Spook Central: The Ghostbusters Companion - "Ghostbusters" Score Album

Spook Central: The Ghostbusters Companion - Established August 1996 By Paul Rudoff

Films > Ghostbusters

Original Motion Picture Score
Music Composed and Conducted by Elmer Bernstein
(March 16, 2006, Varese Sarabande)

1.    3:00 Ghostbusters Theme †

2.    3:02 Library and Title *

3.    0:31 Venkman

4.    0:30 Walk

5.    1:36 Hello

6.    2:01 Get Her!

7.    1:25 Plan

8.    1:08 Taken

9.    1:01 Fridge

10.    0:54 Sign

11.    0:35 Client

12.    2:45 The Apartment

13.    3:31 Dana's Theme †

14.    2:02 We Got One!

15.    2:01 Halls

16.    1:56 Trap

17.    0:38 Meeting

18.    0:54 I Respect You

19.    1:07 Cross Rip

20.    1:30 Attack

21.    0:57 Dogs

22.    0:45 Date

23.    4:12 Zool

24.    1:40 Dana's Room

25.    1:19 Judgment Day

26.    0:42 The Protection Grid

27.    2:15 Ghosts! *

28.    1:12 The Gatekeeper

29.    0:33 Earthquake

30.    1:13 Ghostbusters! *

31.    1:14 Stairwell

32.    2:48 Gozer

33.    1:25 Marshmallow Terror

34.    1:30 Final Battle

35.    2:13 Finish

36.    5:04 End Credits *

   BONUS TRACKS

37.    1:37 Magic †

38.    3:12 Zool †

39.    2:04 We Got One! (Alternate)

* Not used in the film † Album version

Album Notes

As the bootleg version listed below is of questionably/unknown origin, this album is considered the only official release of the score to the public.
This album is a "Varese Sarabande CD Club" selection, though it isn't a club per se, as there is nothing to join and no membership fee. The CD Club is a series of special limited edition releases of rare, out of print and previously unavailable film scores. Ghostbusters is limited to 3000 copies for the world. The album is only available for purchase directly from Varese Sarabande Records. It is not sold in stores (as evident by the lack of a UPC bar code on the back). (The album WAS available for purchase on the Varese Sarabande website, but is officially SOLD OUT as of May 24, 2006.)
There is a song missing from this album. On the bootleg CD (listed below) there is a song titled "Somebody Let Me In" (starts at 0:56 into track 12), which is the background music played inside the Tavern On The Green while the patrons are eating (and Louis is outside getting attacked by the Terror Dog). This music should have been on this CD inbetween tracks 21 and 22, but it is nowhere to be found. I have not done a full comparison between the two albums, so there may be even more missing music. In fact, a few folks online have found a rather large list of missing cues. See the list further down this page.
There is a 14 second pre-gap before track 37. I'm guessing that Varese Sarabande did this to separate the Bonus Tracks from the album proper. I just thought I'd give you a heads-up about it, in case you haven't listened to your copy of the album yet.
There are a few errors in the Liner Notes Essay (which I transcribed with all errors left intact): (1) Dan Aykroyd's last name is always mispelled, even though it's spelled correctly in the billing block on the back of the booklet. (2) Zuul is mispelled in both the essay and the track listings. (3) There is completely incorrect information about Filmation. It says that they sued Columbia Pictures because they "claimed prior ownership of the Ghostbusters title for one of [their] Saturday morning children's programs in development" and later goes on to say that they settled out of court. There was never any lawsuit between Filmation and Columbia. While the movie was still being filmed in New York, the filmakers found out about Filmation's 1975 series (hardly "in development" in 1984), and they quickly worked out a deal to use the title.
The rear insert inner picture of the Ecto-1 (the photo under the CD) is from GB2, not GB1. It's from the dilapidated Ecto-1 scene at the beginning of the movie. The license plate is a dead giveaway (it's the design used in 1989, not the one from 1984). Also, Varese Sarabande applied a motion blur to the photo. The original photo, which was printed in the first issue of The Real Ghostbusters magazine in the Summer of 1989, was a crisp clear photo with no blur.

Album Images
Here are very large images of the album's artwork. If you lost the original CD artwork, or you bought a used copy that never came with any, you can print these out to make your own CD artwork.

