than the fact that it was always a very friendly and enjoyable work experience. It was something I enjoyed enormously. He’s a marvelous personality and character and energy source and he brought all of that to his filmmaking, and the combination of Richard Donner and Christopher Reeve produced a wonderful alchemy."

Superman II:

For Superman II mixing engineer John Richards employed his technique of recording a bright, wide sound, which was mixed down to a 3-track, left-center-right configuration with separate stems of percussion and ambiance, the latter achieved through the placement of "omni" microphones to create a means of adding fullness to the sound. Unfortunately, choices made somewhere in the dubbing and mixing process for the film resulted in the music attaining a muddy quality and an overemphasis of winds and percussion. In some instances, the placement of the center and right channels of music was even mistakenly switched.

The presentation of the score here lays all of those points to rest. Working from the original 35mm magnetic film mixdowns of orchestra, percussion and ambiance, the score for Superman II is now preserved in its entirety, its true quality revealed for the first time. Reel and part numbers are provided along with the original titles as printed on the cue sheets and manuscript.

Superman Flies Off
13M1 (2:53–4:29)
When Superman fails to emerge from the bus wreckage, the citizens of Metropolis attempt to gang up on the villains themselves, but a triple force of super-breath stops them in their tracks. The villains continue the attack until the street is reduced to a collection of debris and flying cars.
Superman finally reappears and takes to the skies rather than continue the destructive battle, while the villains return to Perry White’s office and declare victory. The music for the sequence, which begins as Superman emerges from the bus wreckage, is a highlight of the score. Thorne arranges a dark version of the Personal theme, playing it against a rising-and-falling motive heard only in the first film’s comic book “Prelude.” After a defeated statement of the Fanfare, the balance of the cue is adapted from the original "Trajectory Malfunction," ending with Thorne’s descending villain motive.

Superman III:

Richards executed his usual accomplished engineering, but as was the case with Superman II, the audio mix as heard in the film made the music sound significantly inferior to the original recording. With only 19 minutes of the score included on the original Superman III album release (Warner Bros. 1-23879; the rest was devoted to Moroder songs), the true quality of the music has until now never been appreciated. The original album was remixed at Warner Bros. by Lee Herschberg, but presented here is the complete score from John Richards’s original 4-track 35mm mag mixes.

1M2A (0:09–2:28) • “Main Title Part 1”
In a conscious effort to attempt a new format for the film, the credits are presented intermittently over a string of elaborately staged sight gags on the streets of Metropolis, some of which peripherally involve Clark Kent, Jimmy Olsen and Lorelei Ambrosia (Pamela Stephenson). Mishaps unfold involving battery-operated
toy penguins, a collision between a hot dog cart and a bank of phone booths, and a blind man who thinks a street-painting machine is his seeing-eye dog. Thorne employs a minorthird ostinato from which emerges a rising and falling phrase on staccato brass as each credit appears, alternating with passages for solo bassoon. A brief statement of the Fanfare greets the appearance of Superman’s “S” above the film’s title.

1M2B (2:28–5:27) • “Main Title Part 2”
A masked robber races out of the Century Savings Bank carrying a sack of money and firing a gun. Police officers shoot back and an errant bullet blows out the tire of a passing car, which crashes into a fire hydrant—the doors jam and the car begins filling with water. Thorne puts a threatening spin on his own music
for the bank robbery sequence, then brings in Williams’s Fanfare and A theme (based on “Superman Saves Boy” from the previous film) when Clark uses a photo booth to change into Superman in order to rescue the drowning driver. Thorne’s own themes return as the mishaps continue with a falling paint bucket, a toppled
gumball machine and a mime, ending with a classic pie in the face. “The title sequence was a real challenge,”the composer recalls. “When I recorded it Richard
was very undecided about it, but later that evening he called me and said he liked it a lot. I was relieved because it had been hard to create and very time-consuming.”

Superman IV:

1. Fanfare
MA [1MA] (0:00–0:13) • Williams • England
The score begins with the Superman Fanfare on solo trumpet processed with an echo effect. This appeared over the Warner Bros. logo in the U.S. and the Cannon logo in all other territories.

2. Space Saver
M1 [1M2] (0:13–1:48) • Courage/Williams • Germany
In a sequence originally intended as a prologue before the opening credits, a cosmonaut is seen working on the exterior of a Russian space capsule in Earth orbit. In the film, the cosmonaut sings (in Russian) “My Way,” listed on the cue sheet by its original French title, “Comme d’Habitude”(M1X [1M2X]). A repeating synthesizer phrase begins the cue, with the orchestra entering as a piece of space debris collides with the station, sending the cosmonaut careening helplessly away. Courage’s tense music is reminiscent of his score for the Star Trek episode “The Naked Time.” Superman comes to the rescue of the doomed cosmonaut and his compatriots aboard the capsule, which is hurtling out of control. In the film, a section of the Williams Fanfare is tracked over Superman’s first appearance on screen, but the original cue delays the quote until the cosmonaut is rescued. The sequence closes with a statement of the B theme—used more extensively in this score than in any of the others—as Superman bids the cosmonauts farewell in fluent Russian. As released, the film began with the Fanfare and then cut straight to the Main Title, followed by this space rescue.

Superman Animated Series:

This premiere release of Ron Jones’s 1988 Superman soundtrack is remastered from the composer’s ¼" 2-track stereo masters of the recording sessions. The program is arranged to present his scene-specific cues first, transitioning into library music for the latter tracks. Except for some alternate takes, source
music and electronic cues, this is substantially all of Jones’s music for the program.

"Game Montage"
This lengthy cue was written for the episode’s climactic game, with the standard “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” (by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer, published by Broadway Music Corp. and Jerry Vogel Music Company Inc., ASCAP) arranged over the Prankster’s theme amidst a good deal of large-scale orchestral action—much of it with soaring Americana, for Superman’s heroics as well as the grandness of the national pastime. In the broadcast version, the bulk of this cue was replaced by a stock instrumental of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” although various sections were relocated to other parts of this and other episodes.