DJJD Volume 16

Created By:  Jonathan Dysart (DJJD)

Original Creation Year:  2006

Year of Re-master:  2010

Song Listing

Side A

1.    Start the Commotion:  The Wiseguys  [Movie:  Zoolander]

2.    The Batman Theme:  The Marketts  [TV Series]

3.    Wipeout:  The Surfaris  [Instrumental]

4.    Green Onions:  Booker T. & the MG’s  [Instrumental]

5.    The Pink Panther Theme:  Henry Mancini  [Movie]

6.    The Rockford Files:  Mike Post  [TV Series]

Side B

7.    Monty Python's Flying Circus: John Sousa  [TV Series]

8.    The Third Man Theme:  The Band  [Movie]  

[Bonus:  Original version by Anton Karas]
[Bonus:  The Third Man Theme by the Beatles]

9.    The St. Louis Rag:  Ralph Press  [Instrumental]

10. Remains of the Day (Combo Lounge Version):  Danny Elfman  [Movie]

11. Glad:  Traffic  [Instrumental]

Side C

12. Chariots of Fire:  Vangelis  [Movie]

13. The X-Files Theme:  Mark Snow  [TV Series]

14. Edward Scissorhands:  Main Title / Ice Dance:  Danny Elfman  [Movie]

15. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Jody Talbot  [Movie]

Side D

16. Wild Signals:  John Williams  [Movie:  Close Encounters of the Third Kind]

17. Also Sprach Zarathustra:  Deodato 
     [Movie:  2001:  A Space Odyssey (Jazz version)]

18. The Incredible Hulk:  Joe Harnell  [TV Series]

19. Boléro:  Isao Tomita  [Electronic arrangement of Ravel's classic] 

  

Origin of the Album

              I was about to finish up the first version of DJJD Volume 15.  I could not figure out a good ending to this album.  I had "In My Life" by Johnny Cash as the last number, but it did not feel right to me.  It wasn't until I discovered the instrumental "Music Box Dancer" by Frank Mills in the Instrumental section of the iTunes Music Store that I finally found my last song.  From there, I discovered the idea for my next album – instrumentals.

Concept and Theme of the Album

              I started remembering all of those soundtrack vinyl records that Mom and Dad, and even I, had when I was young.  My parents had the soundtrack albums for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, A Few Dollars More, Goldfinger, Superman 2, etc.  Those were awesome!

            Then I remember Dad’s big vinyl collection of The Ventures, an instrumental band who were known for their surfing music (like “Walk Don’t Run”).  The one Ventures album I remember in particular is the movie theme album, where The Ventures did the Batman Theme, Green Hornet, Get Smart and others.

  

           After that, I remembered my own soundtrack vinyl album that my parents bought me that contained all of these great Sci-Fi themes:  Star Wars, Star Trek, Superman, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Six Million Dollar Man, and others.  It also included a cover of Elton John's "Rocket Man".

  

              I thought to myself, why can I make an album similar to that?  I’ll combine some elements of the Ventures style, along with other TV / Movie soundtracks and other famous instrumentals in the first half of the album.  And in the second half of the album will be entirely Sci-Fi (well not entirely), given the inspiration from my Sci-Fi “Wonderland” soundtrack album.  Well, finally a great idea, after faltering for good ideas for months.

Concept and the Album Cover

              My father had an album that contained a collection of famous “Henry Mancini” compositions, done for both movies and TV:  “Big Screen / Little Screen” by Henry Mancini:  His Orchestra & Chorus. 

            Henry Mancini, if you did not know, is famous for his “Pink Panther Theme”, but he also did the TV themes of the “Tonight Show with Johnny Carson”, the NBC Mystery Movie Theme (which was the introduction to many shows for the week, like Columbo, Quincy, M.E., McCloud, McMillan & Wife),  and All in the Family.

           

        On the front album cover, you would see a left column of Mancini’s movie theme placed with film frames.  On the right, you would see his TV themes placed on TV screens.  That album cover gave me the impetus to create my album cover.  I would place a picture of the TV show on a TV screen and a movie scene in a film frame. 

          For the TV themes, I did Batman, Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Rockford Files, The X-Files, and The Incredible Hulk. 

            For the movie themes, I did Zoolander, 2001:  A Space Odyssey, The Third Man, Chariots of Fire, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Corpse Bride, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Edward Scissorhands, and The Pink Panther.

            When I was going to do the remastering of this album, my mother got totally involved in redoing the album cover.  After explaining to her my inspiration of the album, she understood that but thought that the album was too “crowded” and needed space. She said, “Go minimal”.  Going through the internet, she selected the background to use for the front album cover.  I added the album title and the film reel to indicate in some way that this is a soundtrack album.  She also chose the background for the back album cover.  I used some of the TV screens/movie frames, but remastered (or use new) the pictures within those frames.  I did not use all of them since I needed room to put in the album title and its song listings.  I see her perspective that the album was a bit too crowded visually.

            I would eventually recreate this style in some ways with DJJD Retro 80’s Volume 3 for the 1980’s movie themes, using movie posters instead of screenshots.

            This album is dedicated to both Mom and Dad in the shaping of my tastes in Television shows and movies.  I should have done this a long time ago.