Mr. Holland's Opus (1996) (Lennon/Browne/Wonder/Davis )

Product Summary Label: Uni/mercury UPC: 00731452950826 Release Date: 1/23/1996 Buy.com Sku: 60100486 Item#: MFDVG7 Buy.com Sales Rank: 2059 Format:  CD Song Listing Disc 1 Song Title Sample 1. Visions Of A Sunset - Shawn Stockman ~ Original Soundtrack 2. One, Two, Three - Len Barry ~ Original Soundtrack 3. Lover's Concerto, A - The Toys ~ Original Soundtrack 4. Keep On Running - The Spencer Davis Group ~ Original Soundtrack 5. Uptight (Everything's Alright) - Stevie Wonder ~ Original Soundtrack 6. Imagine - John Lennon & The Plastic Ono Band ~ Original Soundtrack 7. Pretender, The - Jackson Browne ~ Original Soundtrack 8. Someone To Watch Over Me - Julia Fordham ~ Original Soundtrack 9. I Got A Woman - Ray Charles ~ Original Soundtrack 10. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) - John Lennon & Yoko Ono ~ Original Soundtrack 11. Cole's Song - Julian Lennon ~ Original Soundtrack 12. American Symphony, An (Mr. Holland's Opus) - London Metropolitan Orchestra ~ Original Soundtrack   Album Notes and Credits Notes & Personnel Info Producers: Shawn Stockman, Julia Fordham, Stephen McLaughlin, Michael Kamen, Christopher Brooks. Engineers: Tim Boyle. Includes liner notes by Stephen R. Herek. Michael Kamen's arrangement of "An American Symphony (Mr. Holland's Opus)" won a 1997 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement. Personnel: Michael Kamen (conductor, strings, piano); Julian Lennon (vocals); Dominic Miller, Tim Renwick (guitar); Jonathan Snowden (flute); George Shangrow, Jillon Stoppels Dupree, Robert Kechley (harpsichord); Pino Paladino, Lawrence Cottle (bass); Jim Keltner, Andrew Newmark (drums); The Seattle Symphony Orchestra, The London Metropolitan Orchestra. Producers: Michael Kamen, Stephen McLaughlin, Christopher Brooks (tracks 1-12); Stephen McLaughlin, Michael Kamen (track 13). Engineers: Stephen McLaughlin, Andy Warwick, Joel Iwataki, Al Swanson. Recorded at Abbey Road and Air Lyndhurst Studios, London, England; The Saint Thomas Center, Bothell, Washington. Includes liner notes by Stephen R. Herek. Michael Kamen's arrangement of "An American Symphony (Mr. Holland's Opus)" won a 1997 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement. Michael Kamen's music for Mr. Holland's Opus bears more weight and relevance to its accompanying motion picture than your rank-and-file Hollywood score. The tale of a high-school music teacher who juggles everyday life with his grander creative pursuits, culminating in his three-decades-in-the-making "An American Symphony," its central themes double as the Holland character's own compositions, serving not only the film's emotional aspirations, but its narrative demands as well. Kamen draws liberally from classical antecedents, incorporating elements of Beethoven's "7th Symphony" and Bach's "Concerto for Three Harpsichords in C." ~ Jason Ankeny Michael Kamen's music for the treacly drama Mr. Holland's Opus bears more weight and relevance to its accompanying motion picture than your rank-and-file Hollywood score -- the tale of a high-school music teacher who juggles everyday life with his grander creative pursuits, culminating in his three-decades-in-the-making "An American Symphony," its central themes double as the Holland character's own compositions, serving not only the film's emotional aspirations, but its narrative demands as well. Incorporating elements of Beethoven's "7th Symphony" and Bach's "Concerto for Three Harpsichords in C," Kamen draws so liberally from classical antecedents that his original ideas are often obscured -- melodies merely roughed out in previous iterations reach critical mass in "An American Symphony" itself, but like the remainder of Mr. Holland's Opus, the music forgoes subtlety and nuance for emotional bludgeoning. ~ Jason Ankeny Mr. Holland's Opus is a stirring, emotional film about Glenn Holland, played by Richard Dreyfuss, a teacher that abandons his life-long dream of composing in order to raise a family and educate young students. The film spans three decades, as it takes in all the ups and downs of Mr. Holland, his students, and the times. Appropriately, the soundtrack includes many splendid songs from the era, including selections from John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, and Jackson Browne, as well as the newly recorded "Visions of A Sunset," the first solo single Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men. It's a nice collection, designed to appeal to baby boomers like Holland, and will please fans of the film. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine If you can listen to Shawn Stockman sing "Visions of a Sunset" without at least one chill jutting up your spine, without thinking about a lost love or a found one, or without just marveling at the vocal instrument the man possesses...well, perhaps you should write a book about what it's like to live without a soul. Is Stockman's wondrous ballad, written immediately after he viewed the film, worth the price of admission? Just about. It's one of only two current songs on the disc (Julian Lennon's "Cole's Song" is the other), but if you like soundtracks, this one has some solid radio-ready gems. Among them are Stevie Wonder's raucous, two-chord celebration of just plain feeling good (and, some have argued, the greatest Motown single of all time), "Uptight (Everything's Alright)"; John Lennon's timeless anthem "Imagine"; and Ray Charles' "I Got A Woman," which will probably sound just as good in 2996 as it does now.   Technical Info Release Date : 01/23/1996 Original Release Date : 1996 Catalog ID : 529 508 Label : Polydor (USA) Number of Discs : 1 Studio/Live : Studio Mono/Stereo : Stereo SPAR Code : n/a UPC : 00731452950826    Product Image