He-Man 2CD set coming

[tharpdevenport]

I'm not sure what the interest will be, but a 2CD set of score is coming from La La Land Records. I can't recall anything but the theme song, so I can't say anything about the score.

2015 WONDERCON WORLD PREMIERE!

La-La Land is bringing THE POWER to WonderCon in Anaheim, CA! We proudly present the debut of our 2-CD SET of the HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE SOUNDTRACK! We will have this exciting release for sale at our WonderCon booth (#1724) at the big show (April 3-5). It will be released on our website April 7th. Retail Price is $24.98.

HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE is the most deluxe presentation of original score from the beloved animated television series to date, featuring OVER 90 MINUTES OF PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED MUSIC. Produced by Neil S. Bulk and John Takis, and mastered by Stephen Marsh and Fernando Lee, this 2-CD release features the remastered stereo foreign LP presentation, along with over 90 minutes of previously unreleased music meticulously restored from original mono tape elements. The exciting art design by Dan Goldwasser includes a 20 Page CD Booklet packed with art and exclusive in-depth liners by John Takis. This is a limited edition of 3000 Units.

So grab your piece of Eternia at our WonderCon booth before it is officially released on April 7th. We’ll also have some great deals at the con and look forward to meeting and greeting y’all!
https://www.facebook.com/lalalandrecords/photos/np.307180834.502903435/10153249429023755

It's a good thing "So grab your piece of Eternia" had "piece of" in there, otherwise I might have miscontrued that. ;-)

 

[Christopher]

I never liked Levy and Saban's He-Man scores anywhere near as much as Ray Ellis's scores for Filmation's older shows like Star Trek and Flash Gordon, but if this is getting released, maybe it offers hope that someday we'll get some of Ellis's music on disc (although I don't know if any clean recordings of it still exist).

Still, I did kind of learn to like the He-Man music just from sheer repetition, I guess. It's pretty good in an '80s-synth kind of way. Although the one Levy-Saban cartoon score I'd most like to have on CD is The Real Ghostbusters.

 

[tharpdevenport]

I know it was mostly cheese, but I agree, "The Real Ghostbusters" is what I'd like, too.

 

[Christopher]

^I'd say Real Ghostbusters was the least cheesy of Levy & Saban's '80s cartoon scores (meaning, like, at least 75 percent of all '80s North American cartoon scores, or at least it seemed that way). It had a delightfully eclectic mix of different musical styles, with some effectively eerie and suspenseful cues and some fantastic action music.

What surprises me is that there's enough He-Man music to fill two CDs. Filmation tended to rely on finite stock libraries that they recycled over and over. I doubt there was more than 20-odd minutes' worth of distinct music cues in all of Star Trek: TAS. (There's a YouTube clip compiling 15 minutes of it, which is most of it, but is still missing several notable cues.)

 

[tharpdevenport]

I suspect they created a library of cues for the production team to track as needed and that not all of it was used and some of the cues may never have been used in complete form. Some animated and live-action shows from back then did that before AFM rules changed.

This guy has been re-creating TRG score:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_I3JzblX64

 

[Unicron]

^I'd say Real Ghostbusters was the least cheesy of Levy & Saban's '80s cartoon scores (meaning, like, at least 75 percent of all '80s North American cartoon scores, or at least it seemed that way). It had a delightfully eclectic mix of different musical styles, with some effectively eerie and suspenseful cues and some fantastic action music.

I agree. I was just looking up some of the RGB instrumental cues on YT recently, and I'll be honest in saying the soundtrack was one of my favorite elements as a kid. Having the right music, in any show, goes a long way towards giving it a unique character and I think they did an excellent job on RGB. It varied quite a lot and still felt like it meshed with the main theme.

 

[Christopher]

No, correction, I'm forgetting the Levy-Saban score I most want to have on disc, which is the soundtrack to the '90s Spider-Man series. I sometimes forget it's by them because it's a full orchestral score instead of the electronic work they usually did. They (or at least Levy) also did pretty good work on X-Men, the '90s Incredible Hulk, and Digimon (another orchestral score).