Yesterday I wrote about The Split (Quincy Jones) being down to the last ten (now eight) copies.
It is very strange to be talking about the FSM catalog in...2021?!? Soon to be 2022? Somehow it makes me feel like it’s still 1998. Where did the time go?!?
In truth, our entire catalog is now technically out-of-print. We’re just selling off stock, to the extent the studio kindly allow it. Here’s what’s left at Screen Archives.
If you look at the page of CD releases on the FSM site, unfortunately the various listings of BUY (new), USED (link to a used copy) and OOP (out of print) is all messed up—we’ll be fixing that soon.
One other really cool title is down to the final 15 units: Valley of the Kings/Men of the Fighting Lady by Miklós Rózsa. I was so glad to be able to work with the historical M-G-M catalog, where Rózsa did most of his work (and almost all of his prime), and release just about every last thing we could find.
There are four titles from the CBS library that are being discounted at 50% off in SAE’s newest sales flier: A Man Called Horse (Rosenman), Hunters Are for Killing (Fielding), Nightwatch/Killer by Night (Williams/Q. Jones) and The Homecoming/Rascals and Robbers (Goldsmith/Horner). I hope people buy these!
This is bittersweet for me to talk about because I remember how hard these titles were to produce. They literally took over a decade in starts-and-stops with CBS. But we finally got them done. And, honestly, we overpaid in the license fees just to see them through.
Here is the Jerry Fielding main title (from the TV movie) for Hunters Are for Killing:
If it sounds familiar, Fielding reused it as the main theme to The Big Sleep (1978 remake):
But wait, that’s not all! It was also the main title to Fielding’s score for the Matt Helm TV pilot in 1975. (Here, just watch the whole thing...or don’t!)
If there are any enterprising CD producers out there, there’s a tape of this Matt Helm score at the Brigham Young collection of Fielding’s papers and tapes. By the time they’ve transferred it for you, and you’ve paid Sony for a license, you’ll need to sell 3,000 units to break even!
As I reminder, previously on the FSM site I wrote a long series of columns of my memories of producing each and every FSM CD. You can find those here.
Thanks, everybody, for your years of support for the FSM CD catalog—truly, the best of times.