The other day alert regular “Mr B(ob)” pointed me this and I ended up following the name of the company that made it back to their basic but interesting site. These guys LOVE monster movie soundtracks! Most of their titles are the actual soundtracks from the movies, but in a few cases they have actually dug up the original sheet music, assembled an orchestra and re-recorded the soundtrack! They did this here, here, here, here and — most interesting to MST3K fans — here! Sing along to this little ditty.
All of which got me to thinking: What’s MSTed movie has such a great score/soundtrack that you’d buy a CD of it? I don’t mean songs that the characters sing. I talking about the instrumental score. And which one is do you really hate?
I suspect the Hercules movies and the Russo-Finnish titles will probably be the favorites. The score to the “Day the Earth Froze” is pretty impressive. For worst, I’d have to go with the “buppa-duppa” mess of “Danger! Death Ray!” How about you?
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Some of my favorites
Ace of Spades by Motorhead in Zombie Nightmare – in fact I like all those metal songs..
Operation Double 007 Theme Song
Torgo’s theme
Anything in the Godzilla vs. Megalon/ vs the Sea Monster
Albert Glasser always had rip roaring music for the Corman & Gordon films
The Biker movies’ themes – Sidehackers, Hellcats,Wild Rebels
Rock Candy Baby in Daddy-O
Am I a glutton for punishment? I really like bad movies, and silly songs..
Oh My God Im going to back to therapy :) !!!!!
And the Creeping Terror dance themes too !! Ahhhh !!!!
No one has mentioned the score to Red Zone Cuba, with the timeless Carradine ballad “Night Train to Mundo Fine.”
“Ah…to be blessed with an instrument like that!”
Not a big fan of movie scores. The best scores for me are the ones that you don’t notice. So Glasser is right out.
As for specific songs, the one that repeatedly gets stuck in my head goes something like this: And the Lord said laugh children laugh.
Damn, now it’s stuck inside me again!
But it kind of tickles.
Mary Wells – Never Steal Anything Wet, and Little Richard – Scuba Party, from Catalina Caper. They’re actually pretty good songs by incredibly talented musicians!
…whoops, I was supposed to list instrumental scores… I’d have to say I’d like that recording of “This Island Earth” but only if I could get a copy on vinyl.
I actually own a couple Godzilla soundtrack albums. One CD is just from the original movie, the other is a collection of music cues from the first movie through 1975, so it has cues from the Megalon movie. It’s called: The Best Of Godzilla 1954-1975: Original Film Soundtracks. Amazon still sells it if anyone is interested.
I also own the soundtrack to Operation Double 007 by Ennio Morricone. Great stuff. Amazon still sells that one too.
The soundtrack from a MSTed movie I’d least like to have would probably be Creeping Terror as it is monotonous in the extreme. Other contenders are Giant Gila Monster (“Don’t ever sing that song again!”) and Monster A-Go Go (What soundtrack, eh? Exactly!)
I forgot a couple things in my post above.
First, anyone looking for the Ennio Morricone composed soundtrack to Operation Double 007, it’s sold under one of the movie’s alternate titles, OK Connery.
Second, hi, Sampo, I’m glad you found this subject an interesting enough topic to inspire a weekend discussion thread. Movie music is a subject near and dear to me. I hope the other regulars here enjoy it too.
I’ve always thought that…oddly enough…the score for “Gorgo” was unusually lush and beautiful. Wouldn’t mind hearing a newly recorded, digital-quality version of that. I’ve also always had a fondness for the score from “Double 007”, (in addition, of course, to the title song: *HEEEEEEE knows how to make a girl fall in Loooooove!*, which goes without saying), but then, as we’ve just recently discovered, the score actually IS available on an “overpriced” import CD. (Wish I had me an extra 25-30 bucks to drop on that rare little gem, but the last time I checked, Amazon only had 8 copies available, and knowing my usual luck, they’ve all probably been snatched up by now. Ah well…so goes my life. So…I guess maybe I’ll just pay the water bill instead. Whee…fun times.)
Mr.B(ob) @58…
Dang! Just noticed that YOU own the Double 007 CD! You rotten, lucky bastard! GAWD!…If I could only track down an MP3 rip of that title song, my life would be complete! Well…almost, anyway. (It would make a really snappy phone ringtone, and I could also play it at full volume, in 5.1 surround sound when I want to annoy my friends or run off any unwanted houseguests. Tee-hee.)
