The music for Stewart’s 1957 film, The Spirit of St. Louis, was composed by Franz Waxman, who also conducted the Warner Brothers Orchestra. The Soundtrack album was issued by RCA Victor (LPM-1472).
The tracks on the album were:
Prelude
Building the Spirit
New York to Cape Cod
Nova Scotia
St. John
Asleep
Ireland
Plymouth
Landing at Le Bourget
Here is one track to listen to as you finish reading the blog.
New York to Cape Cod
The album was reviewed in the April 20, 1957, edition of Billboard:
To help promote the album, RCA took a full page ad in several magazines, including this one from Billboard (March 23, 1957):
In 1975, the album was issued again, this time as Film Archives F-4761. The jacket was very plain. The front had the title, a small picture and the track listing. The back of the cover was blank.
The labels were likewise very plain:
In 1977, just two years later, came a special commemorative edition, reissued by arrangement with Warner Brothers Pictures, to mark the 50th anniversary of the original Lindbergh flight on May 20th, 1927, (Entr’acte Recording Society ERS-6507). According to the liner notes, written by the album’s producer, John Steven Lasher, “This album is dedicated to the worldwide employees of Pan American World Airways and Trans World Airlines.” The original Warner Brothers masters have been electronically enhanced for stereo effect for this reissue.
In his notes, included on the back of the jacket, Lasher explained why true stereo tapes had not been used to produce this re-issue:
In 1988, a CD version of the soundtrack, with eight extra tracks was issued on the Varese Sarabande label (VSD-51212)
The tracks were:
Prelude (Main Title)
Building the Spirit
First Test Flight
Flight to St. Louis
St. Christopher
New York to Cape Cod
Nova Scotia
St. John’s
Barnstorming
Fishing Boats
The Old Jenny
The Spirit of St. Louis
Rolling Out
Asleep
Ireland
Plymouth
Le Bourget/End Title
