Intrada Releases Hocus Pocus (John Debney)!

[indy4 155]

HOCUS POCUS
Music Composed and Conducted by JOHN DEBNEY
INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 254


The 1993 Disney film Hocus Pocus has become in the intervening years the quintessential Halloween film. The film opens with a young girl abducted by the town’s notorious sororal coven. The girl’s older brother, Thackery, is too late to stop the witches from absorbing her youthful life force. The angry townspeople corner and hang the Sandersons, but not before the witches turn Thackery into a black cat, cursed with immortality. 300 years later the town is still obsessed with Halloween and the Sandersons, but newcomer Max (Omri Katz)is unimpressed. On Halloween night he and his sister Dani (Thora Birch) link up with his new crush, Allison (Vinessa Shaw), and unwittingly unleash the Sandersons into the 20th century.

Composer James Horner was originally hired to score Hocus Pocus, writing “Garden of Magic” before production, since Sarah Jessica Parker needed to sing it on camera, but Horner couldn’t stay on to write the whole score. The sessions at Todd-AO studios were already booked, and composer John Debney had a mere two weeks to write the entire score before taking the podium. He conducted a 92-piece orchestra and a female choir during the first week of June 1993. The result is a colorful romp that soundtrack collectors have been seeking for 20 years. For the witches, Debney knew it had to be a triplet feeling..."I guess because I was influenced by Witches of Eastwick. I wanted it to be in a minor key, and I knew it would be fun to be a little Elfmanesque. ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ is in there too..." He also wrote a budding love theme for Max and Allison and a brother/sister theme.

For this release, Intrada was given access to the original 48-track digital scoring session elements vaulted at the Disney studios.

01. Main Title 1:29 Hear This Track
02. Garden Of Magic/Thackery Follows Emily 2:25
03. Witches' Lair 5:41
04. To The Stake 0:25
05. Death To The Witches 1:10
06. Meeting Allison 2:02 Hear This Track
07. Max Loses Shoes 0:35
08. Hallowe'en 1:10
09. Max And Dani 1:20
10. Divertimento #17 In D, K. 334 (Mozart) 3:42
11. To The Witches' House We Go 2:23
12. The Black Candle 2:22
13. Witches On A Rampage 4:24 Hear This Track
14. Graveyard Attack 3:54 Hear This Track
15. The Calming Circle 3:00
16. The Master 0:15
17. Fingers 1:08
18. Springing The Trap 4:37
19. Winnie's Lament 3:05
20. Witches Flight 3:15 Hear This Track
21. Sarah's Theme 2:08 Hear This Track
22. Max Fools The Witches 2:57
23. Winnie Catches Up 0:47
24. Billy Speaks 1:30
25. Witches Capture Dani 4:52 Hear This Track
26. Witches Demise/Resurrection 4:50 Hear This Track
27. End Credits 3:10 Hear This Track

The Extras
28. Witches' Lair Pt. 3 (Original Version) 0:29
29. Witches Take Dani (Alternate) 1:33
30. Winnie Catches Up (Alternate) 0:37
31. String Tremolo 0:19
32. End Credits (Alternate) 1:50

INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 254
Retail Price: $19.99
Available Now
For track listing and sound samples, please visit

http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.8274/.f

[Jay 37,352]

FYI There is a some controversy about this release on the Intrada and FSM forums because Intrada took Sarah Jessica Parker's vocals from the actual film and not any kind of clean master, which brought sound effects (crickets chirping) with it, and also looped part of it instead of including the whole performance.... and did not include the Bette Midler song at all.

Also, there is new material in a few tracks that were not part of the original recording sessions. GoodMusician was the first to notice and post about them, calling them "synth mockups" on Intrada's forum. Shortly after posting, Intrada deleted his entire forum account including all his posts.

Anyway the press release and liner notes mention none of these things.

EDIT: UPDATE 10/7: Roger has posted that it was Debney himself, playing the piano, that was the new material mixed into the old recording sessions.

The other thing that is sad is we had the orchestral backing to the vocal and Debney decided for this album to sit down at the piano and play the theme to be overdubbed. It's then inaccurately described as a synth mock up and essentially an abomination. We thought it was a really nice touch for him to get that involved in the project.

http://www.intrada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=66094#p66094

[Incanus 5,714]

There is a huge controversy about this release because Intrada took Sarah Jessica Parker's vocals from the actual film which brought sound effects with it, and they also created new synth mockups that they mixed into a few tracks, and didn't mention either of these things in their press releases, plus deleted the mesage board account of the user (GoodMusician) who pointed these facts out on their message board. Just FYI.

Yikes! Smells rather fishy to me.

[Wojo 2,453]

Good old free speech in the days of communism.

[Trent B 337]

That's pretty sad that they deleted his account just for speaking up about a release.

I know quite a few of us spoke up about Predator and then they fixed it and released it. Still that's pretty sad that Intrada did that if true for his account...

[Koray Savas 2,251]

There is a huge controversy about this release because Intrada took Sarah Jessica Parker's vocals from the actual film which brought sound effects with it, and they also created new synth mockups that they mixed into a few tracks, and didn't mention either of these things in their press releases, plus deleted the mesage board account of the user (GoodMusician) who pointed these facts out on their message board. Just FYI.

Let's all go over there and talk about it. They can't delete all of us!!

