I recently wound up stumbling onto a playlist on YouTube of what I assumed were EXCEPTIONALLY good isolations of the entire ACTUAL Halloween 1978 soundtrack. And by that, I mean every sting, motif, and even THE WEIRD PITCH CHANGES THAT WOULD OCCUR IN THE MOVIE (see Annie yell “hey jerk, speed kills!”)
But, to my utter surprise, it was an uploaded copy of a limited release 20th anniversary Halloween CD, which makes me question;
Why is this not the actual release we have readily available to us, instead of the 1983 release we all know of today?
Not only is the 20th anniversary a full 18 minutes and 8 seconds longer, but the actual themes and songs used in the movie (if not, EXTREMELY FAITHFUL recreations, as I could actually see what scenes the songs came from playing in real time in my head), not (what sounds to me like) recreations of each theme to be put onto a record and sold…
If you guys haven’t seen or heard of this CD, give this playlist a listen, and notice how much more accurate (and in my opinion) and nicer the main theme is, the multiple versions of “The Shape Stalks” used (Michael chases Laurie from the Wallace’s, Michael chases Laurie upstairs and breaks into the closet, and Michael chokes Laurie before he is damasked)
And by “regular release”, I mean why isn’t the readily available release we have across the world? The first one that pops up on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, whatever you use to stream music, or even as Vinyl or actual CD purchases. I understand the exclusivity of it being an LP 20th anniversary, but when you compare the two releases, I’m just utterly blown away at the choices made which resulted in the original 1983 release being the widely known one
I think it’s the best CD release but it’s still no match for the 40th anniversary orange vinyl released a few years back. Straight from 35mm mono tracks. Mono just hits different.
Didn’t even notice the orange vinyl anniversary release! Went ahead and listened to the vids you sent, safe to say I immediately went anywhere I could get and managed to snag one. Thank you Newbury Comics! (They still have a few new ones left for sale on Amazon, for those who are looking for it, here ya go! Go snag it ASAP)
I stumbled across the 40th anniversary release a few months ago, but was uncertain of the origin of the playlist you hve in the original post. Thanks for shedding light on it. It’s cool to have these releases.
I completely agree! The 20th Anniversary release is by far the superior one. I never cared much for the original release and I absolutely hate the bass drum in the Main Theme (something Carpenter continued to include in all subsequent iterations, including the new trilogy). The bass drum keeping time is expected and makes it more of a dance tune, whereas the lack of it in the original subverts expectations and leave the listener with an eerie sense of something being off, or out of time. This 40th Anniversary vinyl, however, is new to me and is definitely the best there is.
EXACTLY! Every time I’d listen to the 1983 release that is the mainstream one we have today, the bass drum beat of the main theme always confused me, and slightly annoyed me, and I totally agree about how the lack of it is such an improvement, I also JUST received my vinyl about twenty minutes ago, and plan on listening to it tomorrow when I have time, but I will say, the album art ALONE is super impressive!
That playlist is fan-made, but it was definitely made by using the 20th anniversary release and tweaking it. I noticed they also used the mono version of the Halloween theme for the first track, which I don’t think has ever been released on CD or digital. I have both the original soundtrack and 20th anniversary release on CD. I prefer the main titles on the 20th because I don’t like the bass drum on the original release. I remember when I first bought that CD and was wondering why that drum was added as it makes the music less scary and more like techno music that people would dance to at a rave. Also, the bass drum seems to almost bury the shaker instrument that kind of sounds like a cricket (I don’t know how else to describe it).
There’s one thing that bothers me about the main titles on the 20th CD, though. That shaker/cricket sound starts out panned mostly in the center, and then pans to the right, and then moves towards the middle again and then back to the right. It’s kind of annoying. Not sure why this was done. Also, the dialogue between Loomis and Marion on track #3 is panned to the left. It should be dead center. I actually ripped the audio from my 35th anniversary Blu-ray for the main titles since the shaker/cricket sound stays panned in the center throughout.
One thing I like better about the main titles on the original release is that it’s longer and builds in intensity towards the end. My dream version would be to have this extended version with the shaker instrument louder and no bass drum.
The 40th anniversary release is obviously the most accurate to the original soundtrack since it’s in mono and doesn’t have the extra strings that were added to the original and 20th anniversary rereleases, as well as the the 5.1 and 7.1 remixes for the films.
I think it would be cool if Alan Howarth produced a version of the Halloween soundtrack that was similar to what he did with The Fog soundtrack. He added some kind of reverb effect to the original mono tracks to give them a sort of stereo sound. I think that might provide the best listening experience while remaining faithful to the original mono mix.
I’m admittedly an idiot when it comes to mixes, mono vs otherwise, re-masters, this “bass drum” referenced, and everything in between.
I just assumed that all releases since 1978 were just re-issues with increasingly better quality. Am I completely wrong? So these soundtracks are recreations of Carpenter’s score and not the genuine thing? I’m just bewildered. Any help or context is great!
Go to Spotify, Amazon music, Apple Music, wherever you listen to music, and look up the Halloween Soundtrack by John Carpenter. The one that comes up for Halloween 1978 is NOT the actual music used in the film, instead (if my information is correct) that album is John and Alan getting together in 1983 to create something close to the original themes and motifs. To hear the difference, look up the actual Halloween 78’ opening titles and listen to the music, then immediately swap to the album version I referenced above. You’ll hear the aforementioned bass drum.
Then, the 20th anniversary release. This (apparently, because it fooled me) is an incredibly close recreation to the music used in the actual movie. In terms of the mono versus stereo we were referring to before, think of it like this;
Say you’re wearing a pair of headphones. You have two different ear buds, your left and your right, the sound that’s entering either ear is gonna be exactly the same, because it comes from ONE output. Basically, it’s playing the same thing in both ears.
