OK. The world of soundtracks next. At one stage in my twenties, I loved collecting these.
HENRY MANCINI
The Great Race OST
(RCA, 1965)
Even the horrendous, aged splash of masking tape and dampened felt tip on the front couldn’t deter you. You’d have to buy this album. Fantastic cover, full colour gatefold, hefty US card sleeve with shots from the movie that reunited Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, and a soundtrack by the man responsible for Moon River, The Pink Panther, Baby Elephant Walk and the rest, Mr Henry Mancini. This is “sophisticated irony” to the max, from the ink drawings of fantastical racing machines that directly inspired Wacky Races, to the hourglass lettering of the title, to Natalie Wood’s involvement as a “gorgeous suffragette” in see-through floor-length pink gown, to RCA Victor’s “newly” developed system of recording, Dynagroove. Hear the full-bodied tone – even when you listen at low level. The surface noise has been virtually eliminated… apparently. Still, they did tell us in the 80s that you could cook your breakfast on a CD. That all said, it’s hardly one of Henry’s most memorable soundtracks, and given the choice, we’d rather watch Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines. The inner bag, clearly from the wrong disc, is an advert for Liberty Records, “The Personality SOUND of the SIXTIES!” We’re talking Martin Denny, The Chipmunks, Julie London, Bud and Travis, and Spike Jones with his unforgettable “Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb (Spooky, Spooky, Lend Me Your Tomb”). Thassit.
Cost £1, bargain value 3 (music) 3 (sleeve: it really has been disfigured), inner sleeve 3
