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(Cast)Singer Julie CheneryCombo Singer Mick Leyton
(Head credits)
Musical DirectorWilliam Motzing
(Tail credits)
Original ScoreBruce Smeaton
"Outback to the Ocean" Dorothy Dodds"The Great White Train"
Dorothy Dodds"Golden Hills" Dorothy Dodds"Let me call you
Sweetheart" L. Friedman & B. Whitson"Are You Lonesome Tonight"
R. Turk & L. Handman"BabyFace" B. Davis/Harry Akst"The Sleeping
Beauty Waltz" Tchaikovsky"Overture Symphony No. 5" Tchaikovsky"The
Golden Cockerel" Rimsky-Korsakoff"The Dance of the Sprites"
Chopin"Polovtsian Dances" Borodin"Am I Blue" G. Clark & H.
Akst"Nola" F. Arndt"Narcissus" E. Nevin"Amapola" J. M. Lacalle
& A. Gamse"Too Much Raspberry" S. K. Russell
Additional MusicWilliam Motzing
"Am I Blue" Sung byBilly Field
Music ConsultantTed Albert
Recorded atAlberts Studios & EMI Studios, Sydney
Original SoundtrackWEA Records, Australia
(Note: Dorothy Dodd is listed in the film credits as "Dodds",
but in most spellings of her names, she doesn't have the "s" at the
end).
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In the DVD 'making of', producer David Elfick had this to say
about the use of music in the show, which trends towards a musical,
but never takes the final step:
With Undercover, we wanted to get a 1930s feel, most important,
but we didn't want the film to feel old-fashioned, so we wanted to
give it a contemporary edge. Bruce Smeaton was the composer of the
soundtrack of the film. He did a great job, he's done many fabulous
Australian films, but with Bruce we wanted to have something that
was nostalgic as well, because his score is period but it's got a
contemporary edge, so we wanted something a bit kitsch and a bit
old-fashioned and something that was also modern as well, so I
thought what I'll do is get two song writers to come in and write
songs for the film but they'll be in vastly different styles. Now
there was this quite elderly lady called Dorothy Dodd and she'd
composed a pop song in the fifties called Granada that was sung by
a guy called Frankie Laine which was very theatrical and quite a
wonderful song that was very successful. Anyway, she lived in
Sydney, so I contacted Dorothy and she knew all about Fred Burley
and the Berlei empire so I said 'Dorothy, what about composing a
couple of songs for us?' and she did and they're in the film and
she composed songs about the great white train trip … but she gave
us two or three songs which gave the film a wonderful theatricality
in terms of the songs… But then I thought I needed a contemporary
edge. Now there was a guy, his name is Billy Field, very talented
singer, composer, piano player and he'd had a couple of huge hits
in Australia … so I approached Billy and I said 'what about trying
to write something with?' - he was an unusual pop star in that, as
I said, he played the piano, and he wrote his own stuff, and it
wasn't like sort of normal rock 'n roll guitar-based music, and so
he wrote the Undercover theme song, which he collaborated with
Bruce and Dorothy Dodd, and then …he sung a great old standard
called 'Am I Blue' which was from the period. So that was how we
did the soundtrack. We had three elements, Bruce Smeaton, Dorothy
Dodd and of course Billy Field …
As with other things Elfick says in the 'making of', this is a
tad disingenuous. Elfick thought so little of Smeaton's
contribution when it came to the credits, that he gave him an end
credit, yet offered musical director William Motzing a head
credit.
One song by Dorothy Dodd performed in the big end Berlei show
set piece, is worth celebrating as a piece of Australiana which
would have easily passed muster in the 1920s. It's called Outback
to the Ocean and is sung in the film by Julie Chenery:
A sprig of golden wattleA waratah of redA kangaroo, koala bearA
busy shearing shedThey paint a vivid picture of a paradise on
EarthAustralia is most beautifulThe country of my birthFrom the
outback to the oceanWhere the southern stars hang lowEvery blue gum
nods a welcomeEvery sea breeze says, "Hello".From the summer to the
springtime
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As the rivers ebb and flowThere's a high cross in the
heavensWatching over us belowSing of swagmen Waltzing MatildaAnd
sing of GundagaiOr shoot the curling breakersunderneath the clear,
blue skyWe can wander far horizonsbut wherever we may goFrom the
outback to the ocean'Tis the fairest land I know(musical bridge
with tap dancing, and shots of Barry Otto feeling Sandy Gore's
bum)From the outback to the oceanIt's the fairest land I know
….
