Sold Date: September 17, 2023
Start Date: August 28, 2023
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Ron Goodwin • William Walton – Battle of Britain (Original Soundtrack Recording) Vinyl Record LP (1969)
Fabulous British first release.
The album features one track (Battle in the Air) by William Walton which was used in the final cut of the film. His score was largely rejected in favour of Goodwin's. Fantastic stuff.
The movie (1969, dir. Guy Hamilton) featured a host of stars, including Sir Laurence Olivier as Hugh Dowding and Trevor Howard as Keith Park. It also starred Michael Caine, Christopher Plummer and Robert Shaw as Squadron Leaders. The other major stars were Harry Andrews, Curt Jürgens, Ian McShane, Kenneth More, Nigel Patrick, Michael Redgrave, Ralph Richardson, Patrick Wymark, and Susannah York.
Condition VINYL: EX. Superbly clean on visual inspection. No obvious hairlines, marks or scuffs. Played just pre-listing and sound clarity is great throughout. Some light static at run-ins, between cues and during quieter sections but otherwise a fabulous listen. Not played much and could be difficult to find a better example. OUTER SLEEVE/COVER: NM. Wonderful laminated front and reverse. No nicks to corners, and edges are clean and unmarked. Spine edge shows some light yellowing but text readable and clean. No obvious creases or delamination. Reverse side also in great shape with perhaps one or two edge creases, but nothing major. Overall, a fantastic example. INNER SLEEVE: NM. Original. Peach-coloured United Artists/Liberty/Sunset paper with curved corners; no obvious creasing, rips or folding. Intact.
Tracklist A1. Battle Of Britain Theme. 1:23 A2. Luftwaffe March. 3:32 A3. The Lull Before The Storm. 1:37 A4. Work And Play. 2:27 A5. Death And Destruction. 1:22 A6. Briefing The Luftwaffe. 1:14 A7. Prelude To Battle. 3:20 A8. Victory Assured. 2:12 A9. Defeat. 1:26
B1. Hitlers Headquarters. 0:55 B2. Return To Base. 0:44 B3. Threat. 1:23 B4. Civilian Tragedy. 1:08 B5. Offensive Build-up. 3:43 B6. Attack. 0:58 B7. Personal Tragedy. 0:41 B8. Battle In The Air*. 4:51 B9. Absent Friends. 1:03 B10. Battle Of Britain Theme – End Title. 2:54
Composed by Sir William Walton*, O.M. (tracks: B8) Composed and conducted by Ron Goodwin (tracks: A1 to B7, B9, B10) Conductor – Malcolm Arnold (tracks: B8)

Review The original soundtrack to the movie Battle of Britain was one of the most controversial movie scores of the 1960s.
Sir William Walton, who had previously written the music for the film First of the Few (aka Spitfire), not to mention Sir Laurence Olivier's three major Shakespearean films, wrote a score for Battle of Britain only to have it dropped by the film's producers.
At the time, United Artists Records, the music division of the movie's distributor, was having particular luck with orchestral pop-type releases, such as John Barry's James Bond scores, and Walton wrote a complex, serious music score that sounded like it came from the concert hall.
The producers replaced his music with a much simpler, more conventional movie score, authored by Ron Goodwin and built around various brass-heavy march tunes, interspersed with a romantic theme or two.
Then Olivier, who (with Michael Caine, was the star of the epic film, threatened to have his name taken off the credits of the movie over the snub of his composer friend's music. A compromise was worked out, wherein Walton's scoring for the climactic "Battle in the Air" was kept in the movie; mostly, it was the presence of the five-minute "Battle in the Air" theme that kept the Battle of Britain soundtrack in print (the movie was a notorious failure) for years.
The Walton "Battle in the Air" stood apart from Goodwin's relentless march themes in no uncertain terms, surging up gradually, through the lower strings, the reeds, and winds, with the brass adding punctuation while the violins play running scales.

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