In honor of a new installment in the Bill & Ted franchise, Intrada presents a premiere digital release in high resolution of the score to the film that started it all – 1989’s Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. With this new detailed master, Intrada also created a new limited edition CD master as well.
In spite of the great amount of source music and guitar performances, David Newman’s score to Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure gets a considerable amount of screen time. In fact, it dominates much of the funny and fanciful history lessons with serious, orchestral writing that plays it straight. “It was pretty clear where music was going to go, and what it needed to do,” explained Newman. “It needed to let the jokes play, but it needed to play Bill and Ted’s relationship seriously and with some heart—without being sentimental. We didn’t want to comment on what goofy idiots they were, but we wanted the audience to be able to laugh at it and laugh with them.”
A soundtrack album released in 1989 was filled with rock and metal songs, but David Newman’s score was completely absent. The 2014 Intrada release was the triumphant premiere of the composer’s witty, playful and heartfelt companion to the excellent adventures of Bill and Ted. The score displays Newman’s penchant for sweetness and melody, along with the action and excitement of a full-blown sci-fi epic. All of the music Newman recorded at his sessions is featured in crisp stereo sound and presented from the original ½″ three-channel session masters and a two-track stereo session DAT that contained some of the electronic keyboard cues.
In the film, Bill S. Preston, Esquire (Alex Winter) and Ted “Theodore” Logan (Keanu Reeves) are two best-friend dudes trying to make a most triumphant video for their band, Wyld Stallyns. Their career aspirations are jeopardized by the threat of flunking history most heinously, so Rufus (George Carlin) flies in from the future to help them and keep the excellent future they will spawn on course. Careening in a high-tech phone booth through time, the two distinguished colleagues bag several notable figures from their class assignment— Billy the Kid, Socrates, Joan of Arc, Abraham Lincoln—to arrive at the school auditorium just in time to make one bodaciously triumphant presentation (and pretty much save humanity).
Newman responds with vivid, action-packed score playing straight-man to antics on-screen. CD presents all of Newman’s scoring in stereo from once-missing actual 1/2″ three channel orchestral session elements plus DAT of all additional keyboard cues, guitars, additional fanfares, more. Highlights abound but rousing “Execute Them”, haunting “Meet The Princesses” deserve extra spotlight. The pop world was graced with all-song album from A&M label many years ago but score fans were left empty-handed. Finally in 2014, those fans got their due with Intrada premiere of Newman’s music! Now this album has been given a modest re-mastering and appears in very limited quantity to spotlight upcoming Bill & Ted Face The Music with popular duo of original actors. (Same musical contents as our 2014 edition.)
Colorful design from Joe Sikoryak and Kay Marshall plus informative liner notes by Tim Greiving tie nice package up with a bow. David Newman conducts. Intrada Special Collection Release available in very limited quantity while copies last!
Also coming soon to digital music platforms – newly mastered 24bit hi-res digital release presented for the first time ever!
Label: Intrada Special Collection Volume ISC 456
Film Date: 1989 / Album Date: 2020
Time: 49:33
TRACKLIST
01. History Lesson (1:22)
02. Future Bill & Ted Leave (1:53)
03. Rufus Lands (1:02)
04. A Lot More Than That (1:00)
05. Austria, 1805 (2:02)
06. Short Dead Dude (2:54)
07. Old West (0:45)
08. Saloon Tack Piano (1:52)
09. Billy The Kid (0:27)
10. Brawl And Ancient Greece (3:33)
11. Medieval England (5:00)
12. Meet The Princesses (1:40)
13. Execute Them! (With Hoo-Hahs) (3:16)
14. Bag Freud (1:31)
15. Prehistoric Pit-Stop (3:43)
16. Thanks, Rufus (0:23)
17. Napoleon Hesitates (0:35)
18. Mall Mayhem (1:30)
19. Wild Speech Montage (2:01)
20. Jailbreak (3:34)
21. America The Beautiful (Ward, arr. Newman) (1:07)
22. Thank You San Dimas High (0:29)
23. Saloon Tack Piano (Alternate End) (1:56)
24. Execute Them! (Orchestra) (3:16)
25. Trumpet Fanfare (0:07)
26. Go Faster (Film Version) (0:18)
27. Coda With Echoplex (0:06)
28. Fleur De Lis (Beethoven, arr. Newman) (0:44)
29. William Tell Overture (Rossini, arr. Newman) (0:39)
