Tales from the Score Keeper: Who Were Those Masked Individuals?

Whoever they were, be they superheroes or bounty hunters…at least they’re wearing their masks. And they have theme music. Also: WarGames is back in print!

A warning up front, friends: this may be a more expensive visit from the Score Keeper than usual, but it’s all for a good reason.

Mondo Music is taking pre-orders for an 8-volume vinyl boxed set of every note of music from The Mandalorian, each episode/chapter getting its own LP with gorgeous original artwork by Paul Mann. All eight LPs (and their individual sleeves) fit into a slipcase embossed with the Mandalorian’s signet.

The music was made available digitally last year, with each episode’s score rolling out day-and-date with the episode itself, but Mondo’s box set is the first physical release of music from The Mandalorian. If your only vector of attraction to the show is Baby Yoda, there’s plenty of the everyone’s favorite little Force-user in the individual LPs’ cover art. If you’re looking for a physical release of all of the music from The Mandalorian, to coin a phrase, this is the way.

But wait, there’s more!

Elsewhere, the music for the just-finished first season of the DC Universe live-action series Stargirl is now available as a digital release. Somehow it failed to hit me, of the course of watching the show, that the music was by Pinar Toprak, who also composed to music for Captain Marvel on the big screen. It’s interesting to hear the same composers getting to play in both the DC and Marvel universes.

But there’s plenty of musical action in the DC universe from La-La Land Records. They just started taking orders for the soundtracks from Young Justice: Outsiders (taking up two discs) and the animated superhero event of 2020, Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans. (In the interests of full disclosure, your friendly local Score Keeper may be the only person over the age of 40 who genuinely loves Teen Titans Go! on its own merits, so there.) La-La Land is also having a DC soundtrack sale, with some heroic markdowns on soundtracks based on DC Comics, including some big discounts on La-La Land’s series of magnificent Batman: The Animated Series soundtracks.

La-La Land has also released the late James Horner’s complete score from 1995’s big-screen Casper movie, finally gathering all of the music recorded for the friendly ghost’s movie revival one disc one, and remastering the original album release (including Little Richard’s rendition of “Casper, The Friendly Ghost”) on disc two.

Intrada’s latest releases are the never-before-released Jerry Goldsmith score from the 1973 film The Don Is Dead, a mafia movie that sort of disappeared from the public consciousness between The Godfather and The Godfather Part II. We’re reaching a point where it’s genuinely difficult to find a Goldsmith score that hasn’t been released in any form, so this surprising release will probably be a must for Goldsmith completists.

Timed to coincide with the imminent release of Bill & Ted Face The Music, Intrada is also re-releasing a limited edition of David Newman’s score from Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Previously available as part of a box set that also included Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, this edition of 1,000 copies presents the first movie’s score by itself.

Quartet Records also has a much-requested reissue on tap – they’re offering a new pressing of the 35th anniversary WarGames soundtrack by popular demand, but it’s a very limited edition run – only 1,000 new copies worldwide. The first disc of the 2-CD set presents the complete score as mixed for the film, while the second disc presents the original soundtrack album in remastered form, complete with movie dialogue.

Quartet also has another vintage treat, John Addison’s music from the 1976 movie The Seven Per Cent Solution, an original Sherlock Holmes mystery (of sorts!) written by one Nicholas Meyer. Never before given a commercial pressing either on vinyl or CD, this album includes a Stephen Sondheim song composed especially for the film.

Dragon’s Domain Records has a trio of releases – a reissue of the extremely rare soundtrack from the 1990 PBS documentary Medal Of Honor, Craig Safan’s score from the late ’80s thriller Lady Beware, and volume one of The Peter Bernstein Collection. The son of legendary composer Elmer Bernstein (of Airplane! and Ghostbusters fame), Peter Bernstein’s scores from Megiddo: The Omega Code 2 and the 1994 syndicated TV pilot movie Island City are featured on this release.

As summer prepares to give way to fall, you can’t say that there’s nothing to listen to in the soundtrack aisle.