The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down vs. Merrily We Roll Along

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Only the important questions

 

Merry-Go-Round Broke Down

 

 

Merrily We Roll Along

 

[mstrox 6,651]

Merrily We Roll Along AINEC

[Jay 37,372]

Yea both are good but the second video is a little more fun than the first

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Well it is close for me, but I've always found Merry Go Round to have a more interesting melody, while acknowledging that Merrily is probably more "iconic".  Very similar to my feelings on Horner vs. Goldsmith Universal fanfare (see poll here), the Horner is the more interesting melody but the Goldsmith is obviously more iconic.

 

 

I also love this contemporary 30s pop recording of Merry Go Round.

 

 

 

And here's Merrily as originally written by Eddie Cantor (I'm not a fan of this in song form)

 

Comparing the cartoon arrangements to the originals also helps show how brilliant Carl Stalling was

[Jay 37,372]

Hmmm, when it comes to the Universal fanfare, is Goldsmith's really more iconic than Horner's?

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Well he did get twice as many votes in our poll.  And my unempirical intuition is that more people would recognize the Goldsmith.  It helps that the Goldsmith has been in use for 25 years and counting whereas the Horner only was used for like 6 years.

[Jay 37,372]

True

[Marian Schedenig 8,207]

19 minutes ago, Stu said:

whereas the Horner only was used for like 6 years.

 

Wow, really? There's also an age factor. Horner's fanfare is *the* "current" day studio fanfare/intro from my formative film watching years.

[Jay 37,372]

This video says it was used for 7 years, from BTTF3 until Goldsmith's took over with The Lost World

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Although in my memory there were a ton of Universal movies in the 90s that didn't use the Horner.  I feel like the Goldsmith has been more consistently used.

[mstrox 6,651]

My kid sings along with the Goldsmith but not the Horner.  That’s gotta be worth something!

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,433]

Despite the fact that I usually prefer Horner over Goldsmith, the Goldsmith fanfare sounds far more catchy

[Marian Schedenig 8,207]

1 hour ago, Jay said:

This video says it was used for 7 years, from BTTF3 until Goldsmith's took over with The Lost World

 

I think I was entirely unfamiliar with the first fanfare (the one by Jimmy McHugh). Though I probably have the Gerhardt recording, so I might have played it once. Sounds like Superman!

1 hour ago, mstrox said:

My kid sings along with the Goldsmith but not the Horner.  That’s gotta be worth something!

 

The Goldsmith (despite the streamlined later career orchestration) is more like the Golden Age Hollywood fanfares in style. I'd say the Horner is more "modern" in concept. I also find that it works much, *much* better with the fully animated logo (the Goldsmith works just as well with just a still image) - which may be the reason for Stu's observation that it was possibly used less often, because the animated logo lends itself very well to a more seamless integration with the film itself, so it was often accompanied by the beginning of the actual score, or sound effects for the film, or just silence.

 

I didn't know that there was a version of the regular Goldsmith fanfare that was conducted by Williams? (I still think the E.T. version is an abomination - as is the Tyler version)

[Andy 4,141]

 

 

 

Wow, I didn't know that either.  And for the Scorpion King?  I wonder what the circumstances were.  I actually like the E.T. one, as well as the Warner Bros. fanfare with the Superman ending.  They're kitschy, but cute.

23 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

I think I was entirely unfamiliar with the first fanfare (the one by Jimmy McHugh). Though I probably have the Gerhardt recording, so I might have played it once. Sounds like Superman!

 

 It sure does, doesn't it?  I love that one.  It's on quite a few Universal Monsters features, which is from where I know it.

[GerateWohl 4,371]

On 06/05/2022 at 3:55 PM, Jay said:

Hmmm, when it comes to the Universal fanfare, is Goldsmith's really more iconic than Horner's?

Look at their Star Trek efforts and their Alien works. Goldsmith is more catchy anyway. Horner might be a good composer, but I would dare to say, he didn't write more than one or two handful of really catchy melodies in his career. Usually, Horner's melodies escape me immediately or they remind me of something else (usually another Horner score).

[Marian Schedenig 8,207]

29 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

Usually, Horner's melodies escape me immediately or they remind me of something else (usually another Horner score).

 

The Universal logo music might be his most original composition.  (Now I'm waiting for somebody to dig out a semi-obscure Prokofiev piece with the exact same theme)

[GerateWohl 4,371]

I just realised, that the Horner fanfare reminds me quite a lot of Rose's Theme in The Rebellion is Reborn. Or better, the other way around.