AFOS: "Superhero Worship" playlist

Airing today at 10am and 3pm Pacific on the Fistful of Soundtracks channel is one of my most well-received episodes of A Fistful of Soundtracks: The Series, "Superhero Worship" (WEB54) from November 2004. Last week, I was looking for some older eps to stream in the Wednesday "Classic AFOS" time slot and noticed I hadn't streamed WEB54 in a while. I played back some of WEB54 on GoldWave and thought, "Hmm, unlike most of the eps I did in 2004 and 2005, this ep isn't so bad," so that's what I'll be streaming in this week's "Classic AFOS" slot.

1. John Williams, "Prelude and Main Title March," Superman: The Movie, Warner Archives/Rhino
2. Michael Giacchino, "The Glory Days," The Incredibles, Walt Disney
3. Bob Harris, "The Amazing Spider-Man," Sci-Fi's Greatest Hits Vol. 4: Defenders of Justice, TVT
4. Danny Elfman, "Spider-Man 2 Main Title," Spider-Man 2: Original Motion Picture Score, Columbia/Sony Music Soundtrax
5. John Ottman, "Suite from X2," X2, Superb/Trauma
6. Shirley Walker, "Main Title," Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Reprise
7. Puffy AmiYumi, "Teen Titans Theme," Nice, Bar/None
8. Michael Giacchino, "Saving Metroville," The Incredibles, Walt Disney
9. Joey Scarbury, "Theme from Greatest American Hero (Believe It or Not)," Fahrenheit 9/11, Warner Bros./Rhino
10. Danny Saber & Marco Beltrami, "Blade II (Main Title)," Blade II: Original Motion Picture Score, Varèse Sarabande
11. 702, "Pootie Tangin'," Pootie Tang, Hollywood
12. Al Hirt, "Green Hornet," Kill Bill Vol. 1, A Band Apart/Maverick/WMG Soundtracks
13. Danny Elfman, "Theme" (from The Flash), Music for a Darkened Theatre: Film & Television Music--Volume Two, MCA Soundtrax
14. Nerf Herder, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer Theme"
15. Thomas Chase, Steve Rucker and James L. Venable, "The Powerpuff Girls," Toon Tunes: Action-Packed Anthems, Rhino
16. Doug Katsaros, "The Tick," Toon Tunes: Action-Packed Anthems, Rhino
17. Michael Giacchino, "The Incredits," The Incredibles, Walt Disney

Film and TV music journalist Jon Burlingame recently did a nice L.A. Times profile on Giacchino, who's had a busy year so far (Star Trek, Up, Land of the Lost Box Office Receipts). From my archives, here's some feedback about the Giacchino-heavy "Superhero Worship":

"Hi! This isn't to request any music ( well, actually, I do have something I would like to hear) but to tell you what a pleasant surprise you gave me.... I saw The Incredibles a few weeks ago ( loved it) and I was bowled over by the cue that accompanies the scene where Mr. Incredible uncovers Syndrome's plan and then is captured... I loved how Giacchino did a great John Barry without being a parody. I bought the soundtrack and I have been wearing out that cue, plus others...so it was really nice, after listening to it at least 10 times last night, to come in this morning and hear it on your show! Thanks! It's always cooler when someone else plays it...."
--Kevin Greene, New Jersey, December 6, 2004

"I LOVE THIS EPISODE! Oh man, I had goosebumps most of the time and I think I teared up during some of the themes. I am totally geeking out over the whole thing. What wonderful scores! Ah! I can't get over how COOL this new episode is!

I was thinking about eventually requesting the theme that's played during the credits of The Incredibles, but now I have my fix, so nevermind! Yay!

Thank you again for the work you put into Fistful... it's such a wonderful station to listen to while working."
--Ginger Ludden, Indianapolis, December 6, 2004

"I must say, the recent Fistful ep, Superhero Worship, is my favorite one to date."
--www.psychoandy.com, Scottsdale, Arizona, February 28, 2005

Here are mentions of "Superhero Worship" on other people's sites:

"I was listening to A Fistful of Soundtrack at work the other day, and Jim Aquino had put together a show all about superhero themes. Ranging from good (Superman title) to awful (60's Batman theme). Which got me to thinking how completely great some of these themes are."
--"The Take Out Bandit," NeoGAF Forum, July 2, 2005

"So, as far as superhero costume designs go, they don't get much simpler than the outfit worn by the X-Men's Cyclops, in the late 1960's and 1970's. Cyke had pretty much straight blue spandex, with yellow trunks, gloves, and cuffed boots, that plastic, yellow visor with a red lens, and a red belt, with a yellow-and-black 'X' logo design. His mouth and nose were visible, while the rest of his head was covered in the blue spandex, making his cranium look like a penis with glasses.

Credit for the 'penis' joke goes to Jimmy Aquino, at http://jim.aquino.com"
--www.psychoandy.com, "Action Figure Customizing 101," 2005

Repeats of A Fistful of Soundtracks: The Series air Wednesdays at 10am and 3pm.

