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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Release Date: 2001-10-30
Sales rank: 4217
Original soundtrack to the popular motion picture, Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone featuring the original film score composed by John Williams. This format comes with a bonus enhanced CD containing the following special features - Electronic Arts HYou needn't see the film of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to appreciate the wonder, magic, and fearful chills of J.K. Rowling's phenomenal bestseller in John Williams's outstanding score. Williams typically avoids the source material for the films he scores, but he reportedly derived great pleasure and inspiration from Rowling's first Harry Potter adventure, and created a perfect motif (fully expressed in "Hedwig's Theme") to dominate his score. It's first heard as a dreamy celesta waltz and embellished through myriad incarnations and moods, often with a sinister edge befitting the darker tones of Chris Columbus's direction. Evident are fantastical allusions to Saint-Saëns and Tchaikovsky (among others), and Williams's epic track is "Quidditch Match," a breathtaking frenzy to accompany the film's dazzling highlight. And while Williams occasionally flirts with self-plagiarism (with inevitable variants of his Hook and Star Wars themes), this is nevertheless a richly regal score that brilliantly evokes the mystery and magic of Harry Potter's world. --Jeff Shannon |
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Dr. Demento 20th Anniversary Collection: The Greatest Novelty Records of All Time
Release Date: 1991-05-21
Sales rank: 13740
Pop has a good time eating itself on this collection of Doctor Demento favorites. The tunes on this stylistically varied double CD send up a plethora of pop culture phenomena. The perpetrators come from every imaginable entertainment background. Pro wrestlers, folk singers, comedians, actors, garage bands--you never know who's liable to produce a novelty song. Here it doesn't matter if a respected composer or a one-hit wonder recorded the ditty; all sorts of tracks jostle each other on this funny collection. The material covers quite a time span, ranging from Spike Jones's "Der Fuehrer's Face," released in 1942, to "Wappin'," an unreleased track by Darrell Hammond and Christopher Snell which was a hit on Demento's radio show at the tail end of the 1980s. The 20th Anniversary Collection is quite an assortment of the corny, goofy, wacky, and wild. --Fred Cisterna |
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Halloween Hits
Release Date: 1991-07-30
Sales rank: 3910
Leave it to Rhino Records to come up with the best party music for Halloween rave-ups. In contrast to New Wave Halloween, this set of 10 tunes is aimed squarely at the family listening environment. "Monster Mash," sung by Bobby Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers, is a hoot decades after its origin. And Screamin' Jay Hawkins's "I Put a Spell on You" is aptly eerie, if not a tad funny in this setting--considering that "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" comes after and the Addams Family theme comes before. And lest you think this set of tunes is mired in the depths of Halloween tunes from generations ago, it also has "Ghostbusters"--which reeks of datedness anywhere but here. --Andrew Bartlett |
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Carnival Of Lost Souls
Release Date: 2006-06-06
Sales rank: 14358
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Transylvania
Release Date: 2005-10-21
Sales rank: 2185
Embark on a musical journey into the mysterious and forbidden land of vampires, werewolves and witches. This powerful, eerie and darkly romantic soundscape offers 21 tracks of symphonic orchestrations, gothic choirs and haunting sound effects, inspired by Bram Stoker's classic novel, Dracula. |
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Halloween Howls
Release Date: 1996-08-20
Sales rank: 5129
Gold assembled a handful of knowns and unknowns to make special cameos on this melodic and fun collection of original and classic Halloween tunes with a pop-rock bent. Among the haunted are David Cassidy, Karla Bonoff, Linda Ronstadt, Stephen Bishop, Nicolette Larson, and Gold's children and wife. From the Beatlesesque touches of "It Must Be Halloween" (parts seemingly lifted from "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite") to Boris Karloff's "Monster Mash" and "The Addams Family" theme song, Gold and company offer up treats that kids and their parents will like, including the "Ghostbusters" theme. But with cooler original fare like "The Creature from the Tub" and "Spooky, Scary Skeletons," you have to wonder why they relied on so many predictable cover songs. --Martin Keller |
