Play ‘em Again, Sam

In the current furor over film preservation, the importance of also saving the original music recordings has nearly gone unnoticed. It’s one thing to see “The Wizard of Oz” or “Casablanca” in pristine glory--but just as necessary to hear “Over the Rainbow” or “As Time Goes By” in commensurate condition.

Fortunately, the retro clamor for film music on CD these days makes such a costly preservation economically viable, with the advent of the archival soundtrack genre.

Leading the way are Rhino Records and Turner Classic Movies with their prodigious Movie Music CD series, now in its second year and approaching 50 titles.

By meticulously preserving original recording elements for those cherished films in Ted Turner’s library (mostly MGM, but some surviving Warner Bros. and RKO gems, too), they’ve made it possible for the soundtracks to be enjoyed for the first time in their entirety--including rare deleted songs.

There’s something for everyone: musicals (“Oz,” “Singin’ in the Rain,” “An American in Paris,” “The Band Wagon”); melodramas (“The Bad and the Beautiful”); epics (“Gone With the Wind,” “Ben-Hur” and “Dr. Zhivago”); westerns (“How the West Was Won”), and collections (the mammoth “That’s Entertainment” box set).

“What we’re trying to do is re-create the same mix from disparate elements and make them sound better--but not different,” stresses George Feltenstein, producer of several Movie Music CDs, including the eagerly awaited “Casablanca” soundtrack (scheduled for October).

“We don’t want to rewrite history,” Feltenstein adds. “For instance, we have an outtake of Dooley Wilson doing a number called ‘Dat’s What Noah Done’ as a supplement, because we don’t know where it might have gone.”

The Movie Music series would not be possible, in fact, if MGM--unlike most studios--had not already taken the crucial step to preserve its film music heritage, transferring optical nitrate recordings to one-quarter-inch magnetic tape. About 90% of the recordings have survived, despite fire, flood and the ravages of time. (Engineer Doug Schwartz has been instrumental in delicately transferring what’s left to digital and analog tape.)

“People like to put Ted Turner down for his colorization,” Feltenstein continues, “but one of the best things he did when he bought the MGM library [in 1986] was to keep the people in place who knew where everything was.

“And the key guy was Scott Perry, who worked in the sound department since the early ‘50s. He made sure that not only the recordings were kept but that the paperwork was kept. One of the reasons why we’re able to do the soundtracks is because of the original reports like the detailed cue sheets.”

“Oz” being “Oz,” it’s not surprising that the soundtrack for the beloved musical is the standout success. Yet even this project was not without its creative difficulties because of inconsistent recording elements. As a result, the decision was made not to mix the soundtrack in stereo, according to Marilee Bradford, the album producer/preservationist who guided the series for its first year (but subsequently left to pursue other projects).

“MGM’s style of recording back then was called ‘angles,’ where mics are strategically placed and fed into a specific element and lined up to create the score,” Bradford explains. “You could conceivably make a stereo mix from this. However, ‘Oz’ would’ve posed a problem because not all of the score was recorded with ‘angles.’

“And we didn’t want to have a situation where we go back and forth from stereo to mono throughout the soundtrack,” she adds.

In the case of “Casablanca,” a first-ever complete soundtrack of Max Steiner’s legendary score was only possible, ironically, with the Time Warner acquisition of Turner.

“In ‘92, I spearheaded a marketing campaign for ‘Casablanca’s’ 50th anniversary reissue, but we couldn’t do the soundtrack then,” Feltenstein says. “Now, after the acquisition, suddenly an hour and 10 minutes of picture outtakes and 24 minutes of music were discovered. This is one of the few good things to come out of this corporate digestion.”

Nearly 70% of the soundtrack was transferred directly from Warners optical nitrate elements, offering a far superior sound than magnetic tape source, notes Brad ley Flanagan, who co-produces with Feltenstein.

“The discrete music from Warners is a terrific find because they did not keep a lot of their preliminary music elements on their pictures,” Flanagan adds. “We decided to add another 35 minutes of dialogue to tell the story of ‘Casablanca’ with music in 70 minutes, ending with Dooley’s complete version of ‘As Time Goes By.’ ”

It’s all part of a new strategy to reach a wider audience. In this regard, Rhino--known primarily for its kitschy collections--has returned lately to its strength, most notably with “Maracas, Marimbas and Mambos: Latin Classics at MGM,” and “Murder Is My Beat: Classic Film Noir Themes and Scenes,” as well as next month’s MGM compilations of popular songs from the ‘30s through the ‘60s.

“Murder Is My Beat,” though, has proven controversial among purists for its heavy reliance on dialogue. But album producer and popular music enthusiast Ian Whitcomb (who also did the adventurous Al Jolson collection) defends the concept.

“While the ‘Film Noir’ was fun and controversial because Turner originally didn’t want it . . . my achievement there was to integrate the music with the dialogue. I wanted to make the record one story. It’s not a substitute, but you have to try something new.”

One track from “Murder Is My Beat” considered anything but controversial by critics is the end title from “Force of Evil,” David Raksin’s modernist masterpiece.

“I selected and provided the end title because the main title is like a little too blowhard,” the 85-year-old composer explains. “The end title is better. It’s kind of odd--that whole cue is strange anyhow. It is a thing where you recapitulate all of the dramatic themes in the picture. The director, Abe Polonsky, once said, ‘That wasn’t a score, that was a concert.’ ”

A rare collection more enthusiastically embraced is “George and Ira Gershwin in Hollywood,” a labor of love for Michael Feinstein, who produced the “American in Paris” soundtrack as well. “This is archeology, this is an act of preservation,” he proclaims. “Finding the source material with a project like this is difficult. And when you find it, you only have one pass [to do the digital transfer], so it has to be done right.”

Preservation problems aside, marketing the series in an overcrowded retail arena remains the most difficult challenge. And Rhino/TCM now has two competitors: Fox, which returned from a four-year hiatus this month to launch a new archival soundtrack series with Varese Sarabande (beginning with “Planet of the Apes” and “Journey to the Center of the Earth”), and UA, which soon launches its own series with Ryko.

“The market is very specific,” Bradford stresses. “There are approximately 10,000 hard-core collectors. What’s going on is a distinctive break between classic score lovers--people who love [Erich Wolfgang] Korngold and Raksin and [Bernard] Herrmann--and musical score lovers--people who have an innate appreciation for a good song. They don’t cross the line.”

Even so, Turner and Rhino are doing their best to expand the film music market.

“We’re working very closely with Rhino at cross-promoting the series, but we’re a little hindered with no advertising on our network,” offers TCM senior vice president and general manager Tom Karsch. “But we’re doing more thematic programming with host Bob Osborne, and we’re increasing our exposure with third-party promos, contests and sweepstakes, and getting on various web sites.”

Thane Tierney, Rhino’s director of product management, adds that his company has just coordinated TCM screenings in the fall to coincide with the release of the “Casablanca” and “Zabriskie Point” soundtracks (the latter featuring the premiere of eight deleted songs by Pink Floyd and Jerry Garcia). Rhino has also gained valuable airplay on KGIL-AM’s new Broadway and Hollywood show tunes format.

“We try to take a complete view of things, with the distinctive packaging, high-fidelity sound, complete liner notes and bonus tracks,” Tierney suggests. “We want the listener to read along and see the cool pictures and be involved in the whole milieu, rather than having something on as background music.”