Los Angeles, CA (Top40 Charts/ Back Lot Music) It was announced today that Back Lot
Music will release the forthcoming Original Motion Picture
Soundtrack to A Million Ways to Die in the West, featuring a score by Joel McNeely and a new song written by McNeely & the film's director, producer, co-writer and co-star, Seth MacFarlane. Country music superstar Alan Jackson, who stands currently as one of the 10 best-selling artists across all genres since the inception of SoundScan, performs this title track from the film. The album will also feature "If You've Only Got a Mustache", based on a song by Stephen Foster with additional lyrics by MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild. The song "A Million Ways to Die" will be available digitally today, with the album release to follow on May 27 both physically and digitally. The film arrives in theaters on May 30.
MacFarlane plays the role of the cowardly sheep farmer Albert in A Million Ways to Die in the West. After Albert backs out of a gunfight, his fickle girlfriend leaves him for another man. When a mysterious and beautiful woman rides into town, she helps him find his courage and they begin to fall in love. But when her husband, a notorious outlaw, arrives seeking revenge, the farmer must put his newfound courage to the test.
Starring alongside MacFarlane are Oscar® winner Charlize Theron, Liam Neeson,
Amanda Seyfried,
Giovanni Ribisi,
Sarah Silverman and Neil Patrick Harris. MacFarlane reunites many of the filmmakers behind Universal and MRC's hit film Ted including Scott Stuber (Bluegrass Films) and Jason Clark who produce, and Wellesley Wild and Alec Sulkin who co-wrote the script.
McNeely is an Emmy® Award-winning composer and conductor with more than 100 motion picture and television credits. He maintains a busy schedule recording, producing, conducting and composing for film, television and concerts.
In addition to their work together on A Million Ways to Die in the West, McNeely recently produced and arranged MacFarlane's new Christmas album, which will be released this fall. He also produced and arranged MacFarlane's first album of big band and orchestral standards,
Music Is Better Than Words for Universal Republic Records, which received two Grammy nominations.
About McNeely's score MacFarlane said: "I was beyond elated upon first hearing the music that Joel McNeely had composed for A Million Ways to Die in the West. Here Joel brings us a classic, Elmer Bernstein-style Western score that presents itself as a key element in the overall tone of the movie."
In terms of the soundtrack album as a whole, MacFarlane said: "The music is expertly mixed by Rich Breen, the man with the unmatched ear who sculpted the sound of
Music Is Better Than Words, and of course our title song is sung by Alan Jackson, who, like Joel, plays it with unabashed honesty. I hope you enjoy Joel McNeely's great score as much as I do."
McNeely added: "Composing the music for A Million Ways to Die in the West has been a creatively rewarding experience for me. Seth MacFarlane is a director with all of the sensibilities and ideas of a trained composer, whose insights and ideas flow through the score. I was inspired to write an original score that harkens back to the glory days of the great Westerns, one that is big, bold and thematic. There is nothing I love doing more, and it's been a great thrill."
McNeely also has produced and arranged songs for such artists as Norah Jones, Sara Bareilles, Burt Bacharach, Chris Mann, Natasha Bedingfield, The All-American Rejects, The Goo Goo Dolls, Mika, Carly Simon, Crosby,
Stills & Nash,
Linda Ronstadt, Rosemary Clooney and Jonatha Brooke.
The addition of one of music's most successful and respected vocalists to perform on the film's title track was an obvious first choice for MacFarlane. Jackson is in the elite company of
Paul McCartney and
John Lennon among songwriters who've written more than 20 songs that they've recorded and taken to the top of the charts. Jackson has sold nearly 60 million albums worldwide, topped the country singles charts 35 times, and scored more than 50 Top-10 hits. He has written or co-written 24 of his 35 No. 1 hit singles, and his songwriting has earned him the prestigious ASCAP Founders Award and an induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame as a 2011 Songwriter/Artist inductee. Jackson is an 18-time ACM Award winner, a 16-time CMA Award recipient, a two-time Grammy-winning artist and a proud member of the Grand Ole Opry.
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