A Fistful of
Soundtracks
"Superman: The Movie"
Hosted and produced by Jimmy Aquino
Interviewed: Michael Matessino, producer of the Superman soundtrack reissue
Originally aired March 18, 2000 on KZSC 88.1 FM, Santa Cruz, California
120 min.
HOUR 1
ACT 1
[Ennio Morricone's
A Fistful of Dollars main title theme]
JIMMY AQUINO: Welcome
to A Fistful of Soundtracks. I'm your host, Jimmy "Mack" Aquino.
Sit tight because we got lots of great music ahead of us. And don't forget to
check out the Fistful of Soundtracks Web page at jim.aquino.com.
Once again, that's Jim.A-Q-U-I-N-O.com.
[R.E.M.'s "I
Am Superman" in background]
Today on A Fistful
of Soundtracks, the spotlight is on Rhino Records' expanded reissue of the
classic John Williams score to the 1978 blockbuster Superman: The Movie.
Jimmy "Mack" Aquino here, coming to you from my Fortress of
Solitude. Superman fans requested it for years, and now they've finally got
it: the complete score from Superman: The Movie. Released on December
15, 1978, Superman: The Movie was a huge success, both critically and
financially. It was the first of the Superman movies starring Christopher
Reeve as the Man of Steel, it was directed by Richard Donner and it featured
an all-star cast, including Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor, Margot Kidder as Lois
Lane and Marlon Brando as Superman's father, Jor-El. The film also featured
a terrific and unforgettable score by John Williams, and one of its biggest
fans is Michael Matessino, who co-produced the Superman expanded soundtrack
reissue with Nick Redman, a fellow expert in soundtrack restoration. In a moment,
Matessino discusses what he loves about the Superman score and how the
soundtrack reissue came about.
MICHAEL MATESSINO:
John Williams' score for Superman is music that just sums up everything
about the character, the sense of adventure, the mysterious alien culture and
just pure fun and action. It just sums up the whole concept of the Superman
franchise musically, as definitively as one could possibly want.
Over the past few
years, the market for expanded or complete presentations of some of these big,
popular, orchestral soundtracks has grown. So the opportunity has opened up
to find titles that can be produced in that fashion. Superman was something
that was discussed between Nick Redman and myself while we were restoring the
music for the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition in 1997 and ultimately
became a real possibility when a merger took place between Warner Bros. and
MGM, which gave Rhino Records access to the Warner Bros. music library. We put
the project in as a suggestion, and it was accepted. Then we set out finding
the material and actually doing the work. That's how it came about.
There's actually
a big Superman following on the Internet. There are some wonderful Web sites
out there that are very comprehensive, so if you become interested in the Superman
films particularly, there are places to go to get lots of detailed information
and find out everything you want to know and probably a lot you didn't want
to know. It's all there. Three of these webmasters got together and initiated
a campaign to get the Superman score put out in its complete form. I
wouldn't say that it had any kind of direct impact on getting the project going.
I think it's something Warner Bros. would have liked to have out there, but
it simply wasn't possible without an existing arm like Rhino who does soundtrack
releases, you know, willing to just go in and do it. There's also the expense
involved, but the fact that Warner Bros. was doing a search for elements anyway
made it economically feasible for Rhino to do it. The Web sites were very supportive
and I think gave both Warner and Rhino an extra bit of confidence once the project
got going, so that it actually was a worthwhile endeavor. They've also been
very, very helpful and supportive in promoting it. We've been able to use them
as a forum to present information about the release and just general publicity
information and to connect with the people who actually go out to the stores
and buy the stuff, which to me is very, very important. We need to sort of be
in contact with those people and find out what they really want and make sure
we're actually putting the right thing together, and it just makes our job a
lot easier and it's something I very much enjoy. Because it's very gratifying
to, when the disc finally comes out, to actually hear from people how much they
enjoy it and to actually share it with everybody.
There's a lot of
portions of the Superman score that the soundtrack aficionados have really
wanted for a long time. The original release was a two-LP set in 1978, which
was very generous for an orchestral soundtrack at that time. It was about 78
minutes long, but there was still another 40 minutes of music that you could
hear in the film that was not presented on that soundtrack, most notably some
of the major sequences of the film, particularly the helicopter rescue sequence,
which is arguably the dramatic centerpiece of the movie. That was a six-minute
cue that was not represented on the original album, and people have wanted that
for a long time. Another bit of music that people really wanted was the opening
that you actually hear in the film, which is very different from the concert
arrangement that opened the original album. So we were able to finally open
the album that way, and it just seems to have pleased everybody, so there's
just a lot of cues here and there. People were curious about some of the music
that was not used in the film but was later remixed into the long television
version of it, so there was some mystery that was to be cleared up along the
way. Once you hear it all together, it solves all the mysteries and give you
a very pleasing and satisfying listening experience.
