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Was this a LP or CD?? Would love a copy of The Nelson Riddle score album.
Paul, it was originally released in the early 1960s as an LP. Feel free to reach out to me at the URL in my signature if you'd like a listen.
https://www.amazon.com/Original-Music-TV-Show-Untouchables/dp/B00229OL52
Recently, it's been re-issued by some outfit in the UK and is almost identical, right down to the artwork (with the exception of misspelling Robert Stack's name.)
https://www.amazon.com/Untouchables-NELSON-RIDDLE/dp/B012SFPX6U
Riddle's best television theme, in my opinion. Country to popular belief, the music that was rerecorded for the album that featured Robert Stack on the cover with a machine gun WAS heard on the series, and it's certainly Riddle's best work for the medium (along with his work for "Batman").
While this is mostly true, the tracks and arrangements heard on the release are not the same ones used in the show. They've been re-recorded as you note and in many cases, sound decidedly different –– especially the main theme with the obnoxious "do-wah" singers thrown in for good pop measure. "Speakeasy Blues" is perhaps the only song that doesn't lose something in translation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd-VzH1Lhkw
It's my feeling this was released to be more of a commercial album than a true soundtrack to the series, especially since the series helped renew interest in Prohibition-era music for a brief time. In fact, a number of the tracks on the LP were only used sparingly in the series and only early on at that. I'm pretty sure you never hear "Relentless Ness" used after 1960.
I've been trying to track down the actual tracks used in the show that Riddle wrote (it appears he wrote at least 20-30 pieces over the 3-4 seasons) and recently discovered that Capitol Records Hi "Q" Production Music (featuring the works of William Loose, Emil Cadkin, Jack Cookerly, among others) is the source for a great many cues used to augment Riddle's work.
Also - great thread. Love Goldsmith's work, but Riddle's actual score for the series was a gorgeous blend of film-noir melodrama and did much of the talking for the otherwise tactiurn characterization of Eliot Ness and the "good guys."
Art Linson, the producer of the 1987 film, was not a fan of the original series which is why it's a significant departure from the Desilu series in almost every way (imagine Mission: Impossible not having the Mission: Impossible theme!)
There are some tonal similiarties in the use of the rather melancholy saxapohone in Morricone's "Death Theme" and in a version of Riddle's work that was traditionally used as Eliot Ness' theme (though, oddly, it is not the Riddle track named "Eliot Ness.")
Also, Buddy Morrow did an exceptionally aggressive and brassy variation on the theme a few years after the series aired: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOGRU9k8N10
And despite the Morricone score being a huge departure, the teaser for the '87 film used Morrow's track.
All of this is of great interest to me as I'm doing a deep dive on the life, death and cultural impact of the original Desilu series. If you think you'd dig such a thing, take a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MMxDg5cpow
Say, if anyone has any of the Capitol Records Production Music lying around anywhere...
Kelly Lynch
www.theuntouchables.co
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