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 | Vangelis | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| Vangelis chronology | |||||
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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.
Although an electronic score might be considered ill-suited to a period piece, it worked beyond anyone's expectations. The album topped Billboard Top 200 for 4 weeks and the opening theme of the film (called "Titles" on the album track listing but widely known as "Chariots of Fire") was released as a single in 1982 and topped the Billboard chart in the U.S. for one week after climbing steadily for five months (it made #1 in its 21st week on the chart). "Titles" also reached a respectable #12 in Britain, where its parent album peaked at #5 and spent 107 weeks on the album chart.
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[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. The use of synthesizers in film scores beyond mere textures, and their convenience in allowing directors, producers, and studios to hear preliminary versions of full scores found its roots in Chariots of Fire.
- "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.[2] 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 [5]
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] Charts
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1981 | The Billboard 200 | 1 |
The album reached #1 in the sales charts of various countries, including 4 weeks at #1 in the U.S. In total, the album stayed 97 weeks in the Billboard top 200, selling 3 million copies in the first year alone.[1]
The album reached #5 in the UK album charts and stayed in top 100 for 107 weeks.
[edit] Track listing
- "Titles" – 3:33
- "Five Circles" – 5:20
- "Abraham's Theme" – 3:20
- "Eric's Theme" – 4:18
- "100 Metres" – 2:04
- "Jerusalem" – 2:47
- "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 |
In addition to Vangelis' original music, the album includes an arrangement of "Jerusalem", sung by the Ambrosian Singers, as performed at the 1978 funeral of Harold Abrahams, the event which bookends the film and inspired its title. This famous choral work is a 1916 setting by Sir Hubert Parry of William Blake's poem.
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)[6]
In 2000, and again in 2006, the album was relaunched on CD, on both occasions remastered by Vangelis.[2]
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).[7]
The song is played during the Lilac Bloomsday Run in Spokane, Washington, the world's largest timed road race, and can be heard as runners round the corner at Monroe St and Boone Ave, a block before the finish line. It is a yearly tradition.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Daily Telegraph newspaper, November 21, 1982
- ^ a b c Dennis Lodewijks' Elsewhere
- ^ Vangelis interview to Music Maker magazine, September 1982
- ^ Vangelis interview to American Film magazine, September 1982
- ^ Vangelis interview to Neumusik magazine, issue 5, August 1981
- ^ Dennis Lodewijks' Elsewhere
- ^ Dennis Lodewijks' Elsewhere
| Preceded by Beauty and the Beat by Go-Go's |
Billboard 200 number-one album April 17 - May 14, 1982 |
Succeeded by Asia by Asia |
