Or should that be Six CD's?
Sometimes, especially when I have more urgent things to do, I like to woolgather and make up various lists and plans, like what I'd do if I ran the world. I wouldn't invade too many countries (though I refuse to be tied down on this point), but I would sure put out a lot of box sets. I guess this game is called Fantasy Box Sets.
A lot of soundtrack boxes are naturally organized by composer (e.g. FSM's Johnny Mandel set), or by genre (such as western), or even label (FSM's black box of MGMs), but sometimes I imagine boxes organized by actor, just because it's a way of associating things that wouldn't otherwise go together. Let's take Shirley MacLaine.
Am I special fan of La MacLaine? No, but I was listening recently to Andre Previn's TWO FOR THE SEESAW, and on a recent thread about THOSE DARING YOUNG MEN IN THEIR JAUNTY JALOPIES, somebody provided a list of old Fox LPs that mentioned Nelson Riddle's WHAT A WAY TO GO, and I thought "Wow, I'd love to hear that," and started thinking about how if actors have been around long enough, especially during the Silver Age, their work can't help covering a great cross-section of composers.
Quick, what's the Shirley MacLaine movie scored by Bernard Herrmann? No fair looking it up!
Which is the one by Ennio Morricone?
Obviously, several Shirley M. soundtracks are on CD, such as Elmer Bernstein's SOME CAME RUNNING, John Williams' JOHN GOLDFARB PLEASE COME HOME and Andre Previn's IRMA LA DOUCE. Adolph Deutsch's THE APARTMENT was in the black box, and apparently is now being reissued. But if I wanted to put out some kind of "Music from the Films of Shirley MacLaine" box, there's still plenty to choose from. A partial list, thanx to IMDB:
Alex North: Hot Spell
Adolph Deutsch: The Matchmaker
Jeff Alexander: The Sheepman, Ask Any Girl
Franz Waxman: Career, My Geisha
Andre Previn: All in a Night's Work
Bronislau Kaper: Two Loves
Nelson Riddle: What a Way to Go!
Maurice Jarre: Gambit
Riz Ortolani: Woman Times Seven, The Yellow Rolls-Royce, The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom
IMDB also reminds me of something I vaguely recalled: she had a short-lived sitcom called SHIRLEY'S WORLD produced in England by ITC. Music: Laurie Johnson. Good night, where are those episodes?
Anyway, this being my fantasy, I don't need to consider which studios, what labels, what's available, etc. In my magic world, all impediments vanish. When my box comes out, it would attract not only the general soundtrackers and those specialists who must have everything by Composer X, but even a handful of non-soundtrackers who just happen to be fans of the actor. I'll make a semi-killing. Or take a bath.
Now what should I put in a Sean Connery box? Or a Michael Caine box? Wow, either one could have Jarre's THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING, which is like way out of print.
Say, how about directors? A John Huston box: REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE? SINFUL DAVEY? THE MACKINTOSH MAN? THE BARBARIAN AND THE GEISHA back in print?
Ooh, how about a Minor Minnelli box? Previn's GOODBYE CHARLIE and DESIGNING WOMAN, Deutsch's TEA AND SYMPATHY?
Don't wake me, it's too early. | 
