Released by BSX Records
The Jerry Goldsmith Songbook
Liner notes
This was another of those “labor of love” assignments: An opportunity to extol the genius of Jerry Goldsmith, this time for his uncanny, but generally underappreciated, ability to write a great song. This album features new recordings of 20 of them, chosen from a 40-year span of the respected — and much-missed — composer’s career. For me, it was a chance to revisit such scores as A Patch of Blue, The Sand Pebbles, The Omen, First Blood, The Russia House and The Sum of All Fears; and to unearth such forgotten treasures as “May Wine” from The Blue Max, “The World That Only Lovers See” from The Chairman and “No One Like You” from Powder. Most of all, to marvel at the best-ever version of his love theme from Star Trek: The Motion Picture (sung by Raya Yarbrough); appreciate the poetry of lyricist Paul Williams in such songs as “Flying Dreams” and “If We Could Remember” (both sung by Katie Campbell); and restate my long-held conviction that “Nights Are Forever” (by Kira McClelland) could have been a colossal hit had it not been attached to the controversial Twilight Zone: The Movie.