Saturday, May 15, 2010

1107 - Mojo Special 22. Johnny Green - Raintree County OST (1957)





















Track Listing

1. Overture
2. Lion/The Song of Raintree County (Main Title)(Vocal by Nat King Cole)
3. Nell and Johnny
4. There's Another Tree
5. The Swamp
6. Nell and Gar/Freehaven/Prelude Segue/Meet Flash and Susanna
7. Johnny's Crown/Look at the Birdie/First Meeting
8. First Meeting (film ending)/Nell's Huff/Pursuit of Happiness/July Swim/Tell Me About the Raintree/Nell Insert/Your Exact Location
9. Going Home/Train From the South/I Had to Come Back/Fare Thee Well/River Wedding Night
10. Burned Mansion/Susanna's Obsession/Lament for Henrietta
11. Cousin Bob's Plantation
12. I Lied/Country Road/Johnny's Book/Best Friend
13. You Hate Me/What Did I Do Wrong?/Where Is Susanna?/Where Is That Doll?/It's Happened
14. Be a Pig's Eye/It's a Boy/Back in Freehaven
15. Dearest Thing/It's the House/What About the Fire?/I Don't Know/They Can't Follow Me
16. Judby/She Was Going Home
17. First Act Finale (Roadshow)

Disc 2

1. Entr'Acte
2. Brand New Pants
3. Battle Montage/War Commentary
4. Fairweather/I Don't Believe It/Night Ambush/Flash Dies
5. Johnny's Escape/War's End/I'd Like to Try/Lincoln's Funeral Train
6. I Still Love Him/You're Not Sick/Surprise for Daddy/Ask Daddy/Search
7. Susanna's Death/Jeemie's Raintree/The Song of Raintree County (End Title)
(Vocal by Nat King Cole)
8. The Song of Raintree County (Main Title)(chorus version)
9. Freehaven (film version)
10. Freehaven (alternate)
11. First Meeting Part 1 (alternate)
12. First Meeting (song version)(Vocal by Carlos Noble)
13. Pursuit of Happiness/July Swim/Tell Me About the Raintree (alt. ending)
14. Going Home (alternate)
15. Polka at the Party (Bronislau Kaper)
16. Why No One to Love -- Party (Stephen Foster)
17. Why No One to Love (Stephen Foster)
18. Cousin's Bob Plantation (alternate)
19. Best Friend (alternate)
20. Best Friend (film version)
21. First Act Finale (Day Date)
22. Jeemie's Raintree/The Song of Raintree County (End Title) (chorus version)
23. The Song of Raintree County (instrumental)
24. The Song of Raintree County (Vocal by Bill Lee)
25. Jeemie's Raintree/The Song of Raintree County (End Title) (film version with chorus)

Review

A really long soundtrack... also a very good one. Unfortunately, like most soundtracks it gets quite repetitive, particularly taking into account the fact that it spreads through 2 CDs each counting over 70 minutes of music. With the same themes recurring over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over... you catch my drift.

So there are plenty of highlights here, particularly the theme song sung by Nat King Cole, which is always a delight. The main theme is quite an effective one and the music can be quite stirring and sweeping and everything a soundtrack for a costume epic with Ms. Taylor and Mr. Hudson should be.

Now I need to apologize to you, dear reader. I have been lately hanging out with musicians and other undesirables (met some journalists yesterday,) which means I've been arriving home too late to properly update this thing. I need to get back to a daily routine, maybe I'll start doing this in the morning (or early afternoon) in order to keep YOU (and me) in fresh albums each and everyday.

Track Highlights

1. Lion/The Song of Raintree County
2. Jeemie's Raintree/The Song of Raintree County (End Title) (chorus version)
3. The Song of Raintree County (instrumental)
4. Battle Montage/War Commentary

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Elizabeth Taylor was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. The film was also nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (William A. Horning, Urie McCleary, Edwin B. Willis, Hugh Hunt), Best Costume Design and Best Music, Scoring. The film was shot in a 65 millimeter widescreen process called MGM Camera 65, which was also used for MGM's 1959 version of Ben Hur.

Raintree County Song:


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