Top 10 Movie 7” Singles
A Top 10 of movie 7” singles taking in: Irish pressings, Czechoslovakian New Wave cinema, film noir, folk horror, a flea market in Brussels, Venice’s side streets, Doris Day, Sly Stone, Brian Wilson and “the worst song ever written”.
Here’s a Top 10 list of Movie 7” singles and a special mentions. Some are official movie tie-in singles and others are releases that celebrate particular films. This collection of 7” singles also represents some of my own favourite films.
Special Mention 1:
The Magnificent Seven
‘The Magnificent Seven’
Al Caiola and His Orchestra
(7”, London, 1961)
“The graveyards are full of boys who were very young and very proud.”
Chris Adams (Yul Brynner)
Al Caiola, the American guitarist, worked with many legendary artists including, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra. He also had a number of huge worldwide hit singles with his interpretations of iconic movie themes.
The Magnificent Seven was released in cinemas in 1960 and the following year Caiola’s version of Elmer Bernstein’s theme reached No. 34 in the UK Singles Chart and No. 35 in the US.
My copy of Caiola’s ‘The Magnificent Seven’ has “MADE IN EIRE” on the label identifying it as an Irish pressing. At the time Irish record companies often pressed records for their UK counterparts to meet demand in Britain. I’ve no idea where this 7” came from, it was just always in our house when I was a kid. I suspect that it may have been my Uncle’s. My version came in a plain paper sleeve but the American United Artists version had a great still from the movie on its picture sleeve.
Special Mention 2:
Fiddler on the Roof
‘If I Were a Rich Man’
Topol
(7”, United Artists, 1971)
“Traditions, traditions. Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as a fiddler on the roof.”
Tevye (Topol)
Picked up from a box of 7”s on a Sunday morning in Brussels at Place du Jeu de Balle back in 2010. This was 50c, I couldn’t leave it behind. The huge flea market in the square, known as “old market”, has been going since 1873.
A suitcase of old glasses, Place du Jeu de Balle, Brussels, August 2010. Photograph by Paul McDermott.
10. The Lost Boys
‘People are Strange’
Echo & the Bunnymen
(7”, WEA, 1988)
“Initiation’s over, Michael. Time to join the club!”
David (Kiefer Sutherland)
I could play it cool and write that the first Bunnymen record I ever bought was Ocean Rain but I’d be lying. It was in fact their version of The Doors’ ‘People Are Strange’.
Recorded for the soundtrack of The Lost Boys ‘People Are Strange’ was produced by none other than The Doors’ Ray Manzarek. “Ray was brilliant, he had a real laid back LA hippy vibe, he also played live with us a couple of times,” said Bunnymen guitarist Will Sergeant of recording with the Doors’ legend. Manzarek also plays organ on the track. The B-Side has a Bunnymen live version of the Velvets’ ‘Run Run Run’. Manzarek also contributed his distinctive organ sound to the rerecorded version of ‘Bedbugs and Ballyhoo’ that appears on the band’s eponymous album.
The Lost Boys was released in 1987 and ‘People Are Strange’ was released in 1988 reaching No. 21 in the Irish Singles Chart. The single was reissued in 1991 - presumably to cash in on Oliver Stone’s The Doors film - and reached No. 13 in the Irish Singles Chart.
9. Wild at Heart
‘Wicked Game’
Chris Isaak
(7”, London, 1990)
“This is a snakeskin jacket, and for me it’s a symbol of my individuality, and my belief... in personal freedom.”
Sailor (Nicolas Cage)
My copy of ‘Wicked Game’ was picked up years ago for 50p. I love that it has the word “slow” written on the sleeve - presumably a DJ’s way of identifying it as a slow set tune. Respect. Angelo Badalamenti’s ‘Cool Cat Walk’ is on the B-Side.
I first saw Wild at Heart at a late screening on the night it opened in Cork back in 1990, one of most visceral cinematic moments I’ve ever experienced.
8. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
‘Valérie A Týden Divů’
Luboš Fišer
(7”, Finders Keepers, 2020)
“Is all this but a dream?”
Valerie (Jaroslava Schallerová)
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the release of their soundtrack to Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Finders Keepers put out this EP for Record Store Day 2017 of more music from Jaromil Jireš’s 1970 Czechoslovak Gothic coming-of-age surrealistic, new wave, dark fantasy film. The EP features unreleased variations, vocal tracks and resurrected themes from the original master tapes of composer Luboš Fišer.
If I ever get around to compiling a Finders Keepers Top 10 then the Valerie and Her Week of Wonders soundtrack will definitely make an appearance.
7. The Godfather
‘Speak Slowly, Love’ / ‘The Godfather Waltz’
Nino Rota
performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra
(7”, Silva Screen, 2020)
“Some day, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, consider this justice a gift on my daughter’s wedding day.”
Don Corleone (Marlon Brando)
A 2020 Record Store Day 7” release from Silva Screen Records. This is the first of four 7” singles on this list from the London-based independent record company, one of the world’s leading film and television soundtrack specialists.
On this 7” The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra perform two of Rota’s themes from The Godfather - ‘Speak Slowly, Love’ and ‘The Godfather Waltz’ - pressed on white vinyl and housed in a gorgeous sleeve. Silva Screen do an amazing job with these limited Record Store Day releases.
6. Citizen Kane
‘Citizen Kane Overture’
Bernard Herrmann
performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra
(7”, Silva Screen, 2021)
“You’re right, I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars next year. You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I’ll have to close this place in... sixty years.”
Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles)
The attention to detail of this Record Store Day 2021 release from Silva Screen is unsurpassed. The A-Side has Herrmann’s ‘Citizen Kane Overture’ as performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and a custom label of Kane’s snow globe.
The word “Rosebud” is etched into the B-Side and both the inner and outer sleeve recreate headlines from Kane’s New York Inquirer newspaper.
5. Get Carter
‘Carter’ / ‘Plaything’
Roy Budd
(7”, Castle/Sanctuary, 2005)
“You’re a big man, but you’re in bad shape. With me it’s a full time job. Now behave yourself.”
Jack Carter (Michael Caine)
Unfortunately not the original 1971 7” on PYE Records but a 2005 reproduction on Castle/Sanctuary. Sanctuary first released Budd’s Get Carter soundtrack on CD in 1998 and again in variant sleeves in 2000 and 2002.
I heard The Human League’s cover version of the theme from Get Carter years before I ever saw Mike Hodges’ 1971 gangster film. Years later Stereolab recorded a version of Budd’s theme for Aluminum Tunes (Switched On, Volume 3).
4. Don’t Look Now
‘I Colori Di Dicembre (Laura’s Theme)’ / ‘John’s Theme (Love Scene)’
Pino Donaggio
(7”, Silva Screen, 2017)
“Listen, I’ve been trying very hard to hang on to myself and to forget about what happened and to get rid of this emptiness that’s been with me like some pain.”
Laura Baxter (Julie Christie)
A 2017 Record Store Day 7” from Silva Screen featuring two of Donaggio’s themes from Nicholas Roeg’s masterful adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s short story.
‘I Colori Di Dicembre (Laura’s Theme)’ is backed by ‘John’s Theme (Love Scene)’ in a beautiful sleeve with a still of Julie Christie from the movie. In 2017 Silva Screen also released Donaggio’s full score with the hooded red-coated figure embossed on a gatefold black sleeve.
Once walking around Venice we turned a corner and suddenly spotted an old woman in red at the end of a little narrow side street. We looked at each other, I took a quick blurry snap, we turned around and retraced out steps. If you’ve seen Roeg’s masterpiece, you’ll understand why we were completely freaked out.
3. The Wicker Man
‘Willow’s Song’ / ‘Gently Johnny’
Paul Giovanni and Magnet
(7”, Silva Screen, 2012)
“Come. It is time to keep your appointment with the Wicker Man.”
Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee)
In a limited run of 500 copies in gorgeous yellow vinyl we’re treated to two of Paul Giovanni’s songs performed by Magnet taken from the soundtrack to The Wicker Man. The two tracks - ‘Willow’s Song’ and ‘Gently Johnny’ are taken from Silva Screen The Wicker Man (the original soundtrack album).
This 7” made No. 1 in my Record Store Day: A Top 10 list.
In the UK The Wicker Man was screened as the “B-picture” on a double bill with Don’t Look Now. Two of my favourite films on a double bill - surely the greatest double bill ever.
An instrumental version of ‘Willow’s Song’ titled ‘Willow’s Theme’ can be found on Willow’s Songs (Finders Keepers, 2009). This collection of traditional British Folk songs is described as, “12 vintage recordings of traditional folk songs that inspired the soundtrack to the greatest British horror movie of our generation!”
When I do compile a Finders Keepers Top 10, Willow’s Songs will make my list.
2. Once Upon a Time in the West
‘Once Upon a Time in the West’ / ‘Man with a Harmonica’
Ennio Morricone
(7”, RCA/Victor Records, 1969)
“The future don’t matter to us. Nothing matters now - not the land, not the money, not the woman. I came here to see you, ‘cause I know that now you’ll tell me what you’re after.”
Frank (Henry Fonda)
A French mono pressing of two Morricone tunes from Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West, the title theme is backed with ‘Man With a Harmonica’.
The sleeve features a still from the movie. Frank, played by Henry Fonda - in one of cinema’s most famous cases of casting against type - and his gang in their trademark dusters approaching the ranch house of Brett McBain and his children.
‘Dub Be Good To Me’ by Beats International samples Morricone’s ‘Man with a Harmonica’ (as well as ‘The Guns of Brixton’ by the Clash and ‘Jam Hot’ by Johnny Dynell).
1. Sweet Smell of Success
Jazz Themes from the Motion Picture
Chico Hamilton Quintet
(2x7”, Vogue Records, 1957 & Brunswick Records, 1958)
“Harvey, I often wish I were deaf and wore a hearing aid. With a simple flick of a switch, I could shut out the greedy murmur of little men.”
J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster)
At No. 1 are two 7” singles containing music from one of my favourite films: Alexander Mackendrick’s Sweet Smell of Success.
The 1957 film concerns J.J. Hunsecker, played by Burt Lancaster, the most powerful of the New York columnists, whose columns can make or break a career and Sidney Falco, played by Tony Curtis, a press agent who supports himself largely by getting items into Hunsecker’s column. The film was seen as a thinly-veiled attack on Walter Winchell, who for decades had been the most famous and reviled gossip columnist in America.
Elmer Bernstein wrote the score that incorporates the beguiling jazz of the Chico Hamilton Quintet (who play live in several night club scenes). The Chico Hamilton Quintet were one of the last really important West Coast jazz bands and were really popular at the time of filming. Martin Milner plays Steve Dallas, the jazz guitarist and leader of the band who is dating Hunsecker’s sister.
Bernstein’s orchestral score (pictured above) was released by Decca and the jazz tunes of The Chico Hamilton Quintet were released as standalone 7” singles.
“These are the sounds of a small section of New York. The section lies between Columbus Circle and Times Square. This is the world of Sardi’s, Toots Shor and the Twenty One, Lindy’s, Reuben’s and the Stage Delicatessen. This is the world in which adolescent dreams of success in bright lights must be implemented in work, endless interviews in producers offices and the quick wit of the press agent and columnist. In this tiny empire lives are made and destroyed by the public, critics and columnists... This then is the world. The music reflects the tempo, anguish and frustration in a contemporary, popular idiom. Therefore we find one of our central characters, Sidney Falco, characterized by the kind of musical sound that could be coming from any of the many night spots such people frequent”
Elmer Bernstein, 1957.