Nothing but net: Favorite basketball movie scores

Basketball fans are currently swept up in NBA Finals Fever, so it's the perfect time to look back at how film and TV composers have musically interpreted the game in three of the best basketball movie scores.

Hoosiers (Jerry Goldsmith)

I'm waiting for Superbad soundtrack musicians Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell, Clyde Stubblefield, John "Jab'o" Starks and Phelps "Catfish" Collins to reunite for that great funktastic basketball comedy score that hasn't been written yet. I doubt the funk legends will collaborate again for a movie score, but if this dream team did so for my dream basketball flick score, the result would probably end up going neck-and-neck with Jerry Goldsmith's beloved work from 1986's Hoosiers for the spot of greatest b'ball score.

Goldsmith preferred to approach period pieces like Hoosiers (known as Best Shot outside America), Chinatown and L.A. Confidential as if they were contemporary. On paper, a partially synthesized, anachronistic score for a movie set in the early '50s reads like an epic fail. Somehow, Goldsmith made it work. His musical vision of basketball-as-Americana, which combined a full orchestra with drum machines, doesn't sound dated.

(On the other hand, the completely synthesized "Theme from Hoosiers" concert arrangement that Goldsmith and his son Joel created specially for the soundtrack album is on the dated side. When I first heard that track several years ago, I thought it sounded like theme music for a huffing and puffing T.J. Hooker in an LCPD gym, attempting to block a shot with his beer gut.)

I always dug how Goldsmith's percussion, like in "The Coach Stays" and the Aaron Copland-esque "The Pivot," imitated the sound of a basketball being dribbled.

Goldsmith and Hoosiers director David Anspaugh later reteamed for Rudy, another rousing sports flick that turns grown men into teary-eyed Oprah's Favorite Things audience members. The Goldsmith/Anspaugh partnership produced two powerful and rich scores that even someone who's not a sports fan can appreciate.

Back to that unwritten funkdafied basketball flick score. If I composed it, it would probably sound like "Sportscaster," which Freaks and Geeks and Donnie Darko composer Michael Andrews (a.k.a. Elgin Park) wrote for his band, the Greyboy Allstars.

Cornbread, Earl and Me (Donald Byrd)

Below CBSSports.com's Movie Madness list of Top 10 Basketball Movies, a commenter says the early Laurence Fishburne movie Cornbread, Earl and Me belongs on the list simply because of the Blackbyrds theme song ("He's a man with the plan/He's got a basketball in his hand!").

Cornbread contains the only film score written by jazz-funk legend Donald Byrd. The Blaxploitation.com review of the Cornbread soundtrack says "it's not up to the standard of their early studio LPs," but I'll take the Byrd & the Blackbyrds sound any day over a James Horner interpretation of the drama both on and off the court.

Glory Road (Trevor Rabin featuring Alicia Keys)

The only Bruckheimer movie scores I've liked are from Beverly Hills Cop (Harold Faltermeyer), Bad Boys (Mark Mancina), Crimson Tide (Hans Zimmer), The Rock (the Media Ventures Mafia) and Remember the Titans (Trevor Rabin). The score from Bruckheimer's basketball flick about the first integrated NCAA team, the 1965-66 Texas Western Miners, which unites Titans' Rabin with Alicia Keys, isn't too shabby either.

The former Yes-man was no stranger to the sport. He wrote both the NBA on TNT theme and the Coach Carter score.



Other noteworthy basketball movie scores: Hoop Dreams (Ben Sidran), White Men Can't Jump (Bennie Wallace), Love & Basketball (Terence Blanchard), Coach Carter (Rabin), Inside Moves (John Barry), The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (Thom Bell) and Fast Break (David Shire and James Di Pasquale).

He Got Game doesn't count because other than a theme tune performed by Public Enemy, there's no original music during the movie. Spike Lee used Copland pieces for the score to reflect his Goldsmith-like vision of hoops-as-Americana.

(Is Theodore Shapiro's Semi-Pro score any good? I haven't watched Semi-Pro yet.)

On the small screen, inner-city high school basketball served as the backdrop for The White Shadow, which featured a theme from Rockford Files and A-Team composers Mike Post and Pete Carpenter at the height of their partnership.

No discussion of basketball-related original score music would be complete without the most famous tune of them all, "Roundball Rock," the now-retired NBA on NBC theme. Forget the Gatorade "Be Like Mike" jingle that's synonymous with Michael Jordan. "Roundball Rock" is the theme for His Airness. It was composed by New Age musician and frequent Late Night with Conan O'Brien punching bag John Tesh, who didn't have access to a piano at the time he wrote it, so he had to sing it into his own answering machine.

Related links:
Hoosiers score CD review and release history [Filmtracks]
"THE 'REEL' DREAM TEAM" [High Socks Legend]
"That Guy Salute: The Coach in Teen Wolf" [Intensities in Ten Suburbs]