Let’s say it’s the 1970s, and you’re doing a movie about a plot to kill a lot of people at the Super Bowl – a movie that won’t wind up on MST3K. A disaster movie, a well-worn and dying breed at the time, one that requires a big, dramatic orchestral score. Who do you call? You’ve probably got one John Williams – the man best known at the time as the maestro behind Jaws – on speed dial. (This is really more of a figure of speech than anything – you probably call the switchboard operator downstairs from your posh office on the studio lot and have her call Williams for you, because speed dial hasn’t been invented yet. Damned inconvenient.) That seems to have been the case for Black Sunday, which has just been released by Film Score Monthly.
Black Sunday is an oddity in Williams’ repertoire – aside from diehard Williams fans, not a lot of people know it’s even there. The movie was released early in 1977 by Paramount, and as is well known by now, another movie hit theaters in May 1977 which all but erased Black Sunday from the public film-going consciousness, a movie that also had a John Williams score. As such, Black Sunday has the odd distinction of being the only post-Jaws Williams soundtrack that has never been released – not even on vinyl or any other medium – until now.
And it was definitely worth the wait: there’s little in the Black Sunday soundtrack that sounds dated; only one distinctively ’70s-style source cue and the end credit suite, played over a gentle, mid-tempo ’70s-style soft rock beat, give the game away (and in any case, the typically extensive Film Score Monthly liner notes reveal that this version wasn’t used in the final edit of the film; another mix, minus the pop elements, is presented here but also went unused). The vast majority of the music sits nicely between Jaws and Star Wars, with menacing, brooding themes for the building suspense, and Williams’ signature style of action music, though it takes on a more worried tone than his often 
celebratory style.
The Black Sunday soundtrack is a lost gem from the Williams repertoire, and fans of his music from this era won’t be let down – even if the music comes from a movie that isn’t usually mentioned in the same breath as Williams’ more, ahem, super efforts.
- Beirut (0:37)
- Commandos Arrive (1:14)
- Commandos Raid (5:30)
- It Was Good / Dahlia Arrives / The Unloading (3:12)
- Speed Boat Chase (1:51)
- The Telephone Man / The Captain Returns (2:13)
- Nurse Dahlia / Kabakov’s Card / The Hypodermic (3:30)
- Moshevsky’s Dead (1:56)
- The Test (1:56)
- Building The Bomb (1:53)
- Miami / Dahlia’s Call (2:26)
- The Last Night (1:28)
- Preparations (2:43)
- Passed (0:31)
- The Flight Check (1:50)
- Airborne / Bomb Passes Stadium (1:45)
- Farley’s Dead (1:33)
- The Blimp and the Bomb (3:12)
- The Take Off (1:43)
- Underway (0:39)
- Air Chase, Part 1 (1:12)
- Air Chase, Parts 2 & 3 – The Blimp Hits (7:19)
- The Explosion (2:36)
- The End (2:19)
- Hotel Lobby (source) (1:47)
- Fight Song #1 (0:50)
- Fight Song #2 (1:48)
- The End (Alternate) (2:17)
- The Explosion (Revised Ending) (2:11)
Released by: Film Score Monthly
Release date: 2010
Total running time: 64:01