[Matt C 453]

There is a huge controversy about this release because Intrada took Sarah Jessica Parker's vocals from the actual film which brought sound effects with it, and they also created new synth mockups that they mixed into a few tracks, and didn't mention either of these things in their press releases, plus deleted the mesage board account of the user (GoodMusician) who pointed these facts out on their message board. Just FYI.

People there are definitely speaking up about the edits (and especially after GoodMusician got the boot). I just wish Fake and Feigelson would just be honest and say, "Due to damaged elements, we had to use the film stems of the vocal" on the soundtrack liner notes.

Honesty goes a long way... I'm still planning on getting the CD.

[Faleel 5,346]

they also created new synth mockups.

More Labels should do that IMO, but not mix them into tracks, and most definitely mention it in the press release! (etc.)

[Wojo 2,453]

I was planning on getting this CD, but not now.

[publicist 4,643]

Don't mention this at FSM or the resident label nazis will utterly and completely destroy you. Though i enjoy the sheer sight of this specatcle (see also: POLTERGEIST II), it's still a disgrace that makes me weary of purchasing certain CD's.

[Wojo 2,453]

Nah. That would only happen if I admitted to getting the promo instead of buying it. As it stands, it's just not a score I think I need to own.

[ZackR 95]

I don't begrudge Intrada for what they did.

I very much do though for not making it clear I as advance and only doing so when it was brought to light by customers.

[Jay 37,352]

According to Roger, there are NO synth mockups:

The other thing that is sad is we had the orchestral backing to the vocal and Debney decided for this album to sit down at the piano and play the theme to be overdubbed. It's then inaccurately described as a synth mock up and essentially an abomination. We thought it was a really nice touch for him to get that involved in the project.

http://www.intrada.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=66094#p66094

[ZackR 95]

Right and Debney's participation is cool. Intrada just handled it poorly by not making it known up front and also by deleting posts about it, etc.

They should take a cue from the LLL playbook in situations like this.

[Jay 37,352]

Walt Disney Records is selling a digital version of this album online now:

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZH7R1WS

https://music.apple.com/us/album/hocus-pocus-original-score/1558595299

https://open.spotify.com/album/35HW28UZvr9UghP8Ras6mu?si=gWlPga9UTaGZaGxW7-xzhw

https://us.7digital.com/artist/john-debney/release/hocus-pocus-original-score-15357882

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP9rdbpZ21Q&list=OLAK5uy_lWuBgdSbajGIEraiC7_DaeYb-m4PE9pYQ

 

The track titles may look the same, but the contents are different in some tracks, and the choir is mixed differently throughout.

 

Hopefully Intrada is planning on selling this new program on CD as well, especially since this 2013 edition has been OOP for years now

[mstrox 6,651]

Hot diggety!  Bought. I know some people are really into this score.  For those of you who compare both, which edition is preferred and why?

[Jay 37,352]

From everything I'm seeing, fans of this score prefer this new edition over the 2013 edition

[mstrox 6,651]

While I would obviously prefer that the small labels could do it themselves (for their financial sakes) I’m really pleased that Disney is leveraging their digital rights on these releases.  It’s a great way to make this music available to everyone who may want it, especially when the CDs go out of print.  I wish more rightsholders would use digital distribution for their lovingly restored catalog releases.

[Jay 37,352]

I agree with mstrox 100%

[crumbs 14,308]

Interesting! Wasn't there some controversy about the original release using film stems for certain tracks, complete with SFX?

 

Has that been resolved here?

[Joe Brausam 214]

Hm.  Interestingly "Sarah's Theme" in this new edition is completely missing the vocal part.  It's completely made up of the orchestra accompaniment.  I like having this as an alternate but it shouldn't be completely missing the vocal on the album.

 

"Garden of Magic" is also missing the Sarah's theme piano overlay.

 

The only time that theme - by Horner - appears is when it is completely integrated with the orchestra rather than overlaid.  I think there must be a rights issue at work here?  I can't imaging preferring this version with that theme missing from it.

 

[Jay 37,352]

I'd love to read a track-by-track list of differences if anybody wants to make one

[crumbs 14,308]

I recall Debney got personally involved in the previous release and requested changes to what Intrada were originally planning (and you can't exactly ignore the composer's wishes).

 

It's weird that so many tracks have changes on this reissue, unless the expansion was assembled and mixed from scratch. Why would Disney go to that much trouble for a relatively obscure score expansion?

 

I wonder if this is actually the proto-Intrada release, before Debney got involved and changes were made?

[Jay 37,352]

10 minutes ago, crumbs said:

I wonder if this is actually the proto-Intrada release, before Debney got involved and changes were made?

 

Could be!

[Thor 7,495]

This is another one of those I remember that went for silly money back in the 90s and early 2000s (promo/limited edition/whatever). I obviously couldn't afford it, but curious to know what the big deal was, I secured a CD-R from someone overseas. Well, it's fine - kind of a cross between Elfman and Williams - but also a bit overwrought, so I ended up either giving the CD-R away, or chucking it in the trash.

[Jurassic Shark 12,067]

4 hours ago, crumbs said:

I recall Debney got personally involved in the previous release and requested changes to what Intrada were originally planning (and you can't exactly ignore the composer's wishes).

 

Say you didn't get the email.

[WampaRat 1,105]

I vividly remember hearing the opening titles as a 5 year old when my Dad took us to see this in theaters and thinking it sounded like “a Batman theme song”  Good times. This, Cutthroat Island, and Junglebook I think are Grade:A Debney.