Chico Hamilton spoke to Bill Mackowski of Jazz Times in 2001 about filming the movie and working with Mackendrick: “He was a helluva director but the lines that I had to deliver were just not right. For instance, at one point I was supposed to say about Marty Milner’s girlfriend, ‘Throw a rope around her and keep her here while I go get him.’ And I told the director, ‘Man, musicians don’t talk like that! As far as I’m concerned, it’s dumb.’ And he said, ‘Well, what would you say?’ So I told him, ‘Well, I’d probably say something like, ‘Cool this chick here while I go get him.’ And he said, ‘Good, good, we’ll use that.’”
Both soundtracks were eventually reissued on one CD by él Records in 2008.
Unfortunately Sweet Smell of Success proved to be the undoing of Mackendrick. He fought bitterly with Lancaster and the other producers in post-production over the ending of the film. Upon its release the film was received with mixed reviews from critics. Audiences who had the year before been thrilled by the high-flying acrobats of Lancaster and Curtis in Trapeze, were left struggling to pick a hero from two evil manipulative characters.
When the film was screened by a North California audience, one viewer wrote on her preview card: “Don’t touch a foot of this film. Just burn the whole thing.”
The film flopped.
Mackendrick was hired to direct the next Hecht-Hill-Lancaster production, The Devil’s Disciple, but was fired a few weeks into the shoot. He made a few more films and eventually took a job as head of the film programme at the California Institute of the Arts.
Sweet Smell of Success is now rightly regarded as one of the great late period Noirs.
It’s a masterpiece.
Addendum
Special Mention 3:
The Man Who Knew Too Much
‘Qué Será Será’
Doris Day
(7”, Philips, 1956)
“Que será, será, Whatever will be will be, The future’s not ours to see, Que será, será.”
Jo McKenna (Doris Day)
The Sweet Smell of Success soundtracks are some of the oldest records in my collection, but not the oldest.
That accolade goes to another Movie 7”: ‘Qué Será Será’ by Doris Day taken from Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much. I picked up this French pressing years ago at the same market in Brussels where I found the Topol 7” mentioned earlier.
The Man Who Knew Too Much was Hitchcock’s remake of his 1934 film of the same name. “Let’s say the first version is the work of a talented amateur and the second was made by a professional,” was Hitchcock’s great response when François Truffaut’s told him that aspects of remake were by far superior to the original.
Paramount requested that the film should contain a song and songwriters Jay Livingston and Ray Evans presented Hitchcock with ‘Qué Será Será’. The song was not only included in the film but became an integral plot point in the storyline.
‘Qué Será Será’ spent six weeks at No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart and went on to win the Oscar for “Best Original Song” at the 1956 Academy Awards. It was the third “Best Original Song” Oscar for Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. Their song ‘Buttons and Bows’ from The Paleface starring Bob Hope and Jane Russell won in 1948. ‘Mona Lisa’ their song from the film noir Captain Carey, U.S.A., starring Alan Ladd, won in 1950.
In 1969 Mary Hopkin released a version ‘Qué Será Será’ produced by Paul McCartney and a few years later Sly Stone covered it on his Family Stone 1973 album, Flesh, the follow-up to There’s a Riot Goin’ On. In his review of Flesh for Julian Cope’s Head Heritage Dog 3000 described the cover version as, “classy and soulful a makeover as could be hoped for.”
‘Qué Será Será’ was introduced to Sly by Terry Melcher, Day’s son. Melcher produced the Byrds’ first two albums: Mr. Tambourine Man and Turn! Turn! Turn! He returned to work with the band in the late 60s producing their albums: Ballad of Easy Rider, (Untitled) and Byrdmaniax. In 1963 he co-wrote and produced the hit single ‘Move Over Darling’ for his mother, the title song from the comedy she starred in alongside James Garner. He also had a long production relationship with Paul Revere & The Raiders.
“‘Qué Será Será’ was a gift to Doris Day, Terry Melcher’s mother,” wrote Sly in Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin): A Memoir, his 2023 autobiography (written with Ben Greenman).
