Guns of Navarone (Varese Sarabande Release)

Being an avid collector of OST recordings, this one IS the OST of Tiomkin's well known music for one of the greatest war movies ever created! I originally bought the vinyl recording in 1959, and of course being there is only 13 tracks, it is to bad that soundtracks were not really in vogue then; hence, the studios only created a few "choice" tracks! Today, there is another version of TGON that contains that contains 22 tracks that was performed by the Praque Philharmonic Orchestra on Tadlow Label. Though the latter is quite good, it does not have the full richness of the original version by Tiomkin. I would think that Columbia Studios would have all of the complete tracks of the 1959 score. Hopefully they will someday release the complete version!

I waited for years to have this on CD and it was worth the wait. I purchased the original sound track when the movie came out oh-so many years ago, and played it until you could "almost hear both sides at once". Yep, I still have and still play, but it'll get a little less play now. HOWEVER, even worn and old and tired, there is still no denying the better sound from vinyl vs. CD Would I buy it again? Yes, and recommend it, but I won't give up my scratched, worn, tired original.

One of my favorite soundtracks. Only missing the Greek song that was sung during the movie. The music by acclaimed conductor Dimitri Tiomkin. One of the greatest composers of movie music right up there with John Williams

Alistair MacLean's excellent and still very readable 1957 novel "The Guns of Navarone" was a thrilling story about a group of Allied commandoes sent on a desperate mission into the German-held Greek Island of Navarone, there to sabotage a pair of high caliber naval guns. The story was in due course transformed into an excellent and critically acclaimed 1961 movie, starring Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, and David Niven. The movie included an excellent movie score composed by Dimitri Tiomkin, which was nominated for an Academy Award. That music has been put out in a couple of different products over the years, but this CD is the original movie score. The quality is good and the score will certainly be memorable for fans of the movie. Recommended.

Since it didn’t say, I assumed this would be the stereo release, but no such luck — flat mono, and the sound isn’t very good. Made to order CD, and no program notes. Shabby and disappointing — no improvement over my old original mono LP.

The fidelity is really good. The cover art is the original of the LP. If you can get the Varese or Japanese releases you would have the stereo versions. However this mono version is very detailed and has a brighter LP like sound that I really enjoyed. I am an audioholic. It would be nice to know the source of this recording.

They just don't make soundtracks like this anymore. THE GUNS OF NAVARONE soundtrack is a legend unto itself. I love this score. It really captures the bravery and determination of its heroes and explores the human spirit like no other adventure capturing the moment into a very romanticized legend. Thank you Dimitri Tiomkin. The legend of Navarone will never be forgotten. Yassu!