Missing Cues
Brandon Lindsay found a few pieces of music from the film that are missing from this album, though some of them are on the bootleg. In addition to what he found, there has been some interesting talk over on the Film Score Monthly forum, which has brought up more missing cues, and other information. Listed below is everything Brandon gave me, and what I've culled from the forum.

From Brandon Lindsay:
* Hotel Music (Source) - On Bootleg: 08 Hard Work 4:22 - 5:48.
* Action Riff (Unused) - On Bootleg: 08 Hard Work about 10 sec long. At about 1:30.
* Tavern on the Green (Source) - On Bootleg: 12 Somebody Let Me In! :56-End.
* Puft Hat (Presumably from Deleted Scene) - On Bootleg: 18 The Big Marshmellow 1:28-End.
* Shut it Off! (Outtake from Containment Unit shut down) - On Bootleg: Track 41 on 57 track boot.
* "Swirling Strings" (From about three points in the movie, after Zool in fridge, after "Magic", first sight of SP man.) About 10 sec. (not on bootleg either)
* Militaristic Drumming (After the "This Chick is Toast!" line) (not on bootleg either)
From "SoundtrackNet" (Dan):
It's missing one piece of music that is used at least THREE times in the film - apparently it was replacing something Bernstein wrote, because two of those moments (on the CD) have music by Bernstein that doesn't appear in the film at all. (And yet is not designated as such by the CD tracks).
The first is the end of "The Fridge", where (in the film) Dana hears "Zuul!" and then screams and slams the fridge shut. The second (not on the CD) is actually mixed into the very end of Mick Smiley's song, "Magic", just as the penthouse explodes around Dana. The third part is during the confrontation with Gozer at the end, when Venkman says "Let's show this prehistoric bitch how we do things downtown!"
The music is basically a dissonant synth string pad, wavering slowly, then sliding upwards. If you know what I mean, then you'll also find that its lack of presence on the CD is missing, especially since it's used in three pinnacle moments.
As an aside, Track 14 "We Got One" should be marked as NOT being used in the film.
From "Wedge":
OK, I've examined all *ahem* sources carefully, and here's what I've come up with that is NOT on the Varese disc:
* The aforementioned synth bits that Dan first mentioned when he began this thread -- alternates from "Fridge" and "Ghosts!", and an unreleased Gozer bit.
* The short cue where the Ghostbusters exit the hotel elevator and snoop around, just before they blast the maid's cart.
* A very short, aggressive statement of the GB theme. Not used in the film, but possibly written for the actual blasting of the maid's cart.
* The ballroom/tavern source music cues -- both longer than what appears in the film, both a lot of fun.
* A potential alternate for "Dogs" -- at least the second half. The first half is mostly synth and electronics and doesn't appear to match up with anything.
* The cool, militaristic statement of the GB theme as they unsling their proton packs and approach Gozer. Very unfortunate this is missing...
* The film-version of the appearance of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
* A thirty-second cue featuring the Mr. Stay Puft theme, possibly written for the scene immediately after he crushes the church and the team blasts him.
That's all I've got for now. Also, from its placement on the album and the way it synchs up, I suspect "Ghostbusters!", which is not used in the film, was meant to underscore the team climing out of the earthquake rubble and beeing cheered on by the crowd before entering the stairwell.
From "chrobb":
The piece "Magic" on the new CD is an instrumental version of one of the songs Elmer Bernstein wrote for the 1983 Broadway musical "Merlin".
From "SoundtrackNet" (Dan):
That makes a lot more sense; I found the mention in the liner notes that the "sliding note at the end firmly places the song in the Ghostbusters world" (or something like that) to be wholly unconvincing. It's like saying "Elfman's use of a boys choir for the last note at the end of the track firmly places it in the world of Edward Scissorhands". I found that to be quite a stretch, and now that explains it!

The Score
Music Composed by Elmer Bernstein
(1984?, Limited Release / Bootleg)

All of these were digitalized by me, Paul Rudoff.
DON'T LINK DIRECTLY TO ANY OF THE FILES. THANKS.

