Customer Reviews

Strictly Ballroom (1992 Film)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you've ever wanted to boogie and need some inspiration, here is the music! But I warn you, it's obsessive: I can't stop listening to it. Every track is great! And each song goes perfectly with its scene in the movie. This is a CD that just gives and gives, and what it gives is pure hot dancing pleasure!

There's "strictly" one great song after another on this soundtrack, featuring all the best from the great movie! "Time After Time" is my favorite, as well as "Rhumba des Burros" and "Doug's Tearful Waltz" (son, can I bend your ear for a tick?). Make you want to take up ballroom dancing! Except maybe without all the make-up.

The upbeat music of Strictly Ballroom is so great for anybody who loves dance music. This IS dance music and the soft songs like Time After Time and Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps make the soundtrack even more appealing to many audiences! I love it and you will too!

This has to be one of my alltime favorite CDs. I listen to this when I need to lift my spirits. I absolutely loved the movie and can't wait for it to come out on DVD.

On the whole, the soundtrack richly evokes the beauty of the film but does miss out on the music prior (Chopin's "Etude 3 in E Major") to "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps" and Scott and Fran's first attempts at the "Paso Doble" and seems rather to focus on the music that accompanies Scott's dancing. Otherwise a good sountrack.

Many songs comprise either all vocal songs or are instrumental scores that don't transcend beyond the movie it was supposed to represent. Strictly Ballroom is somewhat of an anomaly. Given the subject, there wasn't much need for pop songs to enhance the movie. The dancing and the dance music did that, but the latter is present on the soundtrack. Even if one hasn't seen the movie, the instrumental dance tunes done by David Hirschfelder and the Bogo Pogo Orchestra (yeah, amusing, but competent) featuring tango, waltzes, and even an old classical tune transcends the movie experience into an audio delight. Well, there is one instrumental that may be lost on those who never saw the movie, but it's still great.

A danceable ballroom mix is given to John Paul Young's late 70's quasi-disco hit "Love Is In The Air" which is the song played at the movie's celebratory finale. Jones's other hit, "Standing In The Rain" is likewise done, strung together with another instrumental by Hirschfelder number. Doris Day's rendition of "Quizas Quizas Quizas" should be a familiar chestnut for those growing up in the 1950's. This is the song done while Scott and Fran are practicing backstage...and are caught-nobody knows they are partners yet.

A brisk tango-type number is what "La Cumparsita/Tango Please" is, done by Hirschfelder and orchestra, and it's brief, clocking in at little over three minutes. Also by the same is the famed instrumental "Tequila" segued into a medley with "Sinful Samba," which is one of Scott's numbers early in the movie.

"Rhumba de Burros" is a light-hearted Latin-flavoured number featuring Ignatius Jones sporting a Mexican-type balladeer voice. He also does the snappy "Yesterday's Hero," the song used to describe Scott's father, done in a rockabilly-type Jerry Lee Lewis-like voice. Another standout cut.

"Doug's Tearful Waltz/First Kiss" is a mournful laden number reflecting the sadness Scott's father feels dwelling in memories past, which segues into the instrumental done when Scott and Fran have their first kiss.

Mark Williams and Tara Morice, the latter who played the female lead Fran in Strictly Ballroom, make Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" into a duet. Morice is actually a good singer and the instrumentation features more lush keyboards and synths different from that of She's So Unusual. As for tying with the original... hmmm, it comes pretty darn close. My favourite song here.

Hirschfelder does a brief snippet from Johann Strauss's "The Blue Danube" waltz before the climactic and energetic Latin paso doble number Scott and Fran do at the end of the movie. Spanish guitar included in a ballroom number...not bad.

All in all, an energetic soundtrack for the most part, good for whether one is doing the cha-cha or not.

Just listening to the music brings back the memories of the movie. It lifts me up whenever I'm feeling down. It reminds me not to live my life in fear. From Doris Day to "Rumba De Burros" it always makes my day. Enjoy!

I loved the movie, love the music, and decided to play it for my Calculus class that I teach. It is the class's favorite tape. The music is from the 40's all the way up to the 90's and can entertain all of us.

Coming from one of my favorite movies of all time, this soundtrack really takes the cake. It has so much in it: Samba, tango, ramba, and the romance is great. Pop this tape on and make up your own steps whenever you want to! Its a must!

A great soundtrack to compliment one of the best movies I have seen to date.