Chariots of Fire (album)
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| Chariots of Fire | ||
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| Studio album by Vangelis | ||
| Released | 1981 | |
| Recorded | 1981 | |
| Genre | Film score | |
| Length | 54:47 | |
| Label | Polydor | |
| Producer(s) | Vangelis | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| Vangelis chronology | ||
| See You Later (1980) |
Chariots of Fire (1981) |
Antarctica (1983) |
Chariots of Fire is a musical score by Greek electronic composer and artist Vangelis (credited as Vangelis Papathanassiou) for the British film Chariots of Fire, which won four Academy Awards including Best Picture and Original Music Score.
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Although an electronic score might be considered ill-suited to a period piece, it worked beyond anyone's expectations. The opening theme of the film (called "Titles" on the soundtrack) was released as a single in 1982, topping the charts in the U.S. for two weeks after climbing steadily for five months (it made #1 in its 21st week on the chart). "Titles" also reached a respectable No.12 in Britain, where its parent album peaked at No.5 and spent 107 weeks on the album chart.
[edit] A new style
The film's producer, David Puttnam, invited Vangelis after becoming impressed with his albums Opera Sauvage and China [1]. Vangelis played all the instruments, including synthesizers, acoustic piano, battery and percussion, and recorded the score in his Nemo studio in London, UK which he had set up in 1975 [2]. The music that he came up with, entirely electronic for a period film, initiated a new style in film scoring.
- "He [Vangelis] tells us about the way he set about producing the music for Chariots Of Fire. About the low budget it really had. About the way in which he endlessly exchanged thoughts with the author about the story. Only when the movie was completely finished did he actually start working on the music for it. Saw it only three times for that purpose and then started work." — Vangelis interview to Music Maker magazine, September 1982 [3]
- "I didn't want to do period music. I tried to compose a score which was contemporary and still compatible with the time of the film. But I also didn't want to go for a completely electronic sound." — Vangelis interview to American Film magazine, September 1982 [4]
The score album, however, is almost all re-recorded and sounds differently from the music heard on film, with often richer arrangements, namely in the "Titles" track. The second part of the album is a one-track suite including music from and inspired by the score [5]. On the other hand, some original themes from the film did not make it to the album.
- "A record is something other than a film. There have to be changes - not least of all for artistic reasons." — Vangelis interview to Neumusik magazine, issue 5, August 1981 [6]
Although Vangelis had already done a number of film scores, namely for the animal documentaries by Frédéric Rossif, Chariots of Fire was his first major film score, and it immediately gave him the big breakthrough as a film composer, as "Titles" was an international hit and changed the whole course of his career.
- "It occurs very rarely that a composer thinks of his most successful work as his best. I am no exception to that rule. I think of my soundtrack for [...] Mutiny on the Bounty as endlessly more interesting than Chariots of Fire." — Vangelis interview to De Telegraaf newspaper, June 15, 1991 [1]
[edit] Track listing
| 1 | Titles | 3:33 |
| 2 | Five Circles | 5:20 |
| 3 | Abraham's Theme | 3:20 |
| 4 | Eric's Theme | 4:18 |
| 5 | 100 Metres | 2:04 |
| 6 | Jerusalem (trad.) | 2:47 |
| 7 | Chariots Of Fire | 20:41 |
[edit] Credits
| Vangelis | all instruments |
| Ambrosian Singers | choir (track 6) |
| John McCarthy | choir director (track 6) |
| Raphael Preston | engineer |
| Raine Shine | engineer |
| John Walker | engineer |
[edit] Miscellanea
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- Vangelis' father, himself a sprinter, died just before Chariots of Fire was released; the album is dedicated to him. [1]
- Vangelis did not travel to Los Angeles in 1982 to attend the Academy Awards ceremony where he eventually won an Oscar. He was sleeping when he received a phone call at 4 a.m. informing him he had won. [7]
- Commercials that have used music from Chariots of Fire include: a newly recorded version by Vangelis himself in Ridley Scott's "Citroën Xantia" commercial in 1993 [2], and a Nike commercial in 2005 [8].
- In March 2006, U.S. magazine Variety put Chariots of Fire at #18 in the "The Gorgeous 100, the best moments in film music". Vangelis' score for Blade Runner fared even better at #16, making Vangelis the only composer to appear twice in the top 20. [9]
In addition to Vangelis' original music, the album includes a traditional piece, "Jerusalem", sung by the Ambrosian Choir, as was performed at the 1978 funeral of Harold Abrahams, the event which bookends and presumably inspired the making of the film.
The album reached #1 in the sales charts of various countries, including the U.S. In total, the album stayed 97 weeks in the sales charts, selling 3 million copies in the first year alone [1].
A single featuring "Titles" was released and also reached #1 in a number of countries, including Japan, the U.K. and the U.S.
Despite Vangelis public performances being rare, he played Chariots of Fire live in Los Angeles, U.S. (November 7, 1986), Rome, Italy (July 17, 1989, as encore), Rotterdam, Netherlands (June 18, 1991), and Athens, Greece (Mythodea concerts of July 13, 1993 and June 28, 2001, as encore, and August 1, 1997)[10]
In 2000, and again in 2006, the album was relaunched on CD, on both occasions remastered by Vangelis.[5]
Tracks from the album have been included in the following official Vangelis compilations: Themes (1989), Best Of Vangelis (1992), Portraits {So Long Ago, So Clear} (1996), and Odyssey - The Definitive Collection (2003).[11]
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c d Daily Telegraph newspaper, November 21, 1982
- ^ a b Dennis Lodewijks' Elsewhere
- ^ Vangelis interview to Music Maker magazine, September 1982
- ^ Vangelis interview to American Film magazine, September 1982
- ^ a b Dennis Lodewijks' Elsewhere
- ^ Vangelis interview to Neumusik magazine, issue 5, August 1981
- ^ Vangelis interview to Rolling Stone magazine, May 13, 1982
- ^ Dennis Lodewijks' Elsewhere
- ^ Dennis Lodewijks' Elsewhere
- ^ Dennis Lodewijks' Elsewhere
- ^ Dennis Lodewijks' Elsewhere
