This may have been answered years ago here, but who's humming along with the main melody in a few tracks of Stepmom on the recording? That's not John Williams is it?
Just off the top of my head, could it be the guitarist Christopher Parkening? Something rings a bell there.
It is Parkening. I remember getting this lovely soundtrack when it first came out, and being an earphone guy, easily hearing his voice making “performance expressions” ala Glenn Gould. But a hellava musician!
I just re-listened to this the other week, an absolutely gorgeous score, I love this side of Williams.
Absolutely. He has arranged "Prayer for Peace" as a duet for cello and guitar on his recent "A Gathering Of Friends" album with Yo-Yo Ma and Pablo Villegas and he wrote "Rounds" for Villegas. I wish he'd write a full guitar concerto.
Yeah, although he's not credited with 'humming', I always just figured it had to be Parkening himself being picked up on the mike for the guitar. I quite like it, as I do hearing most player/instrument/studio noises that are picked up in a good recording. It gives it a nice organic and unique sound, something we don't get much in these processed days. Who can forget the ringing phone at the end of the Bowie song.
Not quite. Doyle was sick, but completed his score*, which was rejected by Columbus and/or the producers, who asked Williams to write a replacement score. Maybe the film tested badly with Doyle's score? Whatever the reasons, the film was eventually released to mixed reviews, but became a box office hit despite this. Maybe Williams' music helped the film find favour with the public?
*there is a bootleg and an 11 minute suite on YouTube.
I'm not sure that the producers "rejected" Doyle's score as much as Williams learned of the project and expressed an interest as he did with Home Alone. At the time Stepmom was being positioned as a potential Oscar contender, at least in the acting categories.
In this case if the legendary multi-Oscar winner is willing to come on board you make room for him.
Please note that suite is a specially edited and arranged presentation I did for Doyle's rejected score. If you listen for the edits and crossfades, you'll find them (so try not to do that ;-).
