A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

In the summer of 1984, British-based Polydor Records released Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, an 11-track album with selections from composer-conductor John Williams’ score for the second chapter of the Indiana Jones saga. The album was issued in three formats – vinyl long-play (LP), audio cassette, and the then-new compact disc (CD) – but due to the limitations of how much content a single LP record can hold, Polydor and Maestro Williams – who is credited as the album producer – chose only 40 minutes’ worth of music from his score for the 118-minutes-long film. The resulting Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom soundtrack was a “sampler” of action cues and leitmotivs from the film, including Short Round’s Theme, Fast Streets of Shanghai, and the film’s dazzling opening number – Kate Capshaw’s cover – in Mandarin Chinese – of Cole Porter’s Anything Goes. However, due to Polydor’s decision to release the soundtrack as a single LP album...

Fiddler on the Roof (1971) Directed by: Norman Jewison Written by: Joseph Stein, based on his book for the Broadway play and Sholem Aleichem’s Teyve and His Daughters Starring: Topol, Norma Crane, Leonard Frey, Molly Picon, Paul Mann Music by: Jerry Bock (original music), Sheldon Harnick (lyrics), John Williams (adapted the score and conducted) Tevye: A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? But here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn't easy. You may ask 'Why do we stay up there if it's so dangerous?' Well, we stay because Anatevka is our home. And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word: tradition! On November 3. 1971, United Artists released producer-director Norman Jewison’s Fiddler on the Roof, an adaptation of the eponymous Broadway musical written by Joseph Stein and based loosely on Shol...

(C) 1970, 1987 Nonesuch Records/Warner Communications “Don t play this piece fast. It is never right to play ragtime fast.” – Scott Joplin In November 1970, Nonesuch Records released Joshua Rifkin’s Scott Joplin Piano Rags, an album that featured nine compositions written in ragtime by Arkansas-born pianist-composer Scott Joplin (1868-1917). Rifkin’s album – the first of three such records – became an instant best-seller and helped kickstart the early ‘70s revival of ragtime that was epitomized by the use of Joplin’s rags in Marvin Hamlisch’s score for George Roy Hill’s comedy-drama The Sting.  Official Warner Music Video: Solace - A Mexican Solace “Because it has such a ragged movement. It suggests something like that.” – Scott Joplin on the derivation of the word "ragtime" Although the album only contained nine of Joplin’s rags, Rifkin’s spirited performance of the music that inspired the first musical craze in 20 th Century America became Nonesuch Record...