Richard Pryor

Universal Music Enterprises has announced a rollout of 26 individual soundtrack albums on vinyl

By GTVW

Photos Agency

– including John Williams’ scores to E.T. and Jaws; Blaxploitation classics like Willie Hutch’s The Mack, J.J. Johnson’s Willie Dynamite, Marvin Gaye’s Trouble Man and the hip-hop-flavored Juice; Oscar® winners such as The Godfather, Silence of the Lambs, Rocky and Good Will Hunting; and cult movies like Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Knights, John Landis’ Animal House, Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice, Amy Heckerling’s Clueless and Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing.

The rollout got underway on January 20, with the release of Willie Hutch’s classic, much-sampled soundtrack to the 1973 movie The Mack, starring Max Julien and Richard Pryor, which was originally released on Motown, as well as the Spike Lee joint Do the Right Thing, which featured the Public Enemy classic, “Fight the Power.”

On February 3, UMe reissued John Williams’ famed scores to Steven Spielberg’s E.T. and Jaws, along with Oscar® winners like Nino Rota’s The Godfather and Good Will Hunting — which was nominated for Academy Awards® for Danny Elfman’s original music score and for Best Original Song, “Miss Misery,” by the late Elliott Smith. Also on that same date: a rare import picture disc of Quentin Tarantino’s acclaimed Pulp Fiction. On tap for February 10: Marvin Gaye’s Trouble Man; two versions of Nellee Hooper’s BAFTA-award-winning score for Baz Luhrmann’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, one in black vinyl and the other blue; and Willie Hutch’s The Mack.

March 10 sees the vinyl releases of the soundtracks to Jonathan Demme’s Oscar®-winning 1991 thriller Silence of the Lambs, composed by Howard Shore, plus Frank Oz’s 1987 film adaptation of the musical Little Shop of Horrors, featuring music by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, earning a Best Original Song nomination for Four Tops lead singer Levi Stubbs as Audrey II’s bawdy “Mean Green Mother From Outer Space.” Also on tap for that date is an import picture disc of the Coen brothers’ 2002 GRAMMY®-winning Album of the Year, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a multi-platinum hit that also included the Best Male Country Vocal Performance for Ralph Stanley’s “O, Death.” J.J. Johnson’s score to the 1974 blaxploitation film about a New York City pimp who strives to be the tops in the city, Willie Dynamite, comes out on vinyl March 24, while the following week, March 31 sees the release of the double-disc soundtrack to the movie version of Friday Night Lights.

April 14 sees the release of vinyl for Boogie Nights, Paul Thomas Anderson’s classic film about the Golden Age of the adult film industry in the ‘80s in the San Fernando Valley, along with the soundtracks to a pair of party-down cult faves: Car Wash and Animal House.

The soundtracks to Juice and Spike Lee’s retro-R&B School Daze make their vinyl appearances on May 5, followed by Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice (highlights include Harry Belafonte’s “Day-O” and Richard Wagner’s “Lohengrin”) and Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky, featuring composer Bill Conti’s Oscar®-nominated Best Original Song “Gonna Fly Now,” on May 12.