Around The World in 80 Days Soundtrack (April, 1957)

Dad's Take:

This soundtrack has the distinction of being number one on the charts twice, and being knocked off both times by Elvis albums. Apparently, this album was a big deal. Rock and roll wasn't dominating the charts yet, leaving room for an album of catchy instrumental movie music to do well.

Most soundtracks are easier to enjoy if you know the movie really well, giving the music more context. But Victor Young's music is interesting, ranging from traditional Viennese-style waltzes like "Sky Symphony" to music flavored by Hollywood's vision of other exotic locales, like Spain, India, and Paris. In a sense, this soundtrack is a cousin to the Exotica genre we've already seen (and will see again). It transports the listener to places around the world, as you'd expect from a movie about traveling around the world. Usually with a waltz flavoring.

Overall, the music is enjoyable, if not always especially exciting. Most film scores work better inside the film than out, and this is no exception. There are moments of beauty, humor, and tension in the music. It's not hard to hear why Victor Young received 22 Academy Award nominations for his film music, including his only Oscar, posthumously awarded for Around The World In 80 Days, after Young died unexpectedly of a cerebral hemorrhage in November, 1956, at the young age of 56.

If you enjoy film scores, there's a lot to like here. It's not my usual cup of tea, but it held my interest throughout, and I'll probably come back to it at times when string-based instrumental music is needed in my background.

Brad's Take:


I haven't seen this movie so the soundtrack doesn't make much sense to me. Because like my dad, soundtracks usually digest better when you know the movie, when you can recognize the song and which part of the movie it's from, etc. So this was a little hard for me to really get into.

Judging by the music, it was an action adventure movie with cheesy moments and comedy here and there. I could be totally off, but that's just what the music sounds like to me.

One thing I love about this soundtrack though (and many other film scores) is how the music's arrangements are done. I love when the arrangement matches the mood or tone of the movie, or even helps act out some scenes.  I especially love how one song can bounce all over the place. It can start off slow, and then get really epic and huge, and then bounce to a little funny silly part, and then go somewhere else. It makes it fun to listen to, but it also makes it hard to tell one song from another.

When I was in high school, I had a mutli-media class, and in the class, we'd film and produce our own movies and things, and I remember my teacher drilling this one thing into our heads every time: "Audio is half the visual." That always stuck with me because it's totally true (in most cases.) If your movie has a crappy soundtrack, it throws everything off.

Maybe one day I will watch this movie and then go back and listen to its soundtrack so I can fully understand.