Hello!

Wow! The reader suggestions and links to obscure and sometimes-listenable Movie Tie-In novelty songs continues apace. The idea is to pick songs that were produced for movies but not used, or produced independently to exploit a movie and became associated with it on the radio, or elsewhere. If a particular cool suggestion falls a bit outside that definition, I’m keeping it anyway. When the well dries up, I should put the list together as a stand-alone article – resource. It may have a brief shelf life — the way YouTube items come and go, the links may all be invalid within a year.

Previously posted Tie-ins:

Nino Tempo & Pete Rugolo’s  Jack The Ripper  (Bill Shaffer).
Johnny Horton’s  North to Alaska  and
Sink the Bismarck.
Gene Pitney’s  The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
WB soundtrack cue  Have You Heard of Bonnie and Clyde?
Georgie Fame’s  The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde.
The Nightmares’  Oooh I’m Scared  for Horrors of the Black Museum, and
The Headless Ghost  (Earl Balcom, efelesijr).
Rod McKuen and Bob McFadden’s  Dracula Cha Cha Cha  for The Brides of Dracula, plus
the Italian precursor by Bruno Martino,  Dracula Cha Cha Cha  (also Earl Balcom).
The White Suit Samba  for The Man in the White Suit (Edward Parker Bolman).
Anthony Restaino’s  The Web  from The Brain that Wouldn’t Die  (also Edward Parker Bolman).
Patti Page’s  Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte (Todd Everett).
Ricky Nelson’s  Restless Kid  from Rio Bravo (also Todd Everett).
Johnny Cash’s  Thunderball  unused in the 007 movie Thunderball (again Todd Everett).
Phil Harris’s  The Thing  loosely tied-in with The Thing from Another World (Bill Shepard).

New since Saturday:

A genuine oldie: Freddie Martin’s 1932  Trouble in Paradise ,  reportedly a followup to the Ernst Lubitsch film (Jonathan Gluckman).
Petula Clark and Joe Henderson’s  The Card  from the Alec Guinness movie of the same name (Randall William Cook).
Anne Leonardo’s Sinbad  for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad  (also Randall William Cook).
Johnny Burnette’s One-Eyed Jacks  not from the Marlon Brando movie  (Tony Convey).
A dreadful 55 Days at Peking (Mark Throop).
Mack David, Burt Bacharach and Jack Jones’ Wives and Lovers , not heard in the movie of the same name.
Mack David, Burt Bacharach and The Five Blobs’ The Blob  (a cheat, heard in the show but legendary just the same) (John Black, Cameron Mackert).
The Fortunes’ The Ghoul in School  from Werewolf in a Girl’s Dormitory (always thought this was catchy… John Black, John Hall).
Tony Casanova’s Diary of a High School Bride  (also John Black).
Bette Davis’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?  (Brendan Carroll, who says a 45 was released as well).
Alvino Rey’s The Bat  (Charlie Largent).
Big Boy Groves’ Bucket O Blood  for the Roger Corman/Dick Miller movie (efelesijr).
And lastly, who can forget the unused theme for the commemorative  State of the Union?  (just to check who’s reading.)

I’m tempted to put in more catchy film songs, but the others I’ve found so far are legit soundtrack cues: Town without Pity, No Blade of Grass etc..

What are we forgetting?

And as I’m reminded that this column is supposed to be about video discs, here are some announcements that came in this week…

Janus Films has a new theatrical trailer up on vimeo for Sergei Bondarchuk’s 9-hour classic War and Peace. The quality looks incredible — they even use the God’s Eye battlefield shot. The old Mosfilm DVD was passable, but this is really something.

Flicker Alley has two announcements: The elusive Technirama-Cinerama film The Golden Head coming out on Blu-ray, restored by David Strohmaier and presented in the Smilebox format, is slated for March 5. Then, on March 26 comes The Flying Clipper (Mediterranean Holiday), an early ‘sixties travelogue filmed in 65mm, noted for its coverage of the Monaco Formula 1 race. The stereo track has been redesigned in Dolby Atmos.

There’s also The Alligator People, May 28, from Scream Factory; and Arrow has John Farrow’s film noir The Big Clock for May 14. Kino Lorber has leaked that they’ll be releasing Victor Halperin’s Supernatural with Carole Lombard, but no date has been given. All I’ve seen of the show is its poster, a real beauty. →

Kino’s March releases include the American Film Theater’s The Iceman Cometh, the Brazilian Macunaima and Kingdom of the Spiders; April with Kino brings, among many others, Rider on the Rain, Highway Patrolman, Becky Sharp, Bend of the River, The House of Seven Gables, The Strange Door, and a Fantomas 3-Film Collection.

We’re eagerly awaiting Twilight Time’s February titles — The Admirable Crichton, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, Talk Radio and Bedazzled, all February 19. They recently announced April’s TT bounty: Stagecoach (1966), Melvin and Howard, The Paper Chase and The Snake Pit. All are April 16.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson