I was too young to remember, but I'm sure it had to have been in one of my earlier forays into the science fiction genre. That was virtually all I watched as a kid. The first six Star Trek movies were in heavy rotation, as were the Star Wars trilogy, and the first two RoboCop movies (the third one didn't exist yet).
I can't imagine being a kid now and being grabbed by the music the same way, though I'm sure every generation says the same thing.
This is the album that got me into music for film/TV, even though it was a song album for kids. The Muppet works integrated songs and score into their projects, and I suspect that carried over into more adult works as I got older (but probably not much older to be honest).
1. When I got my first cassette player/recorder, with built in radio, the very first song I taped from the radio was Deodato's jazz take on the 2001 theme.
The rest of the tape was theme songs from TV shows, including Time Tunnel and Rockford Files and I don't remember what else.
2. The title of this thread reminded me of an anthology to which I contributed a story many many moons ago. https://amzn.to/3mx6tBY
My first time? Well, it was well past midnight and Diane and I were feeling pretty loopy by then and one thing led to....oh, you mean the first time I became aware of film music...
I distinctly remember a viewing of Planet of the Apes on TV when I was a kid: "The Hunt" track, especially when the apes make their first appearance on horseback. Those blaring horns sound like klaxons - a perfect match for the look of astonishment on Heston's face (and mine).
I remember the first time I heard the song FOR YOUR EYES ONLY on the raadio in 1981, my dad bought me a tape recorder and I taped it off the radio and wore the thing out. It's still my favorite song.
I've thought about this several times, and while there are a couple of contenders, I think it was probably Bernstein's "Ghostbusters."
Like most kids, I loved the movie "Ghostbusters" and asked my parents for the soundtrack cassette because of the Ray Parker, Jr. song... but while I loved that song, I unexpectedly fell under the spell of Bernstein's "Dana's Theme," which was likely the first romantic music that ever moved me. I had to have been only four or five years old. I think because of "Dana's Theme" on the soundtrack cassette, I started paying special attention to the scoring in "Ghostbusters" on repeat viewings (of which there were probably a hundred in my childhood, and that's not hyperbole) because at a certain point, every time a variation of "Dana's Theme" appears in the film I would recognize it as such, then I grew to love and really look forward to other cues in that score too. In a sense, this was essentially my training for noticing scores in movies, and by the time I was out of elementary school film music had become my favorite kind of music.
Listening to "Dana's Theme" today, it's somehow even more gorgeous than ever. I would say it's easily one of the greatest Love Themes of all-time.
I'm sure it was a gradual process of osmosis. I grew up with musical parents, steeped in musical theater, vintage Disney and Jim Henson, so I was pretty attuned to things musical from a very young age. But the first time I remember taking conscious note of a film score, it was Miklos Rozsa's JUNGLE BOOK -- more specifically, his theme for the elephants. I can't remember precisely how old I was ... somewhere between 7 and 9, probably.
When I was a child my favourie movies were those Bud Spencer-Terence Hill comedies and I noticed their music very soon. They were done mostly by Guido & Maurizio de Angelis, and a couple of them by Ennio Morricone. Next came Star Wars. The rest is history, as they say ...
Hope you are all keeping well! For me it was the Irwin Allen/Gerry Anderson/ITC productions and other sixties TV stuff like Star Trek and The Man from Uncle. The Family could never understand why I got annoyed If they switched channels before the end title music finished. Usually a "You're not really listening to that?" sort of reaction. This was made even worse later when the TV companies introduced voice overs and fade outs. It's all a lot better in glorious uninterrupted sound now thanks to the CD labels.
First lps I had were Geoff Love - Big War Movie themes - which was free with my first record player. The James Bond 10th Anniversary Double Album and the UA LP of Live and Let Die. Stay Well! Regards CC
Jason and the Argonauts and 7th Voyage of Sinbad at a double bill in my local village cinema around 1973 when I was 12 years old. Not too long after I saw The Fantasy Film World of Bernard Herrmann in a Sheffield record shop (Can the Music Man) and I was off onto my lifelong love of this stuff!
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