AQUINO: Michael
Matessino, the co-producer of the expanded reissue of the John Williams score
to Superman: The Movie. We're spotlighting this release on today's edition
of A Fistful of Soundtracks. We'll kick things off with one of the most
requested tracks on the Superman reissue: the main title march, as it
was heard in the film. The fans consider this version of the main title theme
to be the definitive version of the theme, and the Superman reissue marks
the first time this version has ever been released. Alright, here we go. The
"Prelude and Main Title March" from Superman: The Movie.
["Prelude and
Main Title March," from the Superman: The Movie soundtrack reissue]
AQUINO: From Superman:
The Movie, we heard the "Prelude and Main Title March," which
accompanied what has to be one of the greatest opening credits sequences in
movie history, with those flashy animated titles zooming through space. Today
on A Fistful of Soundtracks, we're hearing selections from the reissue
of the classic score from Superman: The Movie, composed and conducted
by John Williams and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. The score has
been rescued from the Warner Archives by super-producers Michael Matessino and
Nick Redman, who restored and remastered it for a special two-CD set from Rhino
Records. Superman: The Movie is about the origin of the Man of Steel,
so it begins with a sequence on Superman's home planet of Krypton, when he was
a baby and his name was Kal-El. From that sequence, here's a piece entitled
"The Planet Krypton."
["The Planet
Krypton" and "Destruction of Krypton," from the Superman:
The Movie soundtrack reissue]
AQUINO: We heard
"Destruction of Krypton" and "The Planet Krypton," from
the expanded reissue of the Superman soundtrack, by John Williams and
the London Symphony Orchestra. After this break, we'll hear music from the scenes
where the Last Son of Krypton comes to Earth and gets adopted. Not by Rosie
O'Donnell — but by Ma and Pa Kent. You're listening to the expanded edition
of the Superman score, here on A Fistful of Soundtracks.
ACT 2
AQUINO: Jim Aquino
here. Don't forget to visit A Fistful of Soundtracks on the Web at jim.aquino.com.
Once again, that's Jim.A-Q-U-I-N-O.com. Today on A Fistful of Soundtracks,
we're listening to selections from the expanded reissue of the John Williams
score to Superman: The Movie. From the scene in which baby Kal-El's crystalline
starship journeys to Earth, here's a track entitled "The Trip to Earth."
["The Trip
to Earth" and "Growing Up," from the Superman: The Movie
soundtrack reissue]
AQUINO: Today on
A Fistful of Soundtracks, we're listening to nothing but selections from
the expanded edition of the John Williams score to 1978's Superman: The Movie,
which was the first of the four movies starring Christopher Reeve as the DC
Comics superhero. We just heard "Growing Up." Before that, "The
Trip to Earth." This next track is entitled "Leaving Home."
["Leaving Home"
and "The Fortress of Solitude," from the Superman: The Movie
soundtrack reissue]
AQUINO: Clark, I've
a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore. From the sequence in which Clark Kent
leaves his boyhood town of Smallville, Kansas and goes on a search for his real
identity, we heard "The Fortress of Solitude" and "Leaving Home."
The spotlight is on selections from Rhino's expanded reissue of the John Williams
score to Superman: The Movie, today on A Fistful of Soundtracks.
This reissue was co-produced by Nick Redman and Michael Matessino. Together,
Redman and Matessino are best known for producing the Star Wars Trilogy Special
Edition soundtracks for RCA Victor and the Poltergeist reissue for
Rhino. Here's what Matessino had to say about putting together the Superman
reissue, which was one of his most challenging projects ever.
MATESSINO: The challenges
of reconstructing the Superman score were unique because this was a case
where we could not find any copies of the uncut, raw recording session masters.