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Darklore Manor
Release Date: 2004-03-20
Sales rank: 3648
Enter Darklore Manor, where creatures of the night lurk in shadows and ghostly sounds echo through unhallowed halls. Nox Arcana invites you to embark on a musical journey throughout a legendary haunted mansion with a dark and sinister history. This gothic soundscape contains 21 tracks of haunting melodies, eerie voices, Latin chants, and foreboding orchestrations to create a perfect dark and moody atmosphere. Newly remastered in 2007. |
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Halloween Hootenanny
Release Date: 1998-10-13
Sales rank: 4528
You just need one look at Rob Zombie to know that the guy knows a thing or two about Halloween. He really proves his mettle--and his metal, for that matter--on this loud, garish, downright fun collection of rip-roaring devil's music. There's actually very little to be afraid of, to tell the truth--unless, that is, you have a phobia about the kind of goofy good times laid down by Zombie and pals like Rocket from the Crypt, Satan's Pilgrims, and the wrestling-masked power-surf combo Los Straitjackets (who turn in a hypercharged "Munsters Theme"). The garishly groovy package, which features some of Zombie's most over-the-top cartoon illustrations, is rife with haunting hoedowns like the Dead Elvi's "The Creature Stole My Surfboard." More fun than a coven meeting any day. --David Sprague |
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Halloween, Vol. 2: Creatures Collection
Release Date: 2006-09-12
Sales rank: 6939
Mannheim Steamroller composer and founder Chip Davis has done it again. After hitting the #1 spot on the Billboard charts with 2003's Halloween, his first foray into the nation's second biggest retail holiday, Chip is continuing his holiday takeover with a new 3-disc set that includes a 13-track music disc, a brand new sound effects CD, and in true over-the-top Steamroller style, a DVD complete with a new "Creatures of the Night" dance (a.k.a. "Thriller" meets "The Macarena") created specially for Mannheim Steamroller. Halloween 2 features new digital takes of traditional Halloween fare like "Monster Mash" and theme songs from The Addams Family, Dr. Who, X Files, The Munsters, and Psycho. The album also gives a Halloween spin to other favorites such as Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" and the rock classic "Black Magic Woman," plus several dance remixes by noted club DJs from London and Baltimore. Utilizing the latest in state-of-the-art digital recording, the sound effects disc is sure to raise the hairs on necks everywhere.Highlighted is a DVD containing a debut dance created especially for Mannheim Steamroller, set to the original Chip Davis song "Creatures of the Night." Guaranteed to become the latest dance craze, this choreographed group dance in "Thriller"-meets-"Macarena" fashion will be launched in dance clubs across the nation as part of Mannheim Steamroller's Halloween invasion.Davis first ventured into Halloween with the album Mannheim Steamroller Halloween back in 2003. Mannheim Steamroller then released Monster Mix, which combined favorites of the first album with original sound effects, breaking records in 2004 as the first single act to ever own the top 3 positions (#1 - Monster Mix, #2 - Christmas Celebration, #3 - Halloween) on Billboard's Top New Age Albums Chart. |
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Dr. Demento Presents: Greatest Christmas Novelty CD
Release Date: 1989-07-31
Sales rank: 21314
The title might be immodest, but it's accurate. Just about every holiday song parody and comedy sketch you can imagine is jimmied onto this hilarious, sprawling collection. While you'll find a smattering of well-known Christmas wackiness (including "Grandma Got Run over by a Reindeer" and the Singing Dogs' "Jingle Bells"), the Doctor's specialty is unearthing the obscure, such as Wild Man Fischer's weirder-than-weird "I Am a Christmas Tree." You'll never listen to "The 12 Days of Christmas" quite the same way after hearing the spins put on the tale by both Allan Sherman and Bob and Doug McKenzie, and you're likely to check your Christmas cookie for "special ingredients" after hearing Cheech & Chong's "Santa Claus and His Old Lady." --David Sprague |
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