L. A. Confidential [Soundtrack]

Jerry Goldsmith | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 26, 1997)
• Original Release Date: August 26, 1997
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Restless Records
• ASIN: B000003BLF
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #75,601 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive

2. The Christmas Blues

3. Look for the Silver Lining

4. Makin' Whoopee

5. Hit the Road to Dreamland

6. Oh! Look at Me Now

7. The Lady Is a Tramp

8. Wheel of Fortune

9. But Not for Me

10. How Important Can It Be?

11. Looking at You

12. Powder Your Face With Sunshine (Smile! Smile! Smile!)

13. L.A. Confidential

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Captures the essence, January 6, 2006

By 

Larkenfield (Sedona, AZ) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: L. A. Confidential (Audio CD)

I enjoy compilation soundtracks, because if you don't like the song you're listening to, you may like the next. But that's not a problem with this collection anyway, as each vintage recording from the 50s perfectly underscores every scene in the film and the 50s period itself. I can easily recapture each scene in my mind as I'm listening to Gerry Mulligan, Kay Starr, Johnny Mercer, Chet Baker, Lee Willey, Joni James, Jackie Gleason, and Betty Hutton - all household names at the time and musical kingpins in this award-winning, romantic crime thriller. It was Jackie Gleason who was perhaps the first to introduce "mood" music - music for lovers - and it caught on big-time during most of the 50s. Picture long flowing hair on the women, cool martinis, a black and white legal system, racial tension between the haves and have-nots - and this soundtrack captures it almost perfectly. As a bonus, there are two tracks of the original motion picture score by Jerry Goldsmith, including the emotionally evocative closing credits with the understated trumpet lead. I've listened to this CD repeatedly over the years and it's a keeper in my permanent library.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Great Soundtrack Albums !, February 24, 2007

By 

P. M. Bradshaw "P.M. Bradshaw" (Columbus, OH, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: L. A. Confidential (Audio CD)

If you could buy only one CD this year, I have NO IDEA what it should be. Maybe you should get a second job, you deadbeat. But if you buy two CDs (without having to work in a salt mine, or sell Uncle Bob, piece by piece, for experiments), it should be two soundtracks: L.A. Confidential and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

Dark, ethereal, and moody, these albums have presence, and hold together on their own as great albums, able to stand apart and peer out from beneath the long, great shadows cast by their respective impressive film counterparts.

** As with all soundtracks, make sure you see the songs listed on the back and not simply "original score." Don't go home with orchestral, background music when you want classic songs and vocals.

L.A. Confidential has the period songs by the period's artists, including Johnny Mercer's FANTASTIC "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive." Jerry Goldsmith gets two pieces of his powerful score on the CD, the title track and the even better "Badge of Honor."

The period songs are great, the sweet voice of Kay Starr and Lee Wiley are terrific, and even the instrumentals are good here. Johnny Mercer, as mentioned before, is great here, but the stand-out on this album is Dean Martin's "Christmas Blues." In all his swagger-voiced, king-of-cool splendor, Dino brings us one of the greatest (and least heard) Christmas songs of all time.

Worth the price of admission itself.

My suggestion: get both CDs, dim the lights, pour yourself a beverage or four, and listen to these two albums back to back.

Repeat as necessary.
* * * * * * * * * *
RATING: A

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars As good as the movie, July 4, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: L. A. Confidential (Audio CD)

I rarely remember the soundtracks to movies, but upon seeing "LA Confidential" the music was an element that just stuck with me. Hanson did a masterful job using music, whether it was accompanying a montage, or being played in the background. Each song was carefully (lovingly?) chosen to evoke a mood. I highly recommend this soundtrack on the strength of "Wheel of Fortune", a beautiful song that stands on its own merits, but will forever stay with fans of "LA Confidential".