“Danger!! Death Ray”, the worst? I don’t think so! That catchy “Ba-pa-da-pa-da-da” theme is one of my favorite bits of music in any MSTed movie! (Sure, the movie beats it into the ground, but that doesn’t make the song itself any worse for it.) And besides, what about “Watermelon Man”?
@ # 60: I think when I purchased the OK Connery soundtrack CD a few years ago it was more like $20. Well, if that’s not too much you are in luck because DeepDiscount.com still sells if for just under $20 and free shipping. Link: http://www.deepdiscount.com/_/OK-Connery-Operation-Kid-Brother
And bad 70’s groups and goofy circus music aside, the “Music From Some Guys in Space” wallpaper-synthesizer soundtrack to Pod People….ain’t too bad, really, considering.
It’s no John Carpenter (or even Richard Band), but this was the glory days of cheap 80’s minimalist garage-keyboard soundtracks–Especially when it tries to be mushy during the cute-kid scenes.
Mr. B(ob)….Thank you SO MUCH for the tip…and the link! I’d say that the OKB soundtrack is probably within my grasp (and budget) for a price like that. You are a gentleman and a scholar, sir!
I really enjoy the Devil Fish music; I’d buy a soundtrack if there was one, and if I knew anything about audio software I’d make one myself.
The only one I’d conceivably buy is Diabolik and my soundtrack-buying phase ended years ago, though occasionally I still get one. I think the atmospheric-type music in Pod People (not the wacky sections) contributes to the mood and atmosphere. It’s not Vangelis-level quality but not bad for a movie that ended up on MST3K. I’m partial to e-music anyway, having a sizable collection of mostly Vangelis, Tangerine Dream, and Klaus Schulze. Plenty of other episodes had okay but memorable music (Girl in Gold Boots, Warrior of the Lost World, Starfighters). Music that I hate-not sure. Even stupid stuff like the Casio-laden rake fighting bit in Hobgoblins doesn’t make me hate, it just amuses me.
111 – Moon Zero Two – Theme song
424 – Manos, the Hands of Fate – jazzy score, especially the “Torgo theme”
619 – Red Zone Cuba – Theme song “Night Train to Mundo Fine”
And let’s not forget the music from 422 – The Day the Earth Froze to which J&TB sing their “Failure Song.”
Was just watching The Brain That Wouldn’t Die.
For sleezy porn stalker background music can you
do any better/worse? It really is a theme through
much of the movie in that curious woman promanading
town. I have a feeling Billy Sunday never got to that
town. And btw, I tend to agree with
Mike: I don’t really like our “hero” any more.
Any movie with good rock and roll songs (Daddy-O, Horror At Party Beach, Zombie Nightmare, etc.)
Definitely have to go with The Girl in the Gold Boots. Those songs are the only thing “funkier” than the henchmen!
I always kind of liked the opening theme song for Moon Zero Two, so I guess if there was one soundtrack I’d like to own that I don’t already I’d go with that one.
Oh, I forgot about The Screaming Skull. It has it’s moments, at least, musically. And I seem to remember that Wild World of Batwoman has a lot of, um, music. Village of the Giants and the Beau Brummels?
Thanks for the tip on “Tonight of the Living Dead,” Castle Monster!
Hey, my pleasure.
Interestingly (to me, anyway), the first one I thought of was “Buppa-duppa-duddah” from “Danger! Death Ray.” Along with its companion, “Watermelon Man.”
But for me, it’s in the “love it” column!
Incredibly Strange Creatures, also Girl in Gold Boots a distant second.
I would love to have “There’s A New World Just Opening For Me” by the Cascades (Catalina Caper) since it’s a Ray Davies song the Kinks never did & the song that the Birds performed on the Deadly Bees (it was never released on record & while it does appear on a Birds comp CD, it’s the movie version w/the dialogue)
If anybody want any Arch Hall, Jr. goodies, here’s your one stop place for them (they also have other cool stuff):
http://www.nortonrecords.com/arch/index.html
I gotta go with the great Wild Rebels music (not really the My Lunch Goes Blegh), esp. the chase music and the loose tappet music they used for the Wild rebels breakfast cereal commercial. i love that bass line.
Gotta go with Zombie Nightmare. Love the heavy metal soundtrack.
That and Archie. Love me some Archie.
@77, thanks for the link!
I’m a big jazz and lounge fan, so Manos is the first one that comes to mind, somehow it’s calming and eerie at once
Hey, I like buppa-duppa dada!But seriously, I can’t see me buying any soundtrack to any of these movies, as much as I like cheese.
