Yeah, Riverdance over Rent was a ludicrous choice.
I'm also a big original soundtrack guy. In 1961--62 Henry Mancini had a lot of clout with the Grammys and a lot of pull with movie studios. He convinced Paramount to not release an actual soundtrack recording from the existing musical elements of their hit film Breakfast at Tiffany's. Instead Mancini made an album of music emphasizing the jazz elements of his score. Because Audrey Hepburn's vocals were contained on the film's original musical tracks, she was not allowed to re-record them for Mancini's album so "Moon River" was sung by a chorus. The album was simply called "Breakfast at Tiffany's" -- Music from the Motion Picture Score. It's a very enjoyable album -- I bought the LP in '62 and the CD re-issue in '89 -- but it sure isn't a SOUNDTRACK. Nevertheless, it was awarded the Best Soundtrack Grammy in 1962. The award probably should have gone to Dimitri Tiomkin's The Guns of Navarone, which is an excellent score, and its recording was an actual soundtrack.
In 2013 decades after the passing of Mancini and Hepburn, Intrada Records finally got the rights to Breakfast at Tiffany's original musical elements and Hepburn's vocals so we finally got the actual soundtrack recording on CD. It's great! |