All we had was the material that was conformed to the final edit of the theatrically
released film. So, working from that, we had to combine it together with the
existing album master, as well as some other trims and outs kind of sources
here and there. So it was something of a patchwork quilt to put it all together
and compare it to the score on paper to make sure that it was accurate to what
was originally recorded because often the music is drastically changed by the
editors to make it fit the final version of the picture. That was certainly
the case with Superman, where a lot of the cues as recorded were chopped
up and we had only that material to work with in our reconstruction. So it was
just the combination of several different sources. We had to just put them together
and make them sound fluid.
AQUINO: Any other
challenges?
MATESSINO: Well,
let's see, one of the challenges was actually getting the project set up in
the first place because it just took a while for Warner Bros. to get going on
it, particularly in the search for the material that we were going to use. There
was a long period of time where we didn't hear anything. They were searching
around the world for Superman material for the purpose of seeing if they
wanted to do a restoration of the film itself. They ultimately located the audio
sources at Pinewood Studios in England, which is where the film was mixed. That
was where they located the music elements, and then they had to be sent over
here, which took a little time also, and then transferred. Once they were transferred
and they had their safety copy and I had my digital copies to work with, that's
when I started the work. It was just very intensive at that point, trying to
just figure out what went where and seeing what was missing and trying to fill
in all the holes, and ultimately we did. We didn't lose a note. The whole score
is intact.
AQUINO: Michael
Matessino, the co-producer of the expanded edition of the Superman soundtrack,
one of many projects by his company, Sharpline Arts, which specializes in film
and soundtrack restoration. After this break, we'll check out more selections
from the Superman reissue, right here on A Fistful of Soundtracks,
the show that's faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive
and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.
HOUR 2
ACT 1
[Ennio Morricone's
"For a Fistful of Dollars," from A Fistful of Dollars, in background]
AQUINO: You're listening
to A Fistful of Soundtracks. I'm your host, Jimmy "Mack" Aquino.
Visit A Fistful of Soundtracks on the Web at jim.aquino.com. Once again,
that's Jim.A-Q-U-I-N-O.com, the Fistful of Soundtracks Web site. Today
on A Fistful of Soundtracks, the spotlight is on Rhino Records' expanded
reissue of the epic John Williams score to Superman: The Movie. The score
has been remastered and fully restored, with 40 minutes of previously unavailable
music.
Clip from Superman:
The Movie:
LOIS: Aaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!
BYSTANDER: Why,
look up there.
ANOTHER BYSTANDER:
What the hell is that?
SUPERMAN: Easy,
miss. I've got you.
LOIS: You got me?
Who's got you?
TV REPORTER: I-I
can't believe it. I just cannot believe it. He got her.
AQUINO: Since 1978,
the music from that helicopter rescue scene, considered to be the dramatic high
point for both the movie and its score, has never been released on any soundtrack,
not even the Superman soundtrack itself. But now, thanks to Rhino's Superman
reissue, that thrilling moment in the score is finally available and finally
part of the soundtrack. Millions of Superman fans and John Williams fans can
now rest easy. From the scene in which Lois Lane meets Superman for the first
time, when he rescues her from a falling helicopter, here's the most requested
piece on the soundtrack, "The Big Rescue."
["The Big Rescue,"
"Super Crime Fighter" and "Super Rescues," from the Superman:
The Movie soundtrack reissue]
AQUINO: From the
expanded Superman soundtrack, by John Williams and the London Symphony
Orchestra, we heard "Super Rescues," "Super Crime Fighter"
and "The Big Rescue." The score itself has experienced a big rescue
too, by producers Nick Redman and Michael Matessino, two veterans in restoring
soundtracks. They've restored over 40 minutes of previously unavailable material
to the Superman score. In a few moments, we'll hear the restored music
from the movie's flying sequence, in which Superman sweeps Lois off her feet
— literally. But first, Michael Matessino talks about why the romantic
music from the flying sequence has been one of the most talked-about cues from
the Superman score.
MATESSINO: The flying
sequence cue, the nine minutes of music that accompanies the flight of Lois
Lane and Superman over Metropolis and up through the clouds, et cetera —
it's a great interlude in the movie, I think. There's a lot of controversy surrounding
the second half of it. In the film, you hear the "Love Theme" played
in the orchestra, accompanied by the lyrics to "Can You Read My Mind,"
spoken by Margot Kidder, Lois Lane. That was presented on the original album
and people have different opinions about having that.
Clip of Margot Kidder's
vocal from "Can You Read My Mind":
KIDDER: Can you
read my mind? Do you know what it is that you do to me? I don't know who you
are. Just a friend from another star.
