Songs That Sound Like Movies: Complete Epic Recordings

These are the LPs I was looking for. I had mid-70s EPIC 45s of 'Terminal' and 'WHo, What, Where, When Why', so I was not surprised to find Holmes being "discovered" in 1980 with 'The Escape Song', 'Answering Machine', 'Him', 'Blackjack' and others. He has moved into musicals as well, but his bread and butter was pop music. ((My favorite that SHOULD'VE been a hit, other than the first two listed above, is 'I Don't Need You'.))Barbra Streisand was an early fan and he wrote demos for her remake of A Song Is Born! He arranged, wrote songs and conducted on SIX of her lps!!This 3CD pack with lp cover/liner notes on each, plus bonus tracks of demos, live cuts and unreleased materials make it a stellar collection. It's jam packed into the paper sleeve tho - 3 cds with sleeves AND a booklet can be tricky. Remastered, sometimes from his own studio tapes, so everything sounds fantastic.Widescreen was a concept LP that featured quite a bit of studio work and I think the cd gives those touches greater depth than the lp. Meanwhile, Singles was produced in mind for studio executives who didn't know how to market him - the marketing dept literally said give us some singles! His own management at the time was also not booking him correctly so these are things we find out in a deep listen.He wrote for other people and played as a studio musician with the likes of Ron Dante (CUff Links, Archies) and Barbra, so he was ready to try his own cards in these three lps. I was delighted to find them with extra curated material - well worth the price of admission!

Songs That Sound Like Movies: The Complete Epic Recordings With “The Pina Colada Song” playing on the radio for years and years, I had no idea what else Rupert Holmes did. So I have a friend who loves all kinds of music and we’re both old music nuts. When I asked what she was listening to lately, she said an “absolutly fabulous” new Rupert Holmes box set. I was like, “Your kidding, right?” She had a couple of songs on her iPhone that she played—“Terminal” and “Letters That Cross In The Mail"—and I was pretty impressed. The next day, I actually bought the box and called my friend to tell her she owed me the cost of the box if the rest of it sucked. So the box arrived—it was called Songs That Sound Like Movies, probably a play on the very first song title, “Widescreen.” It had three mini-LP jacket CDs that had the original albums plus stuff he played live at The Bottom Line, some demos of songs he wrote for A Star Is Born (this is the Pina Colada guy?) and a booklet with decent liner notes though I almost never read those. Best weird moment while listening to the box? Hearing a familiar voice that turned out to be The Nightbird—WNEW’s Alison Steele—on one of the tracks, something called “Psycho Drama.” I used to love falling a sleep to her show when I was a kid. So Alison Steele and Rupert Holmes act out an hysterical Maltese Falcon parody that sends up all my favorite things about noir movies. Another couple of favorite songs turned out to be “Studio Musician” that sounded pretty familiar. My friend told me Barry Manilow recorded it, so that’s probably how I heard it. My other favorite is “Annabella." The saddest song on this box set is “The Place Where Failure Goes” that’s about all those things that don’t work out but in the end seemed to have a had a reason. Maybe that’s the place all these good songs went before Pina Colada—oh yeah, and “Him,” his other big hit I almost forgot about. I’m SO glad my friend turned me on to this music and now I want to hear more Rupert Holmes especially if it’s this freakin good. I noticed there’s another Rupert Holmes box set online that sells for about $1000. Again, I ask, “This is the Pina Colada Guy?"

Rupert Holmes is a master composer and songwriter. A sort of combination of Elton John and Stephen Sondheim. The man writes in various styles with lyrics that delve into truth. All excellent. Holmes made his money on “The Pina Colada Song while the balance of his work is in a separate class by itself. This collection is outstanding.

Great set of albums. Nicely printed and produced. Sound quality is excellent. Liner notes are awesome. You don’t get that with streaming lol

This is a wonderful release for fans of Rupert Holmes early efforts on Epic Records. Each album is released in full, in order, with a couple of bonus tracks thrown in. It comes with an outer slipcase that holds each of the three mini-LPs and nice booklet with lots of background information. Sound quality is quite good.

Spectacular reissue. I had all of these albums but they haven’t been available on CD except for some imports a few years ago. This reissue has superior sound quality. It also proves how amazingly talented Rupert Holmes is. These songs are timeless and stunning. I highly recommend this set.

So glad to get this collection which include early favorites like”To scared to sing-

Really enjoyable. An underrated singer/songwriter

非の打ち所がない完璧さ。

What an absolutely marvellous find! Rupert Holmes was/is as class singer/songwriter. His Epic albums are, for me, his very best ones. Widescreen, Rupert Holmes and Singles are all represented here, along with bonus tracks (b-sides, live material, single edits here and there). Rupert went far beyond what most of his competitors did, not only in the stylistic breadth of the material but also in the fact that he arranged and orchestrated (not to mention conducted) the entire thing. So many people recorded his work, not to mention Barbra Streisand. His early work is long due a reappraisal. This brilliant collection should get that process under way.

I've been after these three albums for many years and had not heard them since the 1970s when they were originally released. This is an excellent box set with the three CDs in miniature replica album covers and all packaged together in a slipcase with an informative 20 page booklet. There are bonus tracks included at the end of each CD, some of which are acceptable and interesting live recordings. The original album tracks are however excellent audio quality and very well mastered. A great package, well worth buying.

SON LAS PRIMERAS OBRAS DE ALGUIEN QUE, COMO MUCHOS, FUE NINGUNEADO Y PRETERIDO POR LA CRÍTICA ANTES Y DESPUÉS. MULTI-INSTRUMENTISTA Y PRODUCTOR, ENTRE OTRAS COSAS, ES TAN SÓLO CONOCIDO POR SER UN "ONE HIT WONDER" CON "THE PIÑA COLADA SONG" Y POCO MÁS, AUNQUE TIENE EXCELENTES TEMAS DE SOFT ROCK (QUE ES EL GÉNERO AL CUAL LE TIENEN DECLARADA LA GUERRA LOS POPES DE LA MÚSICA). BUEN PRECIO Y ÁLBUMES MUY INTERESANTES