Search - Various Artists :: The Best Of Godzilla 1954-1975: Original Film Soundtracks

The Best Of Godzilla 1954-1975: Original Film Soundtracks
Various Artists
The Best Of Godzilla 1954-1975: Original Film Soundtracks
Genres: Pop, Soundtracks
 
  •  Track Listings (39) - Disc #1

Despite the best--no, make that worst--efforts of a Hollywood studio to destroy his legacy in the '90s, Godzilla lives! Okay, we know, the original Gojira is still just an underpaid and overworked stuntman in a clumsy rubb...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Various Artists
Title: The Best Of Godzilla 1954-1975: Original Film Soundtracks
Members Wishing: 3
Total Copies: 0
Label: GNP Crescendo Records
Original Release Date: 2/1/1998
Re-Release Date: 9/1/1998
Album Type: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered, Soundtrack
Genres: Pop, Soundtracks
Style:
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPCs: 052824805521, 5014929020129

Synopsis

Amazon.com
Despite the best--no, make that worst--efforts of a Hollywood studio to destroy his legacy in the '90s, Godzilla lives! Okay, we know, the original Gojira is still just an underpaid and overworked stuntman in a clumsy rubber suit, but that just makes the Big Guy's half-century legacy all the more remarkable. Perhaps the most underrated element of Kaiju Eiga (the Japanese term for the prolific, internationally successful monster genre spawned by the World's Biggest Radioactively Mutated Reptile with an Attitude) is its earnest, nightmarish music. The Toho Studios series' cheese-factor may have waxed and waned (mostly the former) in ensuing years, but its music maintained a remarkably even keel. The dark, often minimalist efforts of original composer Akira Ifukube set the tone, coloring much of the toy-city stomping with ominous, nerve-wracking cues. But as the genre entered the swinging '60s, a deliciously skewed pop sensibility began to take hold, as Tokyo now saw its property insurance rates skyrocket to a soundtrack increasingly informed by warbling chanteuses and twangy guitars. GNP-Crescendo offers up a generous and sampling of the first 20 years of Kaiju Eiga music here, complete with annotation and lavish color artwork that would put many major-label anthologies to shame. --Jerry McCulley

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CD Reviews

Brings a tear to my eye!!!
Bryan E. Leed | 04/07/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD brings me back to my childhood where I grew up watching Godzilla movies. This collection is better than the 84-95 collection, although that collection is great too. When I listen to this album, I feel like I'm that little kid in the Gamera or Godzilla movies. Brings a tear to my eye!!!!! Long Live GOJIRA!!! You need to get other Japanese monster movie soundtracks available to us like War of the Gargantuas or the music from the Daimajin trilogy. Akira Ifukube is God!!!"
Godzilla & Ifukube triumph
Michael Tullberg | Los Angeles, CA USA | 12/26/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is an especially good and comprehensive CD of the music of the classic Showa-period Godzilla era. Maestro Akira Ifukube's vibrant monster marches and horror themes particularly stand out, as do the informative liner notes inside... unusually extensive for a simple fold-out piece of paper. Overall the music selection is very good, but I have one minor quibble: more of King Ghidora's themes would have made the disc truly complete, as would have more monster sound FX (Japanese import discs of the latter can get quite expensive). However, these are only minor points. This would be an excellent CD to introduce Western fans to the wild world of kaiju music...I have a couple of friends who work in the movie business here in L.A. who were positively enchanted by it. And on a side note, it's also a nice disc to listen to while reading a Godzilla-related book...not quite as distracting as a movie!"
5 stars? OH, YES!
Michael Tullberg | Los Angeles, CA USA | 01/05/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)

"Akira Ifukube's positively monstrous scores (pun DEFINITELY intended) dominate this disc. Quite simply, if you want to know a major reason why the original Godzilla series (the Showa series) flourished, tke a good long listen to this disc. Die-hard fans of John Williams' scores will discover where he got at least SOME of his ideas! Any fan of movie music should get this CD IMMEDIATELY...this is not an understatement!"