MATESSINO: So we
were hopeful to be able to present on the Rhino release a version that did not
have the vocal component, and fortunately, we were able to find it and present
it. And we did so both ways. We give the original album version that has her
spoken vocal track, and we also have the orchestra track only. Now what we discovered
to our surprise while we were looking for this material is that there was an
original version of the song planned first, which was more of a pop, synthesizer,
kind of '70s rock piece — a soft rock piece. As we did some research, we
found that the intention was to then have a vocalist actually record the sung
lyrics to accompany that recording. This is a song that Maureen McGovern later
recorded a cover version of, which made it onto the charts. We don't know who
was actually set to record this film version of it, although the names Toni
Tennille and Karen Carpenter have come up. But we can't seem to definitively
find it out. In any case, what we do know is that they wanted Margot Kidder's
voice, so they had her speak the lyrics and they found that it didn't quite
work with this recording of this song. So they went back and rescored a more
traditional orchestral underscore for the piece and then put her voice with
that, which is what you heard in the movie, what you heard on the original album.
And it's that final version that there are differences of opinion about, so
we hope that people can enjoy their opinions, by virtue of the fact that you
have a choice on the new Rhino release of getting either version or the early
unused pop version, also presented both with and without Margot Kidder's vocal.
So you can hear them all and make up your mind for yourself.
AQUINO: Now here's
"The Flying Sequence," in its entirety, without those open-mic-night-with-Margot
Kidder vocals, which is the way the Superman fans wanted it, here on A Fistful
of Soundtracks.
["The Terrace,"
"The Flying Sequence" and "Lois and Clark," from the Superman:
The Movie soundtrack reissue]
AQUINO: Superfly.
We heard "Lois and Clark," "The Flying Sequence" and "The
Terrace," all by John Williams, from the expanded Superman soundtrack,
which we're spotlighting on today's edition of A Fistful of Soundtracks.
"Lois and Clark" and "The Terrace" were previously unreleased
cues, and so is the version of "The Flying Sequence" that we just
heard. In the film and in previous releases of the soundtrack, "The Flying
Sequence" features vocals performed by star Margot Kidder and written by
famous songwriter and frequent John Williams collaborator Leslie Bricusse, but
the version that we heard does not, and it's the version most fans and music
critics prefer. Now here's another previously unreleased track from Superman.
From the scene in which Lex Luthor summons Superman to his underground lair,
this is a piece entitled "Sonic Greeting."
["Sonic Greeting,"
from the Superman: The Movie soundtrack reissue]
AQUINO: "Sonic
Greeting," by John Williams, from Superman: The Movie, the 1978
blockbuster based on the DC Comics superhero created in 1933 by two daydreamers
from Cleveland, writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster. The first two Superman
films, which were actually shot back-to-back by directors Richard Donner and
Richard Lester, are considered by many to be the definitive screen version of
Siegel and Shuster's Man of Steel, who fights for truth, justice — and
some nice pomade for that slicked-back hairdo. We'll hear more selections from
Superman: The Movie — the expanded soundtrack, here on A Fistful
of Soundtracks, after this break. Don't move a muscle.
ACT 2
AQUINO: Jim Aquino
here. Don't forget to visit A Fistful of Soundtracks on the Web at jim.aquino.com.
Once again, that's Jim.A-Q-U-I-N-O.com. Today on A Fistful of Soundtracks,
we're listening to selections from the expanded reissue of the John Williams
score to Superman: The Movie — the best thing to happen to Superman
since those naked Internet pictures of Teri Hatcher from Lois and Clark.
Boo-yah. Nick Redman and Michael Matessino produced this terrific reissue for
Rhino, and throughout today's show, we've been hearing Matessino discuss this
eagerly anticipated restoration of the soundtrack. Now he'll tell us what film
score he'd like to restore next.
MATESSINO: Well,
I'm a very big fan of John Williams. I've wanted to have a lot of these scores
in their complete form for awhile. Happily, over the past five or six years,
all of the big ones have started to emerge, which is great, so we're kind of
running out of them. Nevertheless, there are still more to do, and one of his
that I'd very much like to do is Fiddler on the Roof, which a lot of
people may not remember that he had anything to do with. And if they do, they
might not think it was significant. But he actually won his first Oscar in 1971
for doing the arrangements, and it led to him adapting and conducting the film
score of the original Broadway production. He did an outstanding job with it.
