CAT’S EYE – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Composed by ALAN SILVESTRI

Alan Silvestri’s 1985 score for Cat’s Eye comes between two of his more famous works: the 1984 hit Romancing the Stone and 1985 classic Back to the Future. It is perhaps his last work before he became well-known, hurtled into the public eye with Back to the Future just a few months later. Performed entirely electronically, Silvestri opens the score with a pulsating heartbeat motif and eerie strains that accompany a close-up of a feline eye peeling open. This leads to a madcap sequence where Silvestri introduces two primary ideas: a buoyant chase theme that conveys the cat’s relentless need to keep moving and a gleaming melody for the cat’s heroics that plays like a trial run of his Back to the Future theme.

Highlights from the score were previously available on LP. The contents were sequenced with maximum listening pleasure in mind rather than adhering to strict film chronology. As such, some sequences were edited together when musically appropriate and other sequences were simply dropped altogether. Track titles were created expressly for the album. For this expanded CD premiere, Intrada obtained from the composer his own two-track stereo session mixes and went back to the studio paperwork to determine the original cue titles and adhered to the overall film sequence more or less.

Based on Stephen King’s short stories, Cat’s Eye begins with a cat having a vision of a little girl (Drew Barrymore) calling to him, and he sets out to find her. The cat’s journey takes him through three different tales–the first to “Quitter’s Inc.”, a mysterious company offering to help people quit nicotine addiction, the second to “The Ledge”, the penthouse of a gambler, and the third, “General”, where he finally meets the little girl who was unconsciously summoning him to save her from a pint-sized, yet deadly troll.

Premiere expanded CD release of early Alan Silvestri score for Stephen King horror trilogy. Lewis Teague directs, James Woods, Drew Barrymore, Alan King, Robert Hays star, Stephen King scripts. Three creepy tales stay related through recurrence of cat as picture progresses. Morbid “Quitters, Inc.” opens, Suspenseful “The Ledge” follows, frightening “General” concludes. Along the way, mayhem, revenge and wild battle with troll all play roles. Silvestri anchors with heroic theme for the cat, cut from similar thematic cloth as his very next score, Back To The Future. Idea is used sparingly, allowing it to make dramatic appearances in key sequences. Theme also offers gentle, haunting beauty in bell-like iteration when Samantha (Barrymore) and General (the cat) join in third segment. Battles with troll that climax third story are exciting, flavorful highlights as are intense clusters of sound that permeate “The Ledge”. Expanded significantly from original 1985 LP, new Intrada release is mastered from two-track stereo session mixes made by Dennis Sands at Group IV Recording in Hollywood. Silvestri mastered use of the Yamaha DX-7 to create vivid, fully-composed synthesizer score, drawing from experience he had one year earlier with large-scale scoring efforts for Romancing The Stone. Informative liner notes by John Takis plus dramatic, flipper booklet cover designed by Joe Sikoryak add to the thrills.

Label: Intrada Special Collection Volume ISC 328

Date: 1985

Time: 52:14

TRACKLIST

01. Cat’s Eye – Intro (0:53)
02. Cat Chase (Main Title) (2:31)
03. Help Me (0:35)
04. The Cat Room (1:58)
05. Closet Case (3:18)
06. Delusion (0:49)
07. Bumper To Bumper (1:50)
08. First Smoke (3:28)
09. Cat Escape (0:33)
10. To Quitters Incorporated (0:29)
11. Cat In Atlantic City (1:03)
12. Television Message (0:28)
13. O.K. To Cross (0:20)
14. The Decision (2:14)
15. Bird Escort (5:18)

16. You Have My Wife (1:52)
17. Mr. Cressner Falls (1:01)
18. A Visitor In Wilmington (1:38)
19. Nighttime (0:43)
20. In Amanda’s Room (4:06)
21. Mom Has A Plan (1:38)
22. The Troll Arrives (1:34)
23. Trying To Get To Amanda (4:15)
24. Troll Fight (4:09)
25. General’s Love Of Amanda (2:10)
Total Time: 48:40)

The Extra
26. Cat Chase (Intro & Main Title – Film Edit) (3:31)

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