Titanic (soundtrack)

Infobox Album |
Name = Titanic: Music from the Motion Picture
Type = Soundtrack
Artist = James Horner


Released = November 18, 1997
Recorded = December 12th, 1995 - August 22nd, 1997
Genre = Soundtrack
Length = 72:29
Label = Sony Classical
Producer =
Reviews =
* Allmusic Rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jx6wtrowkl7x link]
Last album =
This album = "Titanic"
(1997)
Next album =

"Titanic" is the soundtrack to the film of the same name composed by James Horner.

Album information

Director James Cameron originally intended Enya to compose the music, and in fact put together a rough edit of the film using her music as a temporary soundtrack. After she declined, he approached James Horner. Their relations were cold after their first cooperation in "Aliens", but the soundtrack of "Braveheart" made Cameron overlook it. Horner composed the soundtrack having in mind Enya's style; Norwegian singer Sissel Kyrkjebø performed the wordless vocals on the soundtrack. Many have noted the similarities between certain cues from "Titanic" and the Enya tracks "Smaointe..." and "Book of Days" from her 1991 album "Shepherd Moons". The latter track was also featured in the 1992 film "Far and Away".

Céline Dion, who was no stranger to movie songs in the 1990s, sang "My Heart Will Go On", the film's signature song written by James Horner and Will Jennings. At first, Cameron did not want a song sung over the film's credits, but Horner disagreed, and without telling Cameron, went ahead and wrote one anyway, and recorded Dion singing it. Cameron changed his mind when Horner presented what he proposed, and the song ended up winning a Best Original Song Oscar. The song was also a worldwide hit, going to the top of the pop charts around the world.

Other artists were invited to submit songs for the movie including contemporary Christian artist Michael W. Smith. He mentions in the liner notes to the song "In My Arms Again" from his 1998 CD, [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000005Z0A Live the Life] , "Inspired and written for the movie "Titanic," grateful for the opportunity to send them a song; grateful it landed on this record."

For the choral background of certain tracks, Horner made use of a digital choir instead of a real one:After the orchestral music was recorded, Horner personally performed the synthesized choir over a playback of the recording. [http://www.hornershrine.com/interviews/soundtrack1297.html] [http://www.hornershrine.com/interviews/hr0198.html]

The DTS [http://www.avrev.com/music/revs/titanicdts.shtml] and SACD multichannel [http://www.soundtrack.net/features/article/?id=185] editions of this soundtrack enable the listener to actually hear the orchestral recording without the electronic choir, if attention is paid to the center channel of the 5.1 surround mix.

The idea behind using electronics, rather than a real choir, stemmed from Horner wanting to avoid a 'church'-like sound. [http://www.hornershrine.com/interviews/NPR.html]

Track listing

# "Never an Absolution" – 3:03
# "Distant Memories" – 2:23
# "Southampton" – 4:01 [http://www.sonybmgmedia.com/streams/wm.asx?id=392674 clip]
# "Rose" – 2:52 [http://www.sonybmgmedia.com/streams/wm.asx?id=298574 clip]
# "Leaving Port" – 3:26
# "Take Her to Sea, Mr. Murdoch" – 4:31
# "Hard to Starboard" – 6:52
# "Unable to Stay, Unwilling to Leave" – 3:56
# "The Sinking" – 5:05
# "Death of Titanic" – 8:26
# "A Promise Kept" – 6:02
# "A Life So Changed" – 2:13
# "An Ocean of Memories" – 7:57
# "My Heart Will Go On (Love Theme from "Titanic")" – 5:10
# "Hymn to the Sea" – 6:25

Charts

The soundtrack CD for "Titanic" was the highest-selling primarily orchestral film score in history, and led to the release of a second volume ("Back to Titanic") that contained a mixture of previously unreleased soundtrack recordings with newly-recorded performances of some of the songs in the film, including one track recorded by Clannad (Enya's old band) singer, Máire Brennan.

The soundtrack quickly moved up the Billboard 200 chart, going from Number eleven to Number one on the "Billboard 200" in January 1998. It would remain at the top for sixteen straight weeks until it was replaced by the Dave Matthews Band album "Before These Crowded Streets"; no album since then has spent at least ten consecutive weeks at Number One. The album has sold approximately 28 million copies worldwide and is the highest-selling instrumental soundtrack album of all time. It also hit number one on the UK album chart and on Polish album chart (7x Platinum), as well. The soundtrack was certified Diamond in Canada (1,000,000 units) by the CRIA on March 31, 1998. [http://www.cria.ca/cert_db_search.php]

This also holds the distinction for longest stay at #1 on Billboard's Top 200 album chart for an album released on a classical record label.

The instrumental song titled "Southampton" has been the only symphony orchestra song to receive enough requests to make MTV's TRL countdown, this during the time when everything "Titanic" was saturating the media.

The soundtrack was also extremely successful in Australia, where it reached number one and was certified 5x platinum by ARIA in 1998 for sales of 350,000 copies. [www.aria.com.au]

References

External links

* [http://www.titanicsoundtrack.com/ Official site] (via Sony BMG Masterworks)

succession box
before = "Let's Talk About Love" by Celine Dion
title = "Billboard" 200 number-one album
years = January 24 - May 15 1998
after = "Before These Crowded Streets"
by Dave Matthews Bandsuccession box
before = "Urban Hymns" by The Verve
"Urban Hymns" by The Verve
title = UK number one album
years = February 14 1998 – February 20 1998
February 28 1998 – March 13 1998
after = "Urban Hymns" by The Verve
"Ray of Light" by Madonnasuccession box
before = "Aquarium" by Aqua
title = Australian ARIA Albums Chart number-one album
years = February 1 - February 14 1998
February 22 - March 14 1998
March 22 - May 2 1998
after = "Yield" by Pearl Jam

###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
title=Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score
years=1997
before="The English Patient
after="La vita è bella
(Life Is Beautiful)succession box
title=Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score
years=1997
before="The English Patient
after="The Truman Show