He really took the melodies, made them his own and gave it the kind of really
rich orchestrations that are easily recognizable as Williams'. Although there
is a very successful album that's out there that still sells, there's a lot
of additional material, particularly underscore, which you might associate more
with the John Williams sound when you hear that alone that I'd like to find
and locate and use to expand the existing release and to restore it and get
it to sound good because it really is a superb piece of work. So that, I guess,
would be at the top of my list.
AQUINO: Now if Warner
Bros. ever makes that long-delayed new Superman movie, it's unlikely
that John Williams will be hired as the composer again, so which film composer
do you think would do an interesting musical interpretation of Superman? Who
would you like to hear do Superman in John Williams' place?
MATESSINO: Hmmm.
Well, trying to come up with a composer for a new Superman movie that's
not John Williams would be difficult because it's a very tough act to follow.
The music is great on its own, and it has the added difficulty of being very,
very recognizable and associated with it. So it would be a very tough act to
follow. I'd be open to hearing any composer, if they were trying something new
and interesting that was still somehow very engaging. I'm not sure which of
the currently working composers would be really good at it. Maybe David Newman,
maybe Hans Zimmer would be good choices.
AQUINO: Michael
Matessino, the co-producer of the Superman soundtrack reissue. Matessino,
who graduated from New York University's film and television program, is a freelance
producer whose company, Sharpline Arts, specializes in film preservation and
restoration and behind-the-scenes documentaries about films. Based in Glendale,
California, Sharpline Arts has a Web site at www.sharplinearts.com. Once again, that's www.S-H-A-R-P-L-I-N-E-A-R-T-S.com. Our spotlight
on the Superman soundtrack reissue continues now with a track entitled
"Chasing Rockets," from the film's climax, in which our hero tries
to stop Lex Luthor from doing what every East Coast gangsta rapper has always
wanted to do: destroy the West Coast.
["Chasing Rockets"
and "Super Feats," from the Superman: The Movie soundtrack
reissue]
AQUINO: From the
expanded Superman soundtrack, by John Williams and the London Symphony
Orchestra, we heard "Super Feats" and "Chasing Rockets,"
from the film's climax, in which Superman stops Lex Luthor from setting off
a giant man-made earthquake to destroy California. Gene Hackman's Luthor, of
course, would return to annoy Superman in two sequels: Superman II and
the huge waste of film known as Superman IV. Now let's hear the three
pieces that conclude Superman: The Movie: the "Finale," followed
by the "End Title March" and the "Love Theme from Superman."
["Finale and
End Title March" and "Love Theme from Superman," from
the Superman: The Movie soundtrack reissue]
AQUINO: The "Love
Theme from Superman," the "End Title March" and "Finale,"
all from the closing credits of Superman: The Movie. Recorded in England
in July 1978 — nearly five months before the movie's release — the
score was composed and conducted by John Williams and performed by the London
Symphony Orchestra. The Superman score: an influence on many composers,
especially Shirley Walker and her stylish music for the wonderful Superman
animated series on the WB. Superman: The Movie is one of John Williams'
finest moments as a film composer.
[Isaac Hayes' end
title theme from Shaft in background]
AQUINO: Did you
hear about this in the news? This year's Oscar statuettes have been stolen.
This looks like a job for Superman. Guess what? The end title theme from Shaft
means that's gonna do it for A Fistful of Soundtracks. Today on A
Fistful of Soundtracks, we listened to selections from the expanded reissue
of the John Williams score to Superman: The Movie, released by Rhino
Records. So run — or fly — to your nearest record and CD store and
grab a copy. To find out more about Superman: The Movie and its restored
score, visit A Fistful of Soundtracks on the Web at jim.aquino.com for some great Superman links. Once again, that's jim.A-Q-U-I-N-O.com.
Special program note: next Saturday, March 25, A Fistful of Soundtracks
will air at a special earlier time: 10AM. So don't forget: don't tune in to
A Fistful of Soundtracks at noon, like you usually do. Tune in two hours
earlier. 10AM. A special earlier time for A Fistful of Soundtracks. Next
Saturday, March 25. Now stay tuned for Unfiltered Camels. Alright, gotta
fly now. This is Jimmy "Mack" Aquino saying, I'm outta here. Peace.
© 2003 Jimmy Aquino