Total size: 80.8 Mb
Total time: 59:34
MP3 Settings: Bitrate - 192 kBit/s | Sample Rate - 44100 Hz | Channels - Stereo

MP3 Notes
The above MP3s were digitally extracted from a bootleg that was purchased on the eBay auction site. The original CD is of such poor quality that it can't be played in my computer, and is now starting to give me problems when I try to play it in my regular CD player. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the CD itself is translucent - you can see right through it! I've never seen a see-though CD, and I doubt that it's supposed to be that way (the player/drive probably can't read the CD as the laser most likely goes right through it). Luckily, I was able to make myself a copy using the stand-alone Pioneer dual-deck CD recorder I used to own. This backup copy is what I used to make the MP3s. Although the original CD itself is of poor quality, the audio is fairly good. However, it's not perfect. Below is a list of defects I typed up for my own use based upon my first listening of the original CD (back when I was able to play it). All defects from the original CD were carried over into my backup CD, which in turn carried them over to the MP3s. There may be more defects than these, but these are all of the ones I noticed, and thus all of the major ones. The times may be a second or two off since this was based on the original CD and not the MP3s.

TRACK	TIME	DEFECT
6	1:07	skip
12	0:21	skip (very slight)
12	2:34	3 or 4 loud crackles
13	1:00	skip (very slight)
13	2:18	skip
14	0:18	skip
14	2:08	high volume crackles
15	1:14	skip
18	1:26	strange noise inbetween music change
20	1:29	loud clicks (CONTINUES TO VERY BEGINNING OF TRACK 22)
21	0:34	skip
21	0:45	skip
22	0:14	skip

Album Notes

The following was once posted by Sheila Paulson on the alt.movies.ghostbusters newsgroup:
When I first heard there was an orchestral score CD of Ghostbusters, I went to Borders' music department and asked them to look it up and see if I could order it. They found it listed. It was a promotional CD, not for wide release and there were only a limited number of copies made. Since it was not intended to be sold in stores, it's probably not surprising it's not fancy. But I don't know that Borders would have it listed if it didn't exist.
This isn't to say that someone isn't making illegal copies of it, though. I have no way of knowing that one way or the other.
From what I've read, the "limited number of copies" that Sheila refers to is 100.

Liner Art Images
Here are very large images of the album's artwork. Print these out to make your own CD artwork, should you decide to convert the MP3s above into a CD.

Front Cover (387 Kb)
Back Cover (461 Kb) (Notice the typos(?) for tracks 5 and 14)

Outside Links

Elmer Bernstein's Rare Soundtracks

There *MAY* be three different versions of the bootleg album (or at least with different titles). (This list was compiled a few years before the official Score CD was released)

GraceNote's CDDB lists the following:

 1.  Opening-The Library
 2.  Arrival at the Library-Librarian Interrogation
 3.  Library Basement
 4.  Get Her!-Inspiration-Three Mortgages
 5.  Buying the Firehouse-Dana
 6.  In Business
 7.  Checking Dana's Apartment
 8.  Hotel Haunting
 9.  Lincoln Center-Winston Zeddmore
10.  Terror Dogs Are Born
11.  Dana Abducted
12.  Chased By a Bear
13.  There Is No Dana only Zuul-Myth
14.  Keymaster Meets Gatekeeper
15.  The Portal Opens-The Street Caves In
16.  The Stairs
17.  Gozer
18.  The StayPuft Marshmallow Man
19.  Crossing the Streams
20.  Dana Returns
21.  This is the Sign
22.  Aftermath

Paper CD Case lists the following:

 1.  The Library
 2.  ESP Romance
 3.  Arriving At The Library
 4.  Library Ghost
 5.  Planning The Business
 6.  Planning the Business
 7.  Dana
 8.  The Refrigerator
 9.  The Ecto-Mobile
10.  Checking The Apartment
11.  Checking The Kitchen
12.  Going For Broke
13.  Elevator and Sucessful Test
14.  Slimer
15.  Hotel (Source Music)
16.  The Ballroom
17.  Cleaning Up The Town
18.  "See You Thursday"
19.  The Terror Dog Statue
20.  Dana Attacked
21.  Lewis Chased into Central Park
22.  Restaurant Music (Source Music)
23.  Are You The Keymaster
24.  Dana Possessed
25.  Its a Sign Alright
26.  Judgement Day & Core Shutdown
27.  Magic
28.  The Keymaster and Gatekeeper
29.  Saving The Day
30.  A Little Overtime
31.  The Stairs/The Roof
32.  Gozer Appears
33.  How We Do Things Downtown
34.  Stay Puff Marshmallow Man
35.  I Love This Town
36.  Ghostbusters