By way of contrast, Undercover, the song written by Dorothy Dodd
and Bruce Smeaton, and sung by Billy Field over the end credits, is
a more tepid affair, with little energy or kitsch value:
However could IHave expectedWhat suddenly I detected?We were
meant for one anotherAnd you and I a teamWould have once have been
an impossible dreamI ought to get smartMaybe fight itBut why should
I have to hide it?I can't keep my love undercover nowNo, I can't
keep my love undercover now …And so I knowThat you were always
thereNever had a clueThere was so much that we could shareDid you
stumble in my armsAnd my heart?And there were our lips gently
meetingThe moment was oh so fleetingBut I've gone and blown my
cover now'Cause I can't keep my love undercover nowOh, yeah …Uh-huh
…(musical interlude featuring an old time band sound dominated by
laid back brass and woodwinds)And there were our lips gently
meetingThe moment was oh so fleetingBut I've gone and blown my
cover nowNo, I can't keep my love undercover nowNo, I can't keep my
love
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Undercover.Now. (piano fade out)
Bruce Smeaton:
1981-83 were years when Bruce Smeaton was much in demand for the
scoring of feature films and high end television drama.
As well as the period- and jazz-inflected Squizzy Taylor, he did
Monkey Grip in 1982, together with the TV mini-series 1915, and in
the United States, Barbarosa with director Fred Schepisi
Back at the beginning of his career, in 1973, Bruce Smeaton had
composed two of the segment scores (The Husband and The Priest) for
the portmanteau feature film Libido (and also the music for the ABC
TV miniseries Seven Little Australians), before doing the score for
Peter Weir's The Cars That Ate Paris, and then moving on to do
David Baker's The Great Macarthy.
Smeaton became a major award-winning Australian composer for
film and television, who immediately after working on Picnic at
Hanging Rock would go on to work on a series of classic Australian
feature films, including Fred Schepisi's The Devil's Playground and
The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith.
Working with Schepisi on The Priest episode for Libido helped
prepare Smeaton for the more expansive score he did for The Devil's
Playground, and it's arguable - because his work on Picnic tended
to be overshadowed by the pan flute gambit - that the film was the
first real chance for Smeaton to do an expressive work that aided
the atmosphere and emotion of a fully effective drama.
With The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, Smeaton continued in
expansive mode, and because of the film's substantial budget, the
score was one of the few in the early revival that could afford to
be laid down at the old Anvil Studios near the village of Denham in
Buckinghamshire, with a British orchestra, the National
Philharmonic, formed exclusively for recording purposes.
Smeaton would continue to work with Schepisi, after the director
went to Hollywood (Barbarosa, Iceman, Roxanne), and he also became
involved in various television shows, such as The Boy in the Bush,
A Town Like Alice, 1915, and Five Mile Creek.
Around the same time as doing the score for the 1981 animated
feature Grendel Grendel Grendel, Smeaton also did the underscore
for (…maybe next Time) and The Earthling (or at least the version
designed for the Australian cut).
Smeaton's relatively short wiki - at time of writing - is
here.
(Below: Bruce Smeaton in 1988)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Philharmonic_Orchestrahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Smeaton
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(Below: Smeaton as he turns up in the DVD 'making of' for Picnic
at Hanging Rock):
(Below: in the 'making of' for Summerfield. Adding the hat
changes everything)
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Music director, musician and composer William Motzing:
Composer William Motzing's site, Spare Parts Productions, active
as of October 2014, provides this short CV:
William Motzing (BMus, MMus) was born in the USA. He graduated
with a Bachelor of Music from Eastman School of Music in Rochester,
New York and continued his studies earning a Masters Degree from
Manhattan School of Music.He went on to study conducting with
Ernest Matteo, Nicholas Flagello, Ionel Perlea and Olga von Geczy;
composition with Ludmila Ulehla and John Mayer at Birmingham
Conservatoire(UK) and arranging with Rayburn Wright.
During his career as a professional trombonist Bill performed
with Kai Winding Septet, Jon Eardley Quintet, Gerry Mulligan Big
Band,Bill Russo Big Band, Sal Salvador Big Band, Eastman-Rochester
Symphony and the Pittsburgh Symphony. His diverse career has also
included being the sound designer for Blood,Sweat and Tears for
three years.
In the classical arena Bill has conducted major symphony
orchestras including the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the
Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestras. In Europe he has conducted
the BBC Radio Orchestra,the Irish Radio/Television Concert
Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic, the Budapest Opera Orchestra and
the Babelsberg Film Studio Orchestra in Berlin.
Bill has composed, arranged, produced and conducted stage
productions including Academy Award presentations and over 100
albums and CDs in the USA, Australia and Europe. As a
composer/arranger his film credits include The Quiet American, Soul
Food and the Simpsons. In Australia he is well represented via
filmscores and television series including Mother and Son, Come in
Spinner, Brides of Christ and Young Einstein.
He currently teaches theory, arranging, modern jazz history,
improvisation and ensembles at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Bill continues to perform his works regularly in Sydney and
inspires all musicians he comes in contact with.
(Below: William Motzing)
http://gaibryantspareparts.com/composer/william-motzing/
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(Below: William Motzing on the right, here conducting the music
for the Australian feature film Kokoda at Studios 301, with
composer John Gray on the left)
Composer Dorothy Dodd:
Dorothy Dodd's three song contribution