Soundtracks
The soundtrack score was composed and conducted by Henry Mancini, composer of the themes from The Pink Panther and Peter Gunn, with veteran lyricist and screenwriter Leslie Bricusse contributing five original songs. The song "It's Christmas (All Over The World)" was written by Bill House and John Hobbs with Freddie Mercury in mind. While it is known that Mercury recorded a demo for the House/Hobbs song at Pinewood Studios, he was never to make a full commitment to the project, as he and his Queen bandmates had already committed themselves to the Highlander soundtrack. In the end, Mercury turned down the project, stating that he felt that Queen had become overcrowded with requests to work on film soundtracks; as a result, Sheena Easton was ultimately chosen to record the tune. As mentioned on the DVD commentary of the movie by Jeannot Szwarc, Paul McCartney was asked to compose songs for the film. It is unknown why he did not do so in the end, but his song "Once Upon A Long Ago" had been indeed originally composed with the movie in mind.
- Track listing
- "Main Title: Every Christmas Eve 1 and Santa's Theme (Giving)" (Mancini/Bricusse)
- "Arrival of the Elves" (Mancini)
- "Making Toys" (Mancini/Bricusse)2
- "Christmas Rhapsody: Deck the Halls/Joy to the World/Hark! The Herald Angels Sing/12 Days of Christmas/O Tannenbaum/The First Noel/Silent Night"
- "It's Christmas Again" (Mancini/Bricusse)2
- "March of the Elves" (Mancini)
- "Patch, Natch!" (Mancini/Bricusse) 3
- "It's Christmas (All Over The World)" (Bill House, John Hobbs)5
- "Shouldn't Do That" (Nick Beggs, Stuart Croxford, Neal Askew, Steve Askew) 4
- "Sleigh Ride over Manhattan" (Mancini)
- "Sad Patch" (Mancini)
- "Patch Versus Santa" (Mancini)
- "Thank You, Santa" (Mancini/Bricusse) 2
1Sung by Aled Jones
2Performed by the Ambrosian Children's Choir.
3Performed by the Ambrosian Singers
4Produced by Ken Scott and performed by Kaja
5Produced by Keith Olsen for Pogologo Corporation, and performed by Sheena Easton.
The soundtrack was originally released on record and cassette by EMI Records in 1985. Soon after, it went out of print and remained unavailable until 2009 when it was released on CD by Singular Soundtrack of Spain. This was a limited run of 1000 copies which sold out immediately upon release. In a rare situation for the label, this production suffered from several issues, most notably a master which had been subjected to heavy noise reduction resulting in a loss of sound quality. Additionally, the left & right channels had been erroneously flipped, a superficial re-edit had been performed on "It's Christmas (All Over the World)", and the song "Shouldn't Do That" by Kaja had been omitted due to licensing issues. The former necessitated a replacement pressing to correct many of the problems, save for the licensing issue. The replacement pressing also had the unfortunate side-effect of introducing the lossy copies into the secondary market. (To differentiate, the original, lossy edition has SER 808 #1 stamped in the center. The replacement disc has SER 879 #1 stamped in the center.)
At the time of the 2009 release, Singular Soundtrack became merged with Quartet Records, allowing the label to produce increasingly high-profile projects. In 2012, following a run of successful releases, Quartet Records revisited the earlier release of Santa Claus: The Movie, this time with an ambitious goal: a complete score release from the original scoring tapes. Though problematic, the original release had been well-received and had garnered enough ongoing interest to warrant an expansion.
The resultant December 2012 release was an unlimited deluxe three-disc set including sixty-four tracks, totaling just under three hours of music, and a 32 page analysis by celebrated historian Jeff Bond. Every piece of score music used in the film was included, as well as several outtakes and alternates. The original soundtrack, which differs from the music recorded for the film, was remastered from the original source material, and the pop songs found on the original soundtrack were all represented, including the Kaja song "Shouldn't Do That."
- Track listing
DISC ONE: THE FILM SCORE
01. Main Title: Every Christmas Eve/Santa’s Theme (4:27) 02. North Star/Arrival of the Elves (4:07) 03. Santa’s New Home (4:14) 04. The Magic Workshop (1:43) 05. Reindeer Stable (1:52) 06. Making Toys (Film Version) (4:01) 07. Season’s Greetings (1:36) 08. The Ancient One (2:32) 09. Santa Claus/First Sleigh Ride/Christmas Rhapsody (5:28) 10. Naughty or Nice (Does not appear in the film) (1:04) 11. Into the XXTH Century (1:38) 12. It’s Christmas Again (2:39) 13. March of the Elves (2:55) 14. Table Scraps (1:19) 15. A New Sleigh Ride/Santa Meets Joe (1:41) 16. Sleigh Ride Over Manhattan (4:15) 17. Cornelia’s Home (1:53) 18. Bad Toys (0:38) 19. Sad Patch (3:11) 20. Vanishing Elf (1:42) 21. No Free Toys (1:12) 22. Present for Joe (0:48) 23. Patch, Natch! (1:17) 24. Patchmobile/Patch Versus Santa (5:13) 25. Lollipop Flight (1:39) 26. Stronger Formula (1:37) 27. The World Is Different (1:02) 28. A New Doll (0:49) 29. Eavesdropping (2:35)Total Disc One Time: 69:06
DISC TWO: THE FILM SCORE (Cont.)
01. Letter From Cornelia (2:30) 02. Elf Portrait (1:45) 03. Flight From Police (1:06) 04. To the North Pole/Super Duper Looper/Reunited Again (6:09) 05. End Titles: Thank You, Santa (Does not appear in the film) (4:47)THE EXTRAS
06. Every Christmas Eve (Alternate Lyrics) (4:28) 07. Making Toys (Children’s Choir) (4:01) 08. Making Toys (Carousel Version) (0:27) 09. Making Toys (Men’s Choir) (4:01) 10. Making Toys (Instrumental Alternate) (4:00) 11. Patch Versus Santa (Alternate) (4:34) 12. To the North Pole (Alternate) (3:49) 13. Thank You, Santa (Alternate Vocal) (3:35) 14. Every Christmas Eve (Instrumental Version) (4:27) 15. It’s Christmas Again (Instrumental Version) (1:20) 16. It’s Christmas Again (Christmas Bells) (1:21) 17. Chopin’s Waltz (Source) (0:30) 18. Patch, Natch! (Instrumental Version) (1:14) 19. Thank You, Santa (Instrumental Version) (4:29) 20. Patch Toys (Percussion Insert) (0:27) 21. Christmas Jingles (Rehearsal) (2:53) 22. Making Toys (TV Spot) (0:26)Total Disc Two Time: 62:19
DISC THREE: THE 1985 SOUNDTRACK ALBUM
01. Main Title: Every Christmas Eve/Santa’s Theme (4:11) 02. Arrival of the Elves (4:08) 03. Making Toys (4:01) 04. Christmas Rhapsody (3:53) 05. It’s Christmas Again (2:31) 06. March of the Elves (2:55) 07. Patch, Natch! (1:15) 08. It’s Christmas All Over the World (5:02) 09. Shouldn’t Do That (3:33) 10. Sleigh Ride Over Manhattan (4:16) 11. Sad Patch (3:12) 12. Patch Versus Santa (4:13) 13. Thank You, Santa (3:09)Total Disc Three Time: 46:21
Total Set Time: 2:57:46
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