“For years people spread rumors that I dated her. I would never have done a thing like that. She was a nice lady, polite to me whenever I saw her, and a good singer,” continued Sly.
“Terry played her original version for me one day, and right away I could hear how it could sound. It was like the covers we did back at Winchester Cathedral. Take something old, make it new. We made it new. We slowed it down. We thickened it up. We stayed loose. Rose messed up in the second verse. So what? An error is only something you do that others don’t. I have no idea what Doris thought about it. I never played it for her.”
RIP Sly.
Special Mention 4:
Cocktail
‘Kokomo’
The Beach Boys
(7”, Elektra, 1988)
“Jesus, everything ends badly, otherwise it wouldn’t end.”
Brian Flanagan (Tom Cruise)
And we end with a perfect link between Special Mentions 3 and 4, ‘Qué Será Será’ and The Beach Boys’ last hit single.
Some might describe this as a “guilty pleasure”.
I don’t do guilty pleasures. I don’t feel guilt for loving songs others consider terrible.
And loads of people consider ‘Kokomo’ terrible. Some even consider it one of the worst songs ever written.
The Daily Telegraph called ‘Kokomo’, “The Beach Boys’ most detested song”. Stereogum once described it as, “a monument to mediocrity… it serves as a textbook cautionary tale of a once-beloved group poisoning its own legacy and goodwill.” Blender included it in their list of “50 Worst Songs Ever” describing ‘Kokomo’ as, “a gloopy mess of faux-Carribean musical stylings.” Far Out Magazine wrote, “the yacht rock atrocity of ‘Kokomo’ abandons any of The Beach Boys’ stirring melodies and affecting arrangements for an excruciatingly tepid mulch of cod-calypso soft pop.”
Had any of these writers actually listened to 1976’s 15 Big Ones?
The Beach Boys are one of my favourite bands. They’re without doubt my favourite “B” band: The Byrds and The Beatles battle it out for the second place in that fight. Pet Sounds, Surf’s Up, Sunflower and Wild Honey are some of my favourite albums and seeing the band at Wembley Arena in 2012 on the last night of their 50th Anniversary Reunion Tour was one of the greatest gigs I’ve ever witnessed, but I’m not ashamed to admit that ‘Kokomo’ was the first record by the band that I bought.
‘Kokomo’ was co-written and produced by Terry Melcher.
Melcher’s links to The Beach Boys went all the way back to the early 60s. He performed with Bruce Johnston as Bruce & Terry and later as The Rip Chords. It was Melcher’s former residence at 10050 Cielo Drive that Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate were renting when they were murdered by Manson’s Family. Melcher wouldn’t give Manson a record deal and it has long been thought that Manson’s Family were looking for Melcher on that fateful night.
Melcher’s co-writers on ‘Kokomo’ were John Phillips, Scott McKenzie and Mike Love. ‘Kokomo’ went to No. 1 in the US Singles Chart, the band’s first No. 1 since ‘Good Vibrations’ 22 years earlier.
Brian Wilson doesn’t feature on the record. In Fifty Sides of The Beach Boys Mike Love tells Mark Dillon that Brian’s absence from the ‘Kokomo’ recording session was down to Eugene Landy:
“Dr. Landy wouldn’t let Brian sing on it unless Landy was a producer and a co-writer, and Terry Melcher didn’t feel he needed Landy since he had produced some #1 records. It was pathetic of Landy to do that but he controlled Brian completely at the time.”
Some might argue that Brian’s absence from ‘Kokomo’ is one thing that we should thank Landy for. However, The Beach Boys did re-record ‘Kokomo’ in Spanish, and Brian sang on that version of the song.
Alltogether now…
“Aruba, Jamaica, con su arena blanca
Bermuda, Bahamas, vamos sigue mama
Saint Thomas, Montego, nena te lo ruego
Yo quiero verte en Kokomo
Por el cariño acariciándonos
Quema el corazón
Allá en Kokomo”
RIP Brian.
