I think I read somewhere that John Barry was offered this one but turned it down after reading the script.
Yet he agreed to do "The Legend of the Lone Ranger"!
He had already done the Western Monte Walsh for Lone Ranger director William Fraker, so it might have been a relationship-based decision; either that, or Barry had a terrible sense of what franchise would take off.
[ Almost, Pete. Asked by Martyn Crosthwaite about scoring Westerns, he replied:
"I was offered one with Sean Connery and Brigitte Bardot, Shalako, which I thought I might like to do. Then I saw the film and decided I didn't."
Thanks for that Geoff. Barry also scored 'Boom' and 'The Lion In Winter' during 1968. It would have been a pity if he had had to turn down either of these because of Shalako. On the hand, he could work fast in the 60s - 8 scores in one year around 1965 so he could probably have fitted in all three.
A scan of SHALAKO's LP cover (the U.K. Philips version, it appears) recently came to my attention:
The content looks to be exactly the same as the U.S. version, except the British gave (proper) credit to Robert Farnon as the composer. For some reason, conductor Muir Mathieson receives the lion's share of the credit on the American Philips, which reduced Farnon to a co-composer status.
Does anybody know anything further about this curious alteration of composer credits?
[Mr. Mathieson doesn't get any credit at all in this Philips version]
Yeah, very good score indeed. The highlight of the old LP, for me, is Lady Daggett's Death - very strong writing there. But there are plenty of excellent cues that didn't make it on to the album, including a nice mysterioso piece for Stephen Boyd riding around the landscape just prior to the above cue.
A full Shalako would be great, and Bear Island too.
Yes indeed, Bear Island-80- I remember watching that movie in a motel on HBO decades ago and was very impressed with the music score. Film tanked at the box-office.
A scan of SHALAKO's LP cover (the U.K. Philips version, it appears) recently came to my attention:
The content looks to be exactly the same as the U.S. version, except the British gave (proper) credit to Robert Farnon as the composer. For some reason, conductor Muir Mathieson receives the lion's share of the credit on the American Philips, which reduced Farnon to a co-composer status.
Does anybody know anything further about this curious alteration of composer credits?
[Mr. Mathieson doesn't get any credit at all in this Philips version]
It is odd that Mr. Mathieson is credited so prominently on the US LP and not the UK version. Mr M. is named during the film's screen credits, but I wonder if the LP is a re-recording in which case Mr. M wouldn't necessarily require a credit. Though that still doesn't explain why he's on the US album cover!
