Spencer Moore’s eerie, tape echoed sci-fi textures were a fitting opening for 1959’s Teenagers From Outer Space, but they take a more sinister turn when Romero uses the same cue to accompany Night of the Living Dead’s controversial ending. These were sounds and themes that had already been used on a handful of low-budget horror and sci-fi movies, but were repurposed by Romero, somewhat ironically, to create a nostalgic backdrop for his genre-defining film. Romero opted not to use an original score, instead selecting and editing familiar snippets from the Capitol Hi-Q production music library. The soundtrack to George Romero’s enduring zombie-flavored social commentary isn’t your average set of horror cues by any means. Romero’s soundtracks are almost as iconic as the films themselves, from Spencer Moore’s spine tingling opening to Night of the Living Dead to Herbert Chappell’s ‘The Gonk’, which aside from being used on the end credits of Dawn of the Dead was used in Shaun of the Dead, Robot Chicken and was sampled by Jonny Trunk. His output slowed until his death this year on July 12, but Romero never lost the drive to churn out non-conformist horror that bucked tradition and sidestepped easy scares. Think AMC’s The Walking Dead has a monopoly on the “zombies as social commentary” trope? George Romero did it in 1968.Īrguably, Romero’s high point came in 1985 with Dawn of the Dead, a zombie film so iconic that its setting – a hulking American shopping mall – is still widely referenced in popular culture. Bursting onto the scene with influential low-budget zombie movie Night of the Living Dead, he made Pittsburgh a global horror capital and kickstarted a post-modern obsession with the undead that’s still visible today. John Twells takes a closer look at Romero’s finest soundtracks, from his collaboration with Italian prog act Goblin on Dawn of the Dead to the melancholy jazz of Donald Rubenstein’s Martin score. Romero died at 77, leaving behind a legacy that has influenced generations. Hi-Q was released by Capitol on both a series of 12" phonographic records and a set of open-reel audiotapes as well.On Sunday, July 12, legendary horror auteur George A. Later, a soundtrack for this film was released by Varese Sarabande, marking one of the few instances in which production music tracks have been released to the public.ĭennis the Menace, My Three Sons, The Donna Reed Show, The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Quick Draw McGraw Show, The Yogi Bear Show, Boo Boo Runs Wild, A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith, Boo Boo and the Man, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, The Ren & Stimpy Show, Amazon Women on the Moon, Hoppity Hooper, Howdy Doody, The Gumby Show, Creepshow, Chespirito, Davey and Goliath, El Chavo del Ocho, Bucky and Pepito, six cartoons of Looney Tunes ( Hook, Line and Stinker, Pre-Hysterical Hare, Gopher Broke and certain prints of Freudy Cat) and Merrie Melodies ( Weasel While You Work, A Bird in a Bonnet and Hip Hip-Hurry!) released in 1958 and countless other productions have also used cues from the Capitol Hi-Q library. The film's producer Karl Hardman used tracks from the library (some of which had been composed specially for the film), and then enhanced them by adding electronic effects, such as echo and reverb this was unusual as in general production music libraries only permit synchronization rights. Perhaps the most notable work to feature Capitol Hi-Q music was the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. It was used in several movies and other productions. Capitol-Hi-Q Capitol Hi-Q was a brand and library of production music produced and distributed by Capitol Records in the late 1940s and early 1970s.
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