Eastwood Soundtrack selection #2

Eastwood Soundtrack selection #2

Ronald Alfred Goodwin (17 February 1925 – 8 January 2003) was an English composer and conductor known for his film music. He scored over 70 films in a career lasting over fifty years. His most famous works included Where Eagles Dare, Battle of Britain, 633 Squadron, Margaret Rutherford's Miss Marple films, and Frenzy.

Born in Plymouth, Devon, England, Goodwin learned to play the piano and trumpet from the age of five which allowed him to join the school band. When he was nine, the family moved to Harrow, London, where he attended Willesden County School and Pinner County Grammar School, in Middlesex. 

From there he went on to study the trumpet in London at the Guildhall School of Music.

Whilst working as a copyist, he formed his own orchestra in his spare time and began arranging and conducting recordings for over fifty performers, which resulted in more than 100 chart successes. He wrote his first feature film score for Whirlpool, with screenplay by Lawrence P. Bachmann. After Bachmann became executive producer at MGM-British Studios in 1959, Goodwin composed and conducted the music for most of its productions, as well as working for other film studios.

Where Eagles Dare received a 1969 UK album release on MGM Records 2315 036 and in the United States on MGM Records S1E-16 ST although the sleeve designs were very different – the content was identical. The was also a French album (Quand Les Aigles Attaquent MGM Records 61 625) which again featured entirely different artwork. A Spanish album appeared (El Desafío de Las Águilas) also with different artwork and a Japanese album appeared in 1981 (MGM Records – 25MM9030) and carried the same sleeve design as the original U.S. release. In 1990 EMI Records doubled up edited highlights with 633 Squadron (CDP 79 4094 2). Available on both vinyl and CD the sleeve carried a full close-up image of Eastwood. Also, in 2001 Chapter III records in the states released a cd version (CH 37500-2). 

However, in 2004 Film Score Monthly released a beautiful Remastered 2 CD version (FSMCD Vol. 6 No. 21) which was limited to just 3,000 copies and doubled up with another great Goodwin score, Operation Crossbow (1965). At 20 tracks (74:07), FSM’s release remains the ultimate version of the soundtrack. I was also very fortunate to receive a credit on this release – as I provided a great deal of the illustrative material for the accompanying 27-page booklet. 

Ron Goodwin’s score opens with a quiet, terse and repetitive drumbeat before a bombastic brass section joins in. It’s a simple theme tune for a film with a storyline that is anything but. Ascending scales foretell the vertiginous cliffs below the Schloss Adler, the German castle that a team led by Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood must penetrate to fulfil their objective, and the film’s climactic fight on the roof of a moving cable car. 

Below: Here's Where Eagles Dare Soundtrack Suite