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People who collect movie soundtracks know that the true gold standard for any movie soundtrack recording is the original unmixed music. The recordings that exist before the sound effects are added in or before the movie dialogue is placed over it has always been an underappreciated entity. That is especially true when going back in time to films that are decades old. The original music masters to many film classics have long ago been processed, mixed and in many cases ...discarded. They didn't realize back then that the music buying public would actually like to listen to the music before all the production elements were superimposed on top. MGM first got that sense when they created their own record label. Their first MGM record album produced happened to be a movie soundtrack. Back in 1946 music for home entertainment existed only on 78 rpm records and so to accommodate that format, the unmixed musical numbers from the Jerome Kern biopic picture "Till the Clouds Roll By" were used, but truncated and edited down to fit it's 3 1/2 minute max running time. The 4 disc 8 sided 78rpm album was a huge success and MGM was off and running with the "Movie Soundtrack" concept.
Forward to today, many collectors started looking back in time to see if there was a way they could hear the long lost original unmixed songs and music ques from their favorite old films, especially since most of them never did get an official soundtrack album to begin with.
Some collectors and fans figured out that the way to hear these lost musical gems were through the original pressings of playback discs that the studios would use when filming a scene or production number. The actors would do the staged performances on camera while lip syncing to the "Playback" discs created at the recording studio on the movie lot. Later on these recordings would be mixed into the film seamlessly with sound effects, etc. These discs were never meant for public purchase and some were ultimately donated to the Library of Congress or UCLA. Still others fell into the hands of private collectors.
Enter Sepia Records. This reissue CD label got the wonderful idea of creating fabulous movie soundtrack albums as well as movie compilation soundtrack albums of certain movie stars using the pre-recordings originally pressed on studio playback discs. This, as well as commercial radio exploitation discs that were used back in the day as radio station promotions for movies often incorporating the original unmixed music tracks.
These sources are vital to experiencing once in a lifetime performances from Bing Crosby, Deanna Durbin, Betty Grable, Alice Faye, Carmen Miranda, Don Ameche, Tony Martin...the list goes on and on. The orchestrations are extraordinary as well as the sound quality. Not since George Feltenstein at Warner Archives delved into the original master recordings of the MGM movie library back in the '90's has any one company gone to such great lengths to remaster and produce original studio soundtrack recordings from the golden age of the Hollywood musical. Congratulations Sepia Records for the painstaking work that goes into restoring these discs and in so doing....keeping the movie musical alive. These old recordings are fresh and vibrant and sound like they were printed just yesterday. Keep up the good work.
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