Like the Alamo, the Guns of Navarone soundtrack is one Russian-born composor Dimitri Tiomkin's finest soundtracks.I had my first cd player when I was still a student in 1990. I started to collect the old EMI MANHATTAN James Bond movie soundtracks, I had never heard the music before in stereo. I noticed that a lot of the action music heard in the films was not on the soundtrack albums. Like with soundtracks that had never been released before on cd, I recorded the missing music from a tv broadcast on an audio cassette. I only had a Betamax VCR at the time so I connected my tv with my cassetterecorder using a selfmade audio cable. The sound always was in mono but at least I had all the missing music with dialogue and sound effects.When I finally had money enough to buy all the cds that I wanted in 1995, the Varèse soundtracks were already sold out in Europe.That year I found the so called ultimate expanded Alamo soundtrack released by Sony Music but I didn't like the sound quality and most of the added music was not from the original master tapes but with dialogue and sound effects - from the film itself. Exactly like I did years before except now the missing music was in stereo.In 2000 I accidentally found the Varèse soundtracks of both the Alamo and Guns of Navarone in a library in Antwerp, Belgium where I live. I could lend the cds but not buy them. In the meantime I was able to make analogue and digital recordings on Mini Disc invented by Sony. For some reason the MD was not a commercial success so by 1999 most Mini Disc recorders were no longer made by Sony. Strange because a copy on Mini Disc sounds better than a CD-R. When you didn't like a track you could easily erase it and replace it by another track, with a CD-R that was not possible.I didn't have internet until 2010 so I didn't know that Tadlow released a re-recording of the complete Guns of Navarone score and when I tried to buy the cd, it too was already sold out.I had a copy of the Varèse Guns of Navarone score on a CD-R, because I prefered the original soundtrack recording from 1989.In 2017 I finally found a re-issue released by Soundtrack Factory with a colourful booklet but this expanded cd with bonus tracks was not a minute longer than the old Varèse cd. The bonus tracks were different versions of the Main Title but none of them as heard in the movie.I was a bit disappointed.Finally after 33 years I started to buy used cds on Amazon because the new ones are long out of print and the still existing labels like Intrada, Varèse, Kritzerland, Quartet and my personal favourite label LaLaLand release mainly old Jerry Goldsmith scores expanded and remastered but NOT Dimitri Tiomkin's 2 masterpieces.Still the music of the Varèse score to the Guns of Navarone has the same content like the original LP and features the highlights and are not in chronological order. The cd begins with the prologue with James Robertson's narration but it's not exactly the same like in the movie as some write in their review. If you listen carefully you'll notice that the narration begins 30 seconds or so earlier compared to the prologue on the DVD or Blu Ray. Strange and I don't know why the people who made the original recording of the LP in 1961, mixed the narration earlier? The Main Title is not like you would expect track 2 but you have to select track 7: Legend of Navarone. The score is not completely in stereo, like the Wedding Music: that Greek music is in mono. In the movie the sound effects are mixed in stereo but the Wedding Music is recorded in mono.Doesn't make sense but that was common practice in the 1960s. Another example is the Battle of Britain stereo soundtrack album by Ron Goodwin: even the re-issues have a couple of mono tracks. I don't believe that those session master tapes are lost forever, so I can only hope that Lalaland or Intrada find the missing stereo tapes in the vaults of a Hollywood studio like MGM or Columbia (now Sony Music) or at least remix the mono tapes in stereo because I know it's technically possible.That missing music also bothered American soundtrack producer Lukas Kendall with whom I often shared my thoughts in our private e-mails when we were both 2 ambitieus young men in the early 2000s.We like the same filmmusic so I wrote my technical advice or suggestion for releases on cd to Film Score Monthly directly. For those of you who don't know this; the remastered and expanded James Bond soundtracks released in 2004 on EMI/Capitol are produced by Lukas Kendall.He also produced some Quartet soundtracks which I immediately bought from my American friend. I ow him a lot and although we both have our busy lives, I hope we can discuss old movies again and that people start to buy cds again instead of download music.A pressed cd always sounds better than a download.Mr. Lukas Kendall introduced me to Belgian producer Luc Van De Ven of the Prometheus label.If you're looking for a good re-recording of Tiomkin's Alamo complete score, check out for the Prometheus release. It's breathtaking.I still have the Soundtrack Factory release of The Guns of Navarone but I thought the Varèsecd sounds slightly better so I decided to buy it used but like new, and 34 years after its release I finally found the Varèse cd.The booklet is only 2 pages with short liner notes and a black-and-white photo of the composor but I am quite satisfied. Other more recent releases are not longer and do NOT sound much better.Remastered in 24-bit cds are usually not better sounding in my opinion and it's just a marketing trick. Don't forget the original master tapes are over 60 years old and sometimes in bad condition!As long as there is not an expanded release of the original recording with ALL tracks newly remixed and if you love the music, stick with this Varèse release. It's old but sounds good- you won't be disappointed.

ナチス・ドイツがエーゲ海の孤島に築いた巨砲の破壊に挑む6人の男たち。原作も映画も傑作の部類だがナバロンといえばデミトリ・ティオムキンの勇壮なテーマソング“THE GUNS OF NAVARONE”だろう。聴くだけで元気が出る映画音楽！

Love the song to the film never heard it before amazing

HALLMARK盤についてです。モノラルです。購入にはご注意を。

An excellent CD release of the 1960s Philips/CBS original soundtrack album. Just one gripe; and I've had it since the LP. Why did they separate the music after the opening narration? In the film, when James Robertson Justice had finished speaking there was a drum beat into the main title - on the album this was put on a later track. This has been repeated on the more recent expanded CD, which I also bought. A minor detail I know, but the opening in the film's main titles was quite impressive. On these recordings, a bit of a damp squib.Don't be put of though. If you want to relive this exciting film from Tiomkin's music perspective it comes highly recommended.

I remember buying the LP back in the 1960s and played it constantly. At that time I came to admire his music and my love was enhanced after hearing the scores for the Alamo, Fall of the Roman Empire and Giant. One of Hollywood's great composers!