Best rejected scores

[mxsch 115]

I'm looking for the scores which were rejected and they are should be interesting to listen and good enough. Can you suggest something like that for me, please?

For Example, I really like rejected Silvestri score for first Mission Impossible over Elfman's one.

[DangerMotif 1,037]

 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, by Alex North.

 

TIMELINE, by Jerry Goldsmith.

 

WALL STREET/ALIEN NATION, by Jerry Goldsmith.

 

THE MAN WHO LOVED CAT DANCING, by Michel Legrand.

[Muad'Dib 1,801]

[Archive Collection 214]

Alex North's "2001"

Wendy Carlos' "The Shining" (only 2 cues were used in the film).

Bernard Herrmann's "Torn Curtain"

[karelm 2,903]

Jerry Goldsmith's Legend is a famous example.

[Marian Schedenig 8,177]

Just now, karelm said:

Jerry Goldsmith's Legend is a famous example.

 

I would argue Alien as well, since many of his initial compositions went unused, and most of what remained of them was seriously reduced in the film.

[WampaRat 1,105]

8 hours ago, Gibster said:

 

Man. That King Kong clip breaks my heart. Shore looks so proud of his work. Peter looks like he has one foot in the grave 😄 One day we’ll get to hear this. At least we got a killer JNH a score out of it.

[JoeinAR 1,949]

John's rejected Color Purple is divine.

[Edmilson 7,395]

North's 2001 and Yared's Troy.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

1 hour ago, Archive Collection said:

Alex North's "2001"

 

5 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

North's 2001

 

I thought everyone agreed that while it was very not cool how Kubrick treated North, it was absolutely the correct creative decision.  You guys actually think the movie would be better with North's music?

[Jay 37,319]

I think people are discussing music they like listening to on their albums, not movies that would have been improved with a different score

[JoeinAR 1,949]

Timeline has both a good score and a good rejected score

[Oomoog the Ecstatic 314]

12 minutes ago, Jay said:

I think people are discussing music they like listening to on their albums, not movies that would have been improved with a different score

 

How Troy could've been improved is up to anyone at this point...

 

(I actually really like the movie so I have no idea, it's just, if it ended up being popular then Yared would've gotten a lot more attention for his rejected score.)

[Stark 311]

Brian Tyler’s Age of Ultron was mostly replaced and unreleased and it’s one of my favorites of his works.

Federico Jusid’s 300: Rise of an Empire is better than Holkenborg’s (and I often like Holkenborg!)

David Shire’s Apocalypse Now is an excellent bizarre electronic work.

John Debney’s Remember the Titans is a fun sports score, though not as good as the Trevor Rabin replacement.

 

[Andy 4,089]

Thanks for the reminder that I need that Exorcist CD. I love Schifrin in his Amityville mode. 

[TheUlyssesian 2,473]

4 hours ago, Stark said:

Brian Tyler’s Age of Ultron was mostly replaced and unreleased and it’s one of my favorites of his works.

Federico Jusid’s 300: Rise of an Empire is better than Holkenborg’s (and I often like Holkenborg!)

David Shire’s Apocalypse Now is an excellent bizarre electronic work.

John Debney’s Remember the Titans is a fun sports score, though not as good as the Trevor Rabin replacement.

 

 

i didn’t know 300 2 had the score replaced. Where can I hear it?

[DangerMotif 1,037]

Do John Williams’ real sequel scores count?

[Archive Collection 214]

15 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

 

 

I thought everyone agreed that while it was very not cool how Kubrick treated North, it was absolutely the correct creative decision.  You guys actually think the movie would be better with North's music?

I prefer the film the way it is, but North's music is still one of the greatest rejected scores.

[Richard Penna 3,675]

To the original question, depends somewhat on whether you consider the rejected score purely as a concept, or related at all to the film.

 

The only 'rejected' scores that I can immediately recall that I have are Breakdown and An Unfinished Life. The former is a bit wrong for the specific tone Mostow went for ultimately in the film but musically it's a fine score.

 

The latter... I have no idea because I've never seen the film, but it's a beautiful concept album.

 

[Jim Ware 526]

A few of my favourites:

John Corigliano’s EDGE OF DARKNESS

Howard Shore’s RANSOM

George Fenton’s INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE

Georges Delerue’s SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES

[LSH 968]

41 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

An Unfinished Life.

 

... I have no idea because I've never seen the film, but it's a beautiful concept album.

 

 

I was going to mention this one but you beat me to it.

 

I do enjoy Young's rejected score and Deborah Lurie's replacement. They both pull from the same palette and are similar in tone but Young's has a plethora of melodies whereas Lurie's is somewhat repetitive and mono-thematic. I'd be interested in hearing the story behind the decision to replace it - I did read somewhere that the film sat on the shelf for a couple of years before release.

[Richard Penna 3,675]

According to Torn Music, the director and studio didn't agree on the tone the music should have (so Young was trying to straddle between two styles) and then as you suggest, the film was shelved, and when unshelved, they decided to change the score to try to improve the movie. Aparently Young offered to do it but they went with Lurie.

 

Hence it sounds like a case where it wasn't changed for any specific stylistic reason - they just realised the movie had problems and oen way to handle that is just to change something about the music.

[Drew 590]

On 28/09/2022 at 9:59 AM, WampaRat said:

Man. That King Kong clip breaks my heart. Shore looks so proud of his work. Peter looks like he has one foot in the grave 😄 One day we’ll get to hear this. At least we got a killer JNH a score out of it.

 

Only a third of it was recorded. Another third was composed and the other third was never composed.

[Omen II 1,235]

Battle of Britain is another film which had two great scores, the replacement by Ron Goodwin and the original by Sir William Walton whose Battle in the Air was the only piece to survive in the film as released.  I like to play both scores around this time of year (Battle of Britain Day in the UK is 15th September) as a tribute to those brave men from the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and its European allies (biggest shout to the Poles and the Czechs) who saved our country from Nazi invasion in that summer of 1940.

 

Walton's score is more overtly patriotic than Goodwin's but that is no bad thing.  The march at the end makes me want to fly a Hurricane at a Dornier and damn the consequences!

 

 

[artguy360 1,843]

I think I would have loved Shore's King Kong score. The score we got is good too, but Shore seemed inspired and the movie presents so many moments for great music. 

 

I think the old rumor online was that PJ felt the music was too similar to LOTR, but that wouldn't bother me none.

[Stark 311]

15 hours ago, artguy360 said:

I think I would have loved Shore's King Kong score. The score we got is good too, but Shore seemed inspired and the movie presents so many moments for great music. 

 

I think the old rumor online was that PJ felt the music was too similar to LOTR, but that wouldn't bother me none.

A lot of Shore’s music post-LOTR sounds like LOTR b-rolls, so I can see that.

[MedigoScan 324]

On 28/09/2022 at 5:27 PM, Oomoog the Ecstatic said:

 

How Troy could've been improved is up to anyone at this point...

 

(I actually really like the movie so I have no idea, it's just, if it ended up being popular then Yared would've gotten a lot more attention for his rejected score.)

 

Troy really had a good rejected score, yes. Though I would even take the Horner score over whatever nonsense they used for the directors cut.

 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,507]

On 02/10/2022 at 8:52 PM, Omen II said:

Battle of Britain is another film which had two great scores, the replacement by Ron Goodwin and the original by Sir William Walton whose Battle in the Air was the only piece to survive in the film as released.  I like to play both scores around this time of year (Battle of Britain Day in the UK is 15th September) as a tribute to those brave men from the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and its European allies (biggest shout to the Poles and the Czechs) who saved our country from Nazi invasion in that summer of 1940.

 

Walton's score is more overtly patriotic than Goodwin's but that is no bad thing.  The march at the end makes me want to fly a Hurricane at a Dornier and damn the consequences!

 

 

Both scores are available on the (1998?) Ryko disc.

[Marian Schedenig 8,177]

On 02/10/2022 at 9:52 PM, Omen II said:

Walton's score is more overtly patriotic than Goodwin's but that is no bad thing.  The march at the end makes me want to fly a Hurricane at a Dornier and damn the consequences!

 

Funnily enough, the standout "positive" theme in Goodwin's score to me is always the Nazi theme. Just listening to the music without any context, you could easily mistake it as the theme for the "good guys".