David Shire HINDENBURG Film Soundtrack LP Zeppelin George C. Scott Robert Wise

	£		35
	$		46

Rare US import of the original film soundtrack album to 'The Hindenburg' (1975), composed and conducted by David Shire.

David Shire ?– The Hindenburg (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (1975)
"In short, this is vintage film music".

Condition (refer also to notes at bottom):
Vinyl – VG-EX. Superbly clean on visual inspection. No obvious marks or scuffs. Played just pre-listing and sound clarity is great throughout. No skipping, jumping or sticking. Vocals remain bright. A superb listening experience!
Outer sleeve (Cover) – VG. Colours are unfaded and clean. Corner aperture diagonal cut and minor edge and corner wear. Slight disc showthrough outline. A lovely example overall.
Inner Sleeve – VG. Original black MCA window sleeve with small MCA logos all over both sides. Clean and intact. Minor crimping/folding.

Label: MCA Records ?– MCA-2090
Country: US
Year: 1975
Genre: Classical, Stage & Screen, Spoken Word, Theme
Style: Score, Contemporary, Modern, Soundtrack, Pop

Track listing:
A1 Newsreel Prologue  2:43
A2 Main Title (Hindenburg Theme)  2:57
A3 The Letter  2:36
A4 Suspect Montage  3:20
A5 "Up Ship" / Freda And The Gestapo / The Card Game  2:45
A6 Colonel Ritter And The Countess  2:05

B1 Fin Repair Sequence 4:58
B2 There's A Lot To Be Said For The Fuehrer  2:45
B3 Boerth Sets The Bomb / Preparing To Land  3:17
B4 Prelude To The Holocaust  3:34
B5 Retrospective And End Title (Hindenburg Theme) (featuring Herb Morrison excerpts from his eyewitness broadcast)  4:35 


Review:
A somewhat fictionalised account of the Hindenburg tragedy, The Hindenburg came towards the end of the 1970s' disaster movie cycle, with George C Scott playing a friendly Nazi on board the ill-fated dirigible, and Anne Bancroft, William Atherton and Burgess Meredith amongst the supporting cast.  Director Robert Wise was nearing the end of his career (though he would live for another three decades) - he was always a "horses for courses" type director when it came to music, choosing the right composer for each individual project rather than sticking with one over any great period of time.  For The Hindenburg, he opted for David Shire, riding at the height of his popularity following his epochal score for The Conversation.

In fact, this was the first time Shire provided a film with a full, symphonic score - but it was worth the wait!  From the pomp and sweep of the main theme heard over the opening titles, the listener is hooked.  Bizarrely, the studio demanded that Shire remove the  soprano who originally sang the wordless melody in case the viewers got confused (frankly, they were more likely to be confused by why on earth they had bothered going to see the film) and so the composer replaced it with a solo trumpet line - giving it a gloriously noble air.

"The Letter" presents the first action music, a very exciting cacophony of brass which comes from a very individual composer who elicits a similar emotional response as many of his illustrious contemporaries, but does it in his own personal way.  "Suspect Montage" presents an intriguing little suspense motif, and shows that Shire could write music just as compelling for a smaller ensemble as he did for the full orchestra in the previous two cues.  Much of the rest of the score is built from the foundations laid down in those three cues - there is action music which excites, romance which sweeps, suspense which thrills.  There are one or two set-pieces besides, though - the simply gorgeous, liltingly beautiful love theme in "Colonel Ritter and the Countess" - and the amusing satirical song "There's a Lot to be Said for the Fuehrer", written by Shire with lyricist Edward Kleban and sung by actor Peter Donat.  "Prelude to the Holocaust" is an arrestingly powerful piece towards the album's end.

In short, this is vintage film music.  It's tempting to compare Shire as a composer with John Williams, since there are certainly similarities between them when Shire writes large-scale music like this – but frankly, The Hindenburg is infinitely better than anything Williams wrote for these disaster movies.  Just take a listen to the action piece "Fin Repair Sequence" – on a "blind tasting" you might almost suggest this had been composed by Williams – but Williams had never written anything remotely so complex by this stage of his career.  The finale is also glorious, though it does seem a pity that it is accompanied by the famous radio commentary of the tragedy by Herb Morrison.


––––––––––––––––––––––


Postage and packaging FREE to UK.

Will post worldwide.
Europe (Royal Mail International Standard) – £7.
Europe (Royal Mail International Tracked and Signed) – £12
N and S America, USA, Canada (Royal Mail International Standard) – £9.50
Asia, Australia, Japan (Royal Mail International Standard) – £11.50

Sorry but no returns are accepted.

Payment by Paypal only please.

Please see my other soundtrack listings.

Thanks for looking and happy eBaying!



ITEM CONDITION - items are graded according to Record Collector definitions - see below:

MINT: The record itself is in brand new condition with no surface marks or deterioration in sound quality. The cover and any extra items such as the lyric sheet, booklet or poster are in perfect condition. Records advertised as Sealed or Unplayed should be Mint.

EXCELLENT: The record shows some signs of having been played, but there is very little lessening in sound quality. The cover and packaging might have slight wear and / or creasing.

VERY GOOD: The record has obviously been played many times, but displays no major deterioration in sound quality, despite noticeable surface marks and the occasional light scratch. Normal wear and tear on the cover or extra items, without any major defects, is acceptable.

GOOD: The record has been played so much that the sound quality has noticeably deteriorated, perhaps with some distortion and mild scratches. The cover and contents suffer from folding, scuffing of edges, spine splits, discolouration, etc.

FAIR: The record is still just playable but has not been cared for properly and displays considerable surface noise; it may even jump. The cover and contents will be torn, stained and / or defaced.

POOR: The record will not play properly due to scratches, bad surface noise, etc. The cover and contents will be badly damaged or partly missing.

BAD: The record is unplayable or might even be broken, and is only of use as a collection filler.