Alex North! (Random Reviews from the Overflow Room)

Master film music composer Alex North was a musician of great skill and character, serving the needs of the project at hand while preserving elements of his own personal style. Here are some of his most noteworthy projects.

[donaldayres]

Nice collection. The prominence of Goldsmith-conducted scores reflects the respect of a pupil for his teacher. "Spartacus" is my favorite and it is fascinating to hear how North was influenced by the Shostakovich 7th, as Goldsmith would be in his classic, "The Blue Max".

[leestamm]

Glad you mentioned "Dragonslayer." A very atmospheric score for a terrific fantasy film.

[marmadukefitzherbert]

I sometimes find myself humming the beautiful love theme from 'Spartacus'

[KeithMessersmith]

Love Cleopatra, perfectly depicts Egypt and its last Queen!

[christopherreese]

Alex North composed the music to the famous song, UNCHAINED MELODY.

[dmntuba]

I've always enjoyed Alex North's music, but makes me sad that more "younger" listeners don't know or promote his music...of course many of them don't know anything before JW Star Wars 😅
I do think it sucks the way his score for 2001 was declined, but using the classical cues just added to the overall cinematic experience....and we did get a wonderful recording of it from Jerry Goldsmith 👍

[karenbryan]

Hey Dave--how about your take on great music for really bad movies? So many to choose from! You just named a couple: "Cleopatra" and "The Agony and the Ecstasy". (On second thought, maybe these two aren't really so bad. Anything that provokes a laugh can't be all bad, can it? I'm so old I remember Milton Berle, in full Cleopatra drag, doing a "Cleopatra" sketch and song, and the Mad Magazine version of "A&E" titled "The Agony and the Agony").