Castle Monster – I downloaded 400 Lonely Things after reading about the NOTLD album in Rue Morgue Magazine. It’s got great atmosphere. I play that outside our house on Halloween for trick-or-treaters. I’ve had more than one parent tell me that it creeps them out.
OK, technically this one doesn’t count (for obvious reasons) but I love the theme to “Green Slime.”
Also “Girl in Gold Boots” and “Village of the Giants.” Jiggly dancing brings out the best in composers, I guess. :inlove:
Good soundtracks? *Thinking* Hmmmmm…
Definitely ‘Zombie Nightmare’ and ‘Soultaker’.
Question:
Did anyone notice that the score for ‘Attack of the Giant Leeches’ and ‘Night of the Blood Beast’ are the same?
@72 – Village of the Giants and the Beau Brummels?
D’oh!–I’d forgotten that bass-guitar “Da-DUM-da-da-da-dumm…” was one of the iconic themes of cheesy 50’s-60’s B-movies. (Probably because I was blocking that it was a MSTie episode.) Can I change my vote?
(MTV’s old movie-news show in the 80’s used have it in a movie-collage opening, and I grew up thinking it came from one of the Elvis pictures.)
Cabbage patch Elvis:
I got turned on to it by my friend Rot from Pumpkinrot. He’s a big collector of ambient music. I like how they sought out the worst baragain-bin copies of NOTLD to needle-drop to get a variety of effects.
I was trying to remember this episode that had a lot of music I liked when I realized it wasn’t an episode at all, but should have been. Anyone who likes the old AIP flicks and Horror of Party Beach, Batwoman, Catalina Caper, etcetera might want to look for a cheap copy of an old AIP flick called Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow. Incredibly dumb–in a good way–with lots of catchy musical numbers, right up the alley of this thread. Starring the old witch from The Undead, with a special guest appearance from cheap-jack monster-designer Paul Blaisdell and his She Creature costume!
Sticking to the parameters of the original question, I reviewed all the episodes I have in my head a little (granted, I have not seen every episode of MST3K, and so haven’t heard every soundtrack), and honestly none of them stand out as something I would want to listen to all the way through, on their own as music. I totally agree with many of the individual songs cited (I actually like the Del Aires’ “Zombie Stomp” and some of the songs by Chris Howard and the Third World from “Girl in Gold Boots”, to name just a couple), but there are no music soundtracks that I find listenable. If choosing were a matter of life or death, I guess I could get through the music for “Swamp Diamonds”, “Gunslinger”, “Jack Frost”, “Boggy Creek 2…”, “Quest of the Delta Knights”, and “Diabolik”. But even those are a stretch (although I agree Ennio Morricone has produced some great soundtracks- coming to mind immediately is the moody and understated, but highly effective, music he accompanied John Carpenter’s “The Thing” with). But that is a big part of why Best Brains chose these movies, I would think, giving them opportunities to make us laugh, like today I watched “Skydivers”, and when Servo/Kevin starts repeating “sex for sundries is fun” along with the music that accompanies Suzy’s seduction of the pharmacist for some acid, I always crack up. But hey, that’s one thing about music, it’s a very personal and subjective experience for every individual, and I begrudge no one any pleasure they derive from something I may not like. ‘Nuff said.
See ya!
@84, oh yeah
On the Rifftrax front, Wild Women of Wongo and Plan 9 share music. I get a big kick out of it.
Count me in as one of the fans of the Danger! Death Ray! music. I love bop-bah-dah-bah-da-daaaaaa! Bah-bah-bah-bah-bah-bah! I genuinely wish I had a straight up soundtrack of that film. Part of that has to do with my age, though. I was born in 1965, so I remember that “style” of music as part of the background of shopping anywhere considered upscale. i.e. Muzak. Along with The Girl From Ipanema and Mack The Knife, there were nameless instrumentals and verbal instrument pieces like the stuff from DDR that was constantly floating in the background of my childhood.
I also enjoy the weird, predictable, over-dramatic Japanese scores from things like Mighty Jack.
Worst? Crazy Mixed Up Creatures blah blah blah and The Girl With The Golden Boots.
In between the two, the netherworld of “This is terrible, but it also is effective and I like that it works.” is the utterly bizarre piano pieces and jazz pieces from Manos.
Mr. Bob mentioned the Double 007 soundtrack, and indeed that is a piece of genius.
ARGH! How could I forget DIABOLIK!? I have downloaded as much of that as I could through capturing from my own non-MST3K of it. :) I love that score. That one is a shame, too, in that the originals for the Diabolik score were lost which is why we don’t have a soundtrack of it now. :(