THE COMPLETE SOUNDTRACK ARTICLE

INTRODUCTION

The original soundtrack album from Warner Bros. Records was released as a double-album set around the same time as the original release of the film. It was also released as a double-length cassette and 8-track tape. The running time of the original LP was around 77 minutes. Years later, with the advent of the compact disc, it was released on CD as a "specially priced" single 72-minute CD minus two tracks ("Growing Up" and "Lex Luthor's Lair"), while for some unexplained reason, the content of the original double album was retained for a Japanese CD import...and it was also on one single 77 minute CD!

In the summer of 1998, to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the character, as well as the 20th Anniversary of the film, producer Robert Townson felt it was time to resurrect the legendary score for a re-recording, conducted by John Debney and performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. But there were complications in getting this re-recording released. Since the printed scores were said to have been lost, all Townson and his team had to go by was original rough sketches from John Williams (at least those that survived) and worked from there. The result, released the following October, was a score album that included, for the very first time, 20 minutes of music that had not been available to the public. The Varese Sarabande CD originally was to have been just a single CD of music, but the amount of music that was recorded necessitated a double CD release.

Then, on January 15, 1999, film and soundtrack historian Michael Matessino announced a landmark decision on behalf of Time Warner and its Rhino Records subsidiary. After a brief campaign initiated by GandalfDC, Bill Williams and Unofficial John Williams Home Page webmaster Scott Hanson (Scott visited Boston where he met face-to-face with John Williams himself, as well as director Steven Spielberg, during recording sessions for "Saving Private Ryan"),

Matessino and Nick Redman (who had worked together on the "Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition" CDs) took on the awesome task of restoring and producing a digitally remastered COMPLETE score release to "Superman". It was originally earmarked for August of 1999. In April of that same year, on a Southern California radio station, Redman presented the World Premiere of two remastered tracks from the Rhino CD, "The Big Rescue", and "The Flying Sequence" (presented for the first time ever without Margot Kidder's vocal).

A short time later, there were the usual delays generally associated with score reissues.
Everything else that came in between would lead up to what would happen on February 15, 2000, exactly 13 months to the day the project was announced, and nearly two years after Hanson's fateful visit to Boston. Warner Archives/Rhino Movie Music released a 2-CD set containing all of the incidental music recorded, plus previously unreleased alternate and source cues.


The music of "Superman" is something my Superman Web Central team has tackled many times before. In December 1997, Gandalf DC (formerly MegadethDC) and myself produced a score article for the Superman CINEMA site using cues used in the film and what was left behind at the time.

Then, a year later, with the help of Bill Williams, we updated this story to reflect the Varese Sarabande re-recording, plus made notations on where and how they were used in the score's many incarnations.

But by no means were the earlier versions accurate accounts. There were several points and time codes that we missed simply because we didn't pay better attention to them. We also weren't aware of the alternate soundtrack recordings that existed until Michael Matessino's series of articles that appeared first on the Film Score Monthly web site, and Hal Jackson's reports on the rec.music.movies newsgroups on the cues based on the written scores which he discovered in the Alexander Courage Archives.

So with the new Rhino release it is with great pleasure that my Superman Web Central team once again take on the challenge of critiquing John Williams' majestic score for what has to be one of the greatest superhero films ever produced.

In advance, I wish to thank the above people mentioned who provided additional material. Without the tireless work of these people, this new version of our score article would not have been made possible.

HOW THIS NEW ARTICLE WAS PREPARED

For this version of our article, we have used as research the major elements of the two previous versions, Michael Matessino's "Film Score Monthly" articles, Hal Jackson's score notes, the contributions of GandAlf DC and Bill Williams, the scoring log and other related notes provided by music editor Bob Hathaway, and the three major soundtrack releases themselves. We have also added time codes, which will show, in sequence, where certain sections of a cue were used in the many different versions of the film and, where possible, the different score releases. We will also use the track titles from the Rhino CD.

A few things to keep in mind...sometimes when a film goes into post-production certain footage is cut either by the studio or the director for the best interests of either the filmmakers or the audience. Also, all or parts of certain music cues will also get left out either because it was felt the scene played better without it, or, in the case of "Superman", several scenes were either shortened or edited out, which meant some of the music had to be cut as well.

Many of John Williams' crucial cues for "Superman" did not make it into the theatrical version (although some music was left on the first Warner Bros. Records soundtrack album). When the expanded version premiered on ABC in 1982, and in 1994 on Los Angeles' KCOP in an even more extended form, the world got to hear nearly all of Williams' music in its full glory, including some music restored to the scenes they were meant to overscore (including the Krypton and earthquake sequences).

As we go to print, there has been confirmation from Geoff Johns (director Richard Donner's assistant), through a 1998 Chat Hour at Superman CINEMA, that the same music restoration treatment will be done for a new longer version coming to at least DVD in the Fall of 2000.

Before we get into the main thrust of this story, let us put the recurring themes (i.e. melodic fragments) of the score into context:

a. Superman Fanfare
b. Superman March (with the Fanfare contained in most instances; rhythm used in 12/8 time)
c. March of the Villains theme
d. Love Theme (aka the Flying {Lois's} Theme & the "Can You Read My Mind" theme)
e. Krypton Fanfare #1 (aka Origins {Krypton})
f. Krypton Fanfare #2 (aka Kryptonite & the Crystal Theme)
g. Leaving Home Theme (aka the Smallville Theme)
h. Heritage Motif (six-note motif representing Superman's Kryptonian and Earth heritage).

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