From Library Journal
This comprehensive listing contains over 7000 Hollywood films containing original songs. The first two volumes list films alphabetically, offering musical and nonmusical cast and credits, and, when appropriate, the composer of the film scores. Often extensive notes are included, with information on song substitutions, deletions, previous song uses in films, and dubbed voices for singers. Straight to video films are not included, nor are public domain songs or songs which simply function as background music in a scene. Almost every genre is covered, including rock films. Volume three has a chronological index of films from 1922 to early 1990, a personnel index, and an index by song title. One quibble: Couldn't this reference set have indicated whether a soundtrack album was ever issued? Although some of this material can be found elsewhere, such as in Leonard Maltin's or Leslie Halliwell's film guides, this reference pulls it all together in one complete and convenient source. This one rates a "thumbs up" for large film and music reference collections.
Stephen Rees, Bucks Cty. Free Lib., Levittown, Pa.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
This comprehensive guide describes 7,000 Hollywood movies for which songs or scores were especially written. It cover all genres, including rock musicals. Many of the films are not musicals but are listed because a theme song was written for them. Some films listed include no songs; for example, a song was written for
Psycho but the movie was released without it. Not included are most concert films, which do not usually have original music written especially for them. A notable exception is
Woodstock. Bloom is also the author of a similar book on musical theater,
American Song: The Complete Musical Theatre Companion (Facts On File, 1985).
Volumes 1 and 2 of this 3-volume work list the films alphabetically by title. Included in each entry is the studio that released the film, year of release, composer, lyricist, choreographer, producer, screenwriter, director, original source on which the film is based, cast (all stars are listed as well as selected character actors and supporting players), and songs. A notes section contains various other information of interest, such as alternative titles, songs that were cut from the picture, songs used instrumentally only, Academy Award winners, etc. Volume 3 lists the films chronologically from 1922 to 1989 (with three titles listed for 1990). It also includes a name index, which notes if the person was a cast member, choreographer, composer, lyricist, etc. A song index enables the reader to find the films for which songs such as "Moon River" (Breakfast at Tiffany's) or "The Power of Love" (Back to the Future) were written.
Several books cover movie musicals. Parish and Pitts' Great Hollywood Musical Pictures [RBB N 1 92], for example, has lengthy descriptions of 340 musicals. The authors note which cast members performed each song, but the book has no song index. Hollywood Song, however, has a much broader scope, covering thousands of films that contain at least one song. This valuable and extensive work will be a good purchase for large film and music collections.
