Wednesday 7 August 2024

Lalo Schifrin’s Dirty Harry / Magnum Force 7” Vinyl Single Release


Lalo Schifrin’s Dirty Harry / Magnum Force 7” Vinyl Single Release
I suppose I discovered this rare limited release a bit late in the day. To the best of my knowledge, I’m pretty confident in saying that Lalo Schifrin’s film versions of both Dirty Harry and Magnum Force had never been released before on 7” as a single. Back in the day there was a Jazzy version of Dirty Harry released in France as a B side, and possibly a cover version which may had appeared on an obscure Japanese single, but never a true film version of both titles. 

So, as an Eastwood related vinyl collector, I became a little excited to discover this cut of both titles appear on a 7” single. Trying to uncover the story behind this record has been rather more challenging. 

The single was apparently first released on December 20th 2023 on a very small label called Test Pressing, Cat No LALO 002. There seems to be very little information available, only that this was their 2nd vinyl release, and there seems to be nothing released since. It’s also unclear from what country the label originates – and as a result, it appears to be very hard to obtain. 
The theme from Dirty Harry appears as the A side with the cracking Magnum Force theme pressed on the B side. There are certainly no frills attached to this pressing, it’s issued in a generic plain white paper sleeve within a protective polythene outer sleeve. There is also a Barcode sticker on the polythene sleeve. In fairness, its simple, no frills packaging is probably close to how an authentic ‘test pressing, demo’ would actually appear. 
Of course, personally, I don’t think I’ll be able to resist the temptation to make up some sort of custom insert, it’s practically begging for something. But of course, securing a copy first was always the main priority. As well as featuring here, I will also be adding this release to our Guide to collecting Eastwood related 7” Vinyl Singles which can be found HERE

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