The hills will be alive with the sound of even more music as the film soundtrack to The Sound of Music gets a "Super Deluxe Edition" release December 1 from Craft Recordings. Available both digitally and in a variety of physical editions, the release will include the entirety of the film's music for the first time, which together with alternate takes and instrumental versions of each song amounts to 40 previously unreleased tracks.
The most deluxe of the physical releases will include four CDs and one blu-ray audio disc. Along with a new Dolby Atmos mix of the original soundtrack, this version will include 11 never-before-heard alternate takes—the alternate version of "Prelude/The Sound of Music" is already available for streaming and download.
Mike Matessino, the associate to film producer-director Robert Wise who remixed and remastered the album from the original multi-track tapes, has written in-depth liner notes for this release. "You will hear what you’ve heard before, famous songs with the mellifluous tones of Dame Julie Andrews leading the way, but the experience has been transformed beyond what the 1965 soundtrack album offered—with extensions to the songs, a brilliantly arranged underscore, and even some segments not used in the completed version of the film," says Matessino.
Craft is also putting out deluxe two-CD and three-LP editions of the soundtrack, which will include the film's full score. A special "Picnic Meadow Green" color LP edition will be available exclusively at CraftRecordings.com.
Released in 1965, The Sound of Music was adapted from the 1959 Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Howard Lindsay, and Russel Crouse Broadway musical of the same name. Featuring a screenplay by Ernest Lehman and arrangements by Irwin Kostal, the film notably departed dramatically from the stage musical, adding new songs with music and lyrics by Rodgers ("I Have Confidence" and "Something Good") and shifting the placement of others ("My Favorite Things" and "The Lonely Goatherd"). With Julie Andrews, fresh off her Oscar-winning film debut in Mary Poppins, starring as nun-turned-governess-turned-stepmother-vocal-coach Maria, the film quickly became a smash hit and has endured as one of the most popular and beloved movie musicals ever made.
The movie's success made the soundtrack a hit as well, with more than 20 million copies sold to date. The album hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 list in 1965 and stayed in the top 10 for 109 weeks. The soundtrack has been re-released numerous times, with anniversary releases in 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015 that all presented various packages of bonus material and remasters. The recording was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2018 for being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant."
Visit CraftRecordings.com to pre-order.
