Ghostbusters score

I'm a big fan of the 1984 movie Ghostbusters. It was one of the I watched repeatedly on HBO and VHS (pirated from HBO) growing up. And int he spirit of watching it on DVD this weekend, not once, but TWICE, I feel obliged to share with you other Ghostbuster junkies a link to the score. Now, I can't be certain, but I believe these tracks are actually from the 1998 disc, not the newer Varese one. There are 22 tracks here and the Varese one contains 39.

This material was unavailable for many years until Varese Sarabande released the full score as part of their "club" collection (which just means there's a limited run of 3,000 produced). There was a bootleg release in 1998, but they're hard to come by as well. Unfortunately, I've only recently been reaching out to other score junkies on the Internet and didn't know about this release until long after the disc was sold out (which was probably a matter if weeks.) Now if you want the score, it means forking over $50 bucks on ebay.

The first time I listened to these tracks I was sort of underwhelmed, but it really grows on you. So much of Elmer Bernstein's original cues are cut up or altogether replaced in the final cut of the film that the score at times felt like it went with an inferior movie. In a way, it is a portentious reminder what a turkey this film could have turned out to be. That's not a knock at all against Bernstein's score or the material, which was executed impeccably. Tracks like the beginning of #21 will instantly bring to mind exact moments in the movie for any GB junkie.