Greatest Western Themes

Various Artists - Soundtracks - Film Scores | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 9, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: K-Tel
• ASIN: B000000RKZ
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 1.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #238,403 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #55 in Music > Pop > Easy Listening > Ballroom Dance

Track Listings

1. Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

2. (Ghost) Riders in the Sky

3. A Fist Full of Dollars (Theme)

4. (The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance

5. The Hanging Tree

6. The Streets of Laredo

7. Hang 'Em High

8. High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me)

9. High Chaparral

10. Bonanza

11. For a Few Dollars More

12. The Big Country

13. The Magnificent Seven

14. Shenandoah

15. Red River Valley

16. Once upon a Time in the West

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not Original, Not Art, and Certainly No Bargain, November 7, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Southern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Greatest Western Themes (Audio CD)

This compilation of "cover" movie themes -- they are not the original recordings -- provides the basic melody for each title and might serve some listeners well as background noise. That's the best one can say, leaving me to wonder why "The Greatest Western Themes" was recorded at all; it certainly wasn't for the sake of art.

Generally, the tracks on this CD are so bad they don't even work as parodies of the original motion picture scores. But if they compare poorly to the originals, do they at least stand well on their own?

Not to my ears. These arrangements seem to be an exercise of going through the motions, motions so thoroughly anemic, so emotionally lifeless as to remind us -- though unwittingly -- why we listen to music in the first place. For instance, the "spaghetti western" tracks on this CD ("A Fistful of Dollars," "For a Few Dollars More," and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly") are about on a par with those recorded decades ago by Hugo Montenegro -- except Montenegro at least infused Ennio Morricone's legendary original scores with his own style, even as he sucked the life right out of them.

No such originality adorns "The Greatest Western Themes," but that's the least of its problems.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the Original themes, June 28, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Greatest Western Themes (Audio CD)

This would have been a lot better had the artist tried to more closely to equal the original takes. Bonanza was the worst selection and the Good, The Bad, & the Ugly was just as bad. Had the artist halfway tried to match Hugo Montenegro original artist selection of the good the bad & the ugly, it would have made it a better disc.

1.0 out of 5 stars Get some other compilation, November 2, 2009

By 

eric_the_redder (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Greatest Western Themes (Audio CD)

...one with the original themes. This one is rather cheesy, especially some odd singing I never heard in "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly"