Junk Box Jury

Taken from the LP ‘Themes From The Great Motion Pictures’ | (Music For Pleasure MFP 1243) 1967

Three of the most highly-acclaimed films of recent years have been ‘Grand Prix‘, ‘Doctor Zhivago‘ and ‘Born Free‘, and coupled with the success of these films has been the enormous popularity of the music written for them.

Maurice Jarre, the eminent French composer who wrote the scores for ‘Doctor Zhivago’ and ‘Grand Prix’, has already won fame with his music for ‘The Collector’, ‘The Longest Day’, ‘The Train’ and ‘Lawrence of Arabia’.

For ‘Doctor Zhivago’, Jarre created one of the loveliest melodies to be heard for years, the haunting ‘Lara’s Theme’ (Somewhere My Love) which has probably been recorded more often than any film theme since ‘Tara’s Theme’ from ‘Gone with the Wind’.

A contrast to the romantic ‘Dr. Zhivago’ score is the exciting, cosmopolitan music he wrote for the big-screen drama ‘Grand Prix‘.

Starting as a rock ‘n’ roll musician, John Barry got his big opportunity to compose for films when he was selec-ted to write the score for the first James Bond film, ‘Dr. No’.

Barry’s success with this soundtrack and with subsequent 007 scores (‘From Russia with Love’, ‘Goldfinger’ and ‘Thunder-ball’) started a trend among other film composers towards pulsating, super-charged music.

The MGM Orchestra | “Theme From Grand Prix” (Bossa Nova) | Music For Pleasure

But the versatility of his talents is proved by his tender, evocative score for the almost human story about Elsa the Lioness, ‘Born Free’.

The Metropolitan Pops Orchestra, the MGM Studio Orchestra and the John Barry Orchestra display the craftsmanship of Jarre and Barry to full advantage in this rich and beautiful album of the finest of today’s composition for films.

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cost of record: £1.50
from: charity shop