Valentine's Day, Sunday, February 14, 2010 at 10:20 am

2010 and maybe into 2011). This especially pertains to expensive re-recordings. We livein a real world with real limitations, and one needs to be sensible and pragmatic.Fans may want to buy cds but do not have the discretionary funds. For example, Itruly love film music and have my own educational film music Internet site to share inmy passion for it, but even I in this economy did not buy a film music cd for over a year,and I don't plan to for at least a month or probably two months until I pay off my creditcard (vet bills, etc) and maybe later because property taxes, income taxes, houseinsurance (etc.) are coming up together in the early and mid-spring. Then maybe I'll buyone or two cds (such as Tribute's Prince & the Pauper and maybe a surprise Herrmannoffering if available). So I would logically surmise that cd labels need to assess what ismost likely to sell, even in a bad economy. They are not likely to spend the money onnever-before-released World Premiere Herrmann television scores (such as Jeff Coreyand I want!) because it's just too risky to offer relatively obscure scores such as these tothe general film music population. They may not sell and hence threaten the demise ofthe cd label itself.I wonder if there is a site that shows how well a cd label is selling its products?Probably of all the titles Markus listed, my own personal TOP choice for a newrerecording would not be Endless Night but the more overt Naked & the Dead score. Iresearched and discovered a recording log document many years ago that showed that theoriginal tracks were recorded in stereo, but apparently lost or misplaced. However, if theywere recently found, then do not be surprised if you wake up some morning and readabout FSM or Varese or some label announcing that they are going to release this score! Iam hoping! I would rather have the original stereo tracks conducted by Herrmann than arerecording.At any rate, once again, I do not think film music labels are going to take big risks. Ipersonally would love to hear the fun Waxman (with Carl Stalling and Lava) score to TheHorn Blows at Midnight but I don't think it will sell as well as, say, Steiner's classic andmore readily remembered score, The Adventures of Don Juan. Steiner is both a risky andnot-so-risky choice of composer for re-recordings, depending on the score. I think KingKong did very very well due in part to instant name recognition, but other titles may notdo as anywhere as well. Herrmann is probably far more popular with film music fans thanSteiner in most cases. I love both pretty much equally (although I slightly favorHerrmann!). So while I personally think Steiner's Lion & the Horse is an exceptionalscore, it will probably never see the light of day (except perhaps the original tracks viaRay Faiola's label) because it's far too obscure and people just aren't likely to buy it.I'd love to have the obscure television scores of Herrmann, music of which isnevertheless quite excellent. This would include three of The Virginian scores, the"Nightmare" episode of The Bob Hope Chrysler Theater, and many many more. Most ofthe Desert Suite cues for CBS television were never released, none of the Police Forcecues, and so on. The "Kitty Shot" episode of Gunsmoke is exceptional, in my opinion.197