Stereo is the opposite of that. With stereo, a great example is most of the Beatles music. Each headphone will play something different, so you could hear drum and piano in your left, with vocals and guitar in your right. That’s stereo.
The 40th vinyl that came out took the original music track from 1978, and put that on the record, so it will be the EXACT song and music you heard in that movie.
I know Alan 100% did the anniversary soundtracks, or at least had a major part/hand in them! As for Carpenter, I would imagine so, but it’s kind of a gray area for me, I’m not too positive
First of all, none of the releases are recreations. There are differences between them, but they all come from the original recording that John Carpenter made. In terms of sound quality, it’s actually the opposte. The original release has the best sound quality (but has the bass drum which I don’t like), the 20th anniversary sounds pretty good, and the 40th anniversary sounds the roughest. But of course it all comes down to personal preference. Personally, for the Halloween theme I prefer the 20th anniversary version, but for the rest of the music I prefer the original release.
I just want to reiterate that none of the soundtracks are recreations since they all come from Carpenter’s original recording, but there are some differences, which I’ll try to explain:
When the movie first came out, the sound was in mono. For the soundtrack of the film, Carpenter wanted to make the music sound better, so he had someone add bass drums and some more string instruments to the Halloween theme, and the music was remixed in stereo. It’s still the same music from the movie, just with some added stuff. One way I verified this is that there’s a small mistake that Carpenter made on the piano in the opening theme, and this small mistake can be heard in all versions of the soundtrack.
In 1998 there was a 20th anniversary release. This release is more similar to the movie because it doesn’t have the bass drum for the Halloween theme. But it still has the added strings for the Halloween theme and it’s in stereo. This is still Carpenter’s original score and him playing the music. It’s just been converted to stereo.
Most of the DVDs and Blu-rays of the original Halloween movie come with the option to watch the film in mono or 5.1 remix (or 7.1 remix). This remix is meant for surround sound. If you listen to this remix, you’ll hear the added strings to the Halloween theme, just like the original soundtrack and the 20th anniversary release. But it will be more like the 20th anniversary release since that release doesn’t have the bass drum. No version of the movie has the bass drum. That was only added for the original soundtrack. I assume that most people watching the film these days are watching with the 5.1/7.1 remix since it’s in surround sound. Personally, I prefer listening to the mono when watching the film. Some of the music in the 5.1 remix sounds weird to me and they also added cricket sounds and changed one of the stinger sound effects. I prefer the original gritty mono track when watching the film.
In 2018 the 40th anniversary vinyl soundtrack came out. It’s in mono and sounds like the original mono version of the movie. If you listen with ear pods or headphones, you might think it doesn’t sound good because it’s in mono and doesn’t have that clear, remastered sound to it. That means what you hear in the left ear is exactly the same as what you hear in the right ear. So you don’t get that wider separation that stereo offers. It might sound dull to you, depending on your preferences.
I doubt Carpenter had any involvement after the original release. From what I’ve read it sounds like he had instructions for the original release, like adding bass drums to the Halloween theme and converting the music to stereo, and let other people handle the other releases. Alan Howarth worked on both the original release and the 20th anniversary. There’s also another guy named Dan Wyman who worked on the original release and he’s credited with programming the synthesizer. I think it was Howarth who performed the bass drum and the added strings as he’s credited with the stereo remix on the original release. Howarth also put together the 40th anniversary release.
Also wanted to add one more thing. There was actually a release of the Halloween soundtrack that came out in Japan before Carpenter’s original release. This Japanese version is a recreation. You can listen to it here: https://youtu.be/lzuM95jt2gU
Literally, thank you. So much! I genuinely had no solid idea about a lot of this, so having someone be able to come in and clear all of this up is fantastic! Thank you for clarifying man!
Any idea why/who changed one of the stingers? And is it just redone for clarity or completely changed to something else? It’s fascinating to me these small details that are changed on a film (soundtrack) decades later.
Also - where was the mistake in the opening theme?
I don’t know who created the remix or why they changed one of the stingers. It might’ve been a mistake because all the other times that this stinger is heard in the remix, the original version was used. This changed stinger happens when Myers pops up in the back seat of the car before he strangles Annie.
Another small change in this scene is when Michael slices her neck. There’s an additional little stinger in the remix that’s not present in the mono. Both of them have a sound effect during the neck slice, but the remix has an additional sound effect added to the one that was already there.
The mistake in the opening theme occurs between 1:38 and 1:40. Listen to all three versions and you’ll hear that Carpenter accidentally pressed an additional piano key.
Great discussion! In my words, this is one of the dirtiest of stinge moves ever done to fans. Carpenter released a movie that was f-ing monumental, with one of the most famous movie themes of all time. But he or someone in his camp couldn’t bear to ever release it in its original form. Either he or somebody in his circle wasn’t satisfied enough with the commercial success of the movie to bother releasing its actual soundtrack like they did with movies that followed. Similar to its theatrical predecessor, Assault on Precinct 13, which also only had dance versions of that theme available at one point. 45 + years later and we got a vinyl version too little too late. Now we have at least two versions of this one freakin song. Basically two films. Not to mention the TV version which makes it even goofier. And the mono version Still isn’t even on the Itunes store or sold in digital audio format. It’s a little unfair to unsuspecting and unaware new fans most of all if you ask me. Somebody couldn’t follow Carpenter’s advice to DGG about keeping it simple and less is better. Just my two cents worth. Sure, include a reprise version, but couldn’t they just include the original too?