This film score anthology of the four motion pictures in which Connie Francis starred in the ’60s, includes the songs from three of the films where she shared credits with Paula Prentiss. Although the song “Where The Boys Are” is available elsewhere in other collections of Francis’ hits, this one contains the original version heard in the movie, with the opening and closing themes played by the M-G-M Orchestra conducted by Georgie Stoll. There are also four songs from Follow the Boys, including the title song that reached the 17 position in the Billboard charts; rock and jazz versions from the main theme from Looking for Love; and photos where Paula looks stunning.

“Bachelor in Paradise,” title song written by Henry Mancini and Mack David for the Jack Arnold film, opens and gives its name to a collection that illustrates the paradoxical “cocktail culture” developed from the ’30s by the “family studio,” Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Along an iconoclastic mixture of rumba, rock, jazz, bossa nova and other rhythms — performed by, among others, Ann-Margret, Mel Tormé, Liberace, Astrud Gilberto, and Les Baxter — it includes three tracks from the film, with Mancini directing the M-G-M Orchestra: the opening and closing credit themes; and a cover of “How About You,” written by Ralph Freed and Burton Lane for Babes On Broadway (1941). The model for the drawing of a lady in the cover of the Rhino collection is none other than Paula herself, in a scene from The Honeymoon Machine (its song, “Love Is Crazy,” may appear any day in one of these sets, as well as the theme from The Horizontal Lieutenant, sung by The Diamonds). A different version of “Bachelor in Paradise” was first released in one of Mancini’s albums, the recently re-issued in compact disc, Our Man in Hollywood, and it also appears in the compendia The Days of Wine and Roses and The Anthology of Henry Mancini.

The ’60s were decisive years in the development of the complex Jerry Goldsmith style for action films. His music for the western Rio Conchos is often cited as a landmark; but it is overlooked that in 1965 Goldsmith wrote the exceptional score for Otto Preminger’s film In Harm’s Way that includes themes of great dramatic force as “The Rock,” which defines the character played by John Wayne and, in a variation, becomes the movie’s “Battle Hymn”; “Attack” and “One-Way Ticket,” that underscore war scenes; lyrical compositions as “Love Theme from ‘In Harm’s Way’” and “The Rock and His Lady,” and an ominous composition, “First Victory,” that plays against the end credits. The film score was re-edited in Japan in the late ’70s. “The Rock,” “The Rock and His Lady,” “Love Theme,” and “First Victory” are featured in a suite in the compact disc True Grit: Music from the Classic Films of John Wayne.

Paula Prentiss and Henry Mancini worked together again. In this second opportunity — as it had happened before with Bachelor In Paradise — the producers did not release the full score from Man’s Favorite Sport? which includes themes for slapstick scenes and romantic interludes. A year after its release, in Dear Heart and Other Songs About Love (his first all-choral album), Mancini recorded the song with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. Since then, as in the album’s case, “Man’s Favorite Sport” has become a rarity. From all the re-editions, collections and homages paid to the composer, the song is only available in the Japanese 5-CD set Anthology of Henry Mancini.

In the mid-sixties, Burt Bacharach wrote hits for many artists. The inclusion of pop rock tunes in his film scores was a significant contribution, that makes him one of the precursors of the present day scores, comprised almost entirely by popular songs. With “What’s New Pussycat?” he not only wrote hits for Tom Jones and Dionne Warwick, who sang respectively the title song and “Here I Am,” but the album also reached the 14th position in the Billboard hit parade. This peculiar score, which blends irony and romanticism, rock and jazz rhythms with echoes of vaudeville music, was originally released in 1965 by United Artists Records. In 1998 it reappeared in an enhanced compact disc with photographs from the film, a reduction of its poster, and digitalized images (among them Peter O’Toole’s first therapy session with Peter Sellers). This deluxe edition also includes two versions of the song “My Little Red Book” by Manfred Mann, both the one heard in the film and the one recorded for the album. The track “Stripping Really Isn’t Sexy, Is It?” — inspired by Liz, a suicidal stripper and poetess played by Paula Prentiss — is also included in the Rhino anthology Cocktail Mix that intends to illustrate the “risqué and modern attitudes” from the ’60s in songs full of “chic sophistication” written by Francis Lai, John Barry, Ennio Morricone, Michel Legrand, Lalo Schifrin, Alex North, Nelson Riddle, Mancini and Bacharach.

---

Other Available Soundtracks

Leigh Harline — The Honeymoon Machine (Film Score Monthly FSM-1304); Henry Mancini — Bachelor in Paradise, complete score (Film Score Monthly FSM-0718); George Stoll — title song from The Horizontal Lieutenant, sung by The Diamonds (Mercury 71956); Elmer Bernstein — The World if Henry Orient (FIlm Score Monthly FSM-0416); Burt Bacharach — What’s New Pussycat? extended edition (Quartet QRSC-027); Giancarlo Chiartmello — Crazy Joe (Project 3 PR-5085); Michael Small — The Parallax View (Film Score Monthly FSM-1305); Patrick Doyle — Mrs. Winterbourne (Varèse Sarabande VSD-5720).