The Superman movies provide perhaps the most generous variety of film music of any film franchise in cinema history. From 'Superman' to 'Supergirl' and the Superman-movie-in-disguise 'Santa Claus', a plethora of diverse musical talent accompanied the images of humans in flight from 1978-1987, and these names included John Williams, Alexander Courage, Giorgio Moroder, Supertramp, Jerry Goldsmith, Keith Forsey, Howard Jones, Tony Clarke, Paul Fishman, Chaka Kahn, Sylvester Levay, Kajagoogoo, Sheena Easton and the great Henry Mancini.

What is surprising however is that based on the musical decisions of the original film, what was intended for the franchise was a consistent, traditional musical score by John Williams, much in the same vein as the 'Star Wars' and 'Indiana Jones' movies. Love it or loathe it, the greatest broadening of the musical variety within the Superman films happened when Richard Lester replaced Richard Donner as director on 'Superman II'. Joining the auteur was his equally idosyncratic collaborator, Ken Thorne.

Ken Thorne began his musical career as a pianist with the big bands in his native England during the 1940s, playing the night clubs and the dance halls. Later aged 27 years old Thorne decided to seriously study composition with private tutors at Cambridge. He then studied the organ for five years under Dr. Sidney Campbell at Ely Cathedral, and later with Dr Harold Darke at Cornhill in London.

As a film music composer Thorne burst onto the screen with his big band influences and very much so enjoyed the Jazz tunes of the Swinging Sixties, a style heavily associated with Henry Mancini (it should also be noted that Thorne is the only composer to have scored a 'Pink Panther/Inspector Clouseau' film apart from Mancini), a far cry from the characteristically grand, heroic theme tunes and bombastic overtures of John Williams. Thorne's orchestrations of William's already established Superman music left 'Superman The Movie' fans divided in opinion, just as his Oscar-winning adaptation of 'A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To The Forum' and 'Royal Flash' had proved for their respective Lester movies.

Which ever side of the spectrum you stand on, one cannot deny that Ken Thorne was the ONLY correct choice to score a Richard Lester directed Superman film, and here he is to tell us more about his Superhuman contributions. Enjoy!

>>>Scoring the Super sequel, Superman 2