Notablog

Song of the Day: Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (“The Flag Parade”), composed by John Williams, is a Miklos Rozsa-inspired fanfare—appropriate since the pod race in this 1999 George Lucas film is an explicit homage to the chariot race from the 1959 version of “Ben-Hur“, which Rozsa scored. Today begins…

Song of the Day: X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (“Trippy Las Vegas Sequence”) [YouTube link], composed by Les Baxter, is heard as the characters in this Roger Corman-directed 1963 sci-fi/horror film enter Las Vegas. This wild film starred Oscar-winning actor Ray Milland and comedian Don Rickles.

Song of the Day: Rain Man (“Leaving Wallbrook / On the Road”) [YouTube link], composed by Hans Zimmer, is from the Oscar-nominated score to this 1988 film, starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. Known for its unusual instrumentation and rhythmic arrangement, this composition was heard again in Season 4, Episode…

Song of the Day: Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (“My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark”), words and music by Patrick Stump, Pete Wentz, Joe Trohman, Andy Hurley, Butch Walker, and John Hill, first appeared on Fall Out Boy‘s fifth studio album, “Save Rock and Roll“. But this…

Song of the Day: Thunderbolt (“Daddy Won’t You Please Come Home”), words and music by Sam Coslow, is sung by Theresa Mae Harris in this pre-code 1929 film, directed by Josef von Sternberg. Two versions of this film circulated, including a silent film and what became Sternberg’s first film with…

Song of the Day: Godzilla Minus One (“Soundtrack Suite”) includes interpretations of the famous Godzilla theme by Akira Ifukube, along with original music by Naoki Sato. Though I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the original “Gojira” (1954) and its edited 1956 American version featuring Raymond…

Last night, en route to the Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary Special on February 16, NBC presented a terrific 3-hour documentary on the music featured on SNL over the years. “Ladies & Gentleman: 50 Years of SNL Music” opened with this superbly mixed montage, beautifully synced and edited, giving us…