Customer Reviews

Jaws: Music From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The leitmotive for "Jaws" keeps you scared. Every time you hear it, you know that the shark is coming. John Williams' music keeps the listener in constant suspense. The main title is chilling. The chase cues ("Sea Attack Number One" and "One Barrel Chase") are propulsive and exciting. You can feel the real fright as you hear "Night Search" and "The Indianapolis Story". All in all, this is one of Williams' most exciting scores. Dare go into the water, anyone?

Jaws...A fantastic score! As with many soundtracks, this score isn't the best when it comes to just plain listening to a soundtrack, but as Steven Spielburg has said, their probably hasn't been a movie as good as Jaws that the music goes along so well with! Jaws was orginally written in 1975, and is deffinately one of the main soundtracks that made John Williams popular. It is often rare to find music on Jaws that is not tense...This soundtrack is all about tense music! The music gives you a clear picture of just what is going on during the movie, and you can always picture "the shark" coming towards you with the deep strings in the background going up and down the scales. The main title from Jaws starts with that same deep sound of strings in the background, and adventually, brass join in to give you a picture of "that same old shark." Even though Jaws is a tense score, tracks such as "Out to sea" or very inspirational, and believe it or not, it even reminds me of the soundtrack to E.T. in many ways. Another track that isn't quite so tense is 7, "One Barrel Chase", which has much the same style as "Out to Sea." (Although it does start with Jaws' theme) The music of this soundtrack brings out the movie so incredibly well that listening to Jaws is basically watching the movie in a different way. If you like tense, sea-sounding music, this soundtrack is for you.

I've been reading a lot of people's displeasure at this version of the seminal soundtrack, and I just wanted to leap to its defense. Those who don't recognize this as the "real" soundtrack have a point; especially if you have heard the new 25th Anniversary version, which does contain the music actually used in the movie.

But those people probably weren't around for the original release of the movie, and this version of the soundtrack in conjunction with it. I was, and I can tell you as someone who (like everyone else at the time) ran out and bought this...I don't feel like this re-recording blunted or distorted the effect of the music one bit. The memories of the film that it helped me recall each time I listened to it were just as bone-chilling and terrifying when they were supposed to be.

In fact, because the earlier version was more an evocation of the film's essence, rather than the music that actually enhanced the visuals, a lot more nuances and a lot of the primal essence was brought out here than with the "true" soundtrack.

I'm not one to fall victim to the obvious calculation of marketing tactics, but in this case I would strongly recommend that the die-hard movie soundtrack lover purchase BOTH versions. Think of this one as the "concert" version, and the new one as the "true" soundtrack. Either way, hey, how can you go wrong? It's JAWS, and it's John Williams, for cripes' sake! Either way, just enjoy...and appreciate the fact that you can listen to this music while having a snack...instead of BEING one...

I love all John Williams music, and he does a fantastic job composing and making the movie even more interesting and exciting.

1 MAIN TITLE (Theme From Jaws)
2 CHRISSIE'S DEATH
3 THE EMPTY RAFT
4 THE PIER INCIDENT
5 SHARK ATTACK
6 FATHER AND SON
7 NIGHT SEARCH
8 PROMENADE (Tourists On The Menu)
9 INTO THE ESTUARY
10 OUT TO SEA
11 SEA ATTACK NUMBER ONE
12 THE INDIANAPOLIS STORY
13 BRODY PANICS
14 BARREL OFF STARBOARD
15 ONE BARREL CHASE
16 THREE BARRELS UNDER
17 BETWEEN ATTACKS
18 PREPARING THE CAGE
19 THE UNDERWATER SIEGE
20 HAND TO HAND COMBAT
21 END TITLE (Theme From Jaws)

This is how the greatest ever soundtrack of Jaws would look like. However, this is only a suggestion, but it would be somewhat of a recommendation for the purists if ever produced. Whether possible or impossible for the studios to produce, given there are two different record labels involved here, this would be the perfect end product to all the negative views of customers on previous productions. The combination of the concert arrangement tracks and the tracks actually used in the movie, would all compliment each other so well, and is worthy of support.

"Jaws" has always been one of my favorite movies of all time since the first time I saw it, and it always will be. To be honest, I haven't ever been that much of a fan of instrumental music; I usually prefer music to have vocals included. But I do like some instrumentals, especially the older ones from the 50's and 60's.

When I got the opportunity to listen to the original Jaws Soundtrack, I didn't hesitate because I remembered the heart-throbbing music from the movie. After listening to the full album, I wasn't disappointed at all. It sort of made me feel like I just watched the movie.

Most of the tracks on the Jaws Soundtrack last around two and a half minutes, with some being longer and some being a bit shorter. The majority of the tracks are very suspenseful, with fast beats and that all-familiar music that signifies Jaws is on his way. In many of the tunes, there is a good mixture of both suspenseful and easy listening.

Pretty much, if you like the movie "Jaws" and especially if you like the music you hear from the movie, then you will definitely like this soundtrack!

The movie was great, so it deserves a great soundtrack. Which is what it got! I love all the tracks on it, but my favourites have to be tracks 1 and 6. This is definetly my favourite and most treasured CDs.

This is modern day symphony composition at its finest. Too bad the recording is marred by its age, which is the only reason why I'm not giving it 5 stars. I only wish the producers at Decca records invested as much time into remastering this release, than the real "original soundtrack" (The Collector's Edition). Although short compared to most releases, more does not necessarily mean better. This CD is the original soundtrack recording, that many have come to know and love, as it was released in 1975 on LP. It is actually a re-recording of the score, with composer John Williams turning most of the movie cues into "concert arrangements", which is just fancy terms for expanding upon the themes with additional/alternate lengths and/or orchestrations. This album sounds like more of a "whole listening experience" than the Collector's Edition. Soundtracks with every cue released from the film in their exact sequence and length are often distracting, and make it difficult for the album to stand alone as its own entity. This album does stand on its own, and even though almost anyone on this planet can identify that ominous shark theme, you don't need to have seen the film for this music to take you places. That's the problem with all these "Complete", "Expanded", or "Collector's Edition" scores-your destination seems already predetermined because it is difficult to separate the music from the movie. If you are interested in the genius of John Williams and this great symphonic achievement, pick up this album and save the Collector's Edition for the completists. The same goes for many of Williams' other scores that have been given the same treatment, such as the exhaustingly long expanded Star Wars scores. A soundtrack recording should not be longer than the film it was recorded for!

This soundtrack is a perfect blend of happy/classical music, and downright disturbing attack music. Just when you think things are sounding brighter, the frightening music begins. The stark contrast is quite shocking, and is a plus in this score. I highly reccomend this.

John Williams did a wonderful thing, when he made this incredible MCA reinterpretation re-orchestration of the movie cues, and it is amazing as many of you know.

Yes, this original MCA CD is not the music "in the movie" it is the music "of the movie" transformed by John into 12 full size, glorious, full bore, take no prisoners, orchestral works.

These are original and unique arrangements of the main musical cues of the movie, and they are powerful. This was the original motion picture soundtrack that was sold on LP and later on CD and it has spoiled me rotten because it is really very, very good.

Because the quality of this recording is not the best and deserves a re-master I can only give this CD 4 stars. But still buy this CD for the unique and wonderful arrangements. As a whole it is a much greater musical experience than the new Decca Anniversary Collector's Edition even though the Decca re-master has vastly superior sound quality.