New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Varese Sarabande is excited to release its next limited edition CD, 9/30/55 - Original Motion Picture
Soundtrack on
September 28. This Leonard Rosenman dramatic score is making its debut on CD as it was previously only available on LP and is limited to 1500 copies. 9/30/55 - Original Motion Picture
Soundtrack will be exclusively available from Varèse Sarabande:
https://www.varesesarabande.com/products/9-30-55.
The 9/30/55 vinyl was previously only available on LP from MCA Records, but has been out of print for over three decades bringing even more importance to this CD release. As many may know, Rosenman scored two of actor
James Dean's biggest films, East Of Eden and
Rebel Without A Cause both in 1955. Though those two soundtracks have never been officially released, Rosenman used the themes he had created for these films, some 22 years earlier, as the basis for his score to 9/30/55. Rosenman breathes new life into those classic themes with fresh orchestrations and the use of a few solo instruments like the harmonica, saxophone, and banjo to reflect the southern location (Conway, Arkansas) of where the film takes place.
Beautifully directed by
James Bridges (1936-1993), this intimate character drama starts with Jimmy J. (Richard Thomas) getting the news that his favorite actor,
James Dean has died in a car crash. Hysterical and moved to tears he calls his best friend Billie Jean Turner (Lisa Blount) to tell her the sad news. Jimmy and Billie call upon a few of their friends (Tom Hulce,
Dennis Quaid) to join them as they pay respect to the actor in their own way. After a few weeks of soul searching Jimmy J. comes to the realization he must go on his own
James Dean journey. He needs to know the people who knew
James Dean. He needs to talk with them to learn as much as he can from them about his idol. He must live where
James Dean lived. And so Jimmy J. is now "A New
Rebel In Search For A Cause."
Tracklist
1. Newscast,
September 30, 1955 (:40)
2. Main Title - Theme From "9-30-55" ("East Of Eden") Narration by Richard
Thomas (2:23)
3. On The Way To Criss Cross Meadow
A. Stolen Liquor And
State Police
B. In The Jailhouse Now - Sung by Webb Piercer (Jimmie Rodgers)
C. Prayer By The River (3:38)
4. Hasty Retreat From Criss Cross Meadow (2:12)
5.
James Dean And Eden Revisited (9:43)
6. Theme From "9-30-55" ("East Of Eden") (3:21)
7. The Ghoulish Syndrome
A. Assault On The Cemetery
B. Making Believe - Sung by Kitty Wells (Jimmy Work)
C. Tragedy Befalls Billie Jean (2:24)
8. Life Imitates Art
A. Jimmy J. Visits Billie Jean / Narration by Richard Thomas
B. Billie Jean's Disenchantment
C. Jimmy J. Smashes The Mirrors (9:21)
9. A New
Rebel In Search Of A Cause (End Title: "Rebel Without A Cause") (3:17)
Varèse Sarabande is excited to release its next limited edition CD, 9/30/55 - Original Motion Picture
Soundtrack on
September 28. 9/30/55 will be exclusively available from Varèse Sarabande: https://www.varesesarabande.com/products/9-30-55.
ABOUT LEONARD ROSENMAN (1924-2008)
Leonard Rosenman was a Brooklyn-born film and television soundtrack composer. After service in the Pacific with the Army Air Forces in World War II, Rosenman earned a bachelor's degree in music from the University of California, Berkeley. He also studied composition with Arnold Schoenberg,
Roger Sessions and Luigi Dallapiccola. He was a concert composer when his friend
James Dean introduced him to director Elia Kazan, who asked him to write the score for East of Eden (1955), thus beginning his film career. He then composed the scores for
Rebel Without a Cause (1955),
Hell Is For Heroes (1962), Fantastic
Voyage (1966) and A Man Called Horse (1970). He also wrote theme music and incidental music for such television series as The Twilight Zone (1959), Law of the Plainsman (1959-60), The Defenders (1961-65), Combat! (1962-1967), The Road West (1966-1967), Garrison's Gorillas (1967-68, starring Ron Harper), The Virginian (1967-69), Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969-1976) and Gibbsville (1976).
Rosenman composed the music soundtrack for the 1970 movie Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Originally, the score was to be composed by Jerry Goldsmith, as was the original Planet of the Apes (1968), but
Franklin J. Schaffner convinced the studio heads at Twentieth Century Fox to pull Goldsmith from the project in favor of having him score Shaffner's then current film project, Patton, and he was ultimately replaced by Rosenman.[1] After that break, Goldsmith returned for the third installment Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) and Tom Scott scored Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) before Rosenman was asked to compose the soundtrack for the final Apes movie,
Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973).
He went on to compose the scores for such films as The Lord of the Rings (1978), The Jazz Singer (1980), Cross Creek (1983), Star Trek IV: The
Voyage Home (1986) and RoboCop 2 (1990), and won two Academy Awards for 'Original Song Score and Adaptation' - Barry Lyndon (1975) and Bound for Glory (1976) - as well as nominations for 'Original
Music Score' in 1983 and 1986. He also received Emmy Awards for TV movies Sybil (1976) and Friendly Fire (1979), and reunited with a former Apes star on the documentary Charlton Heston Presents the Bible (1997). After suffering with a degenerative brain condition, Leonard Rosenman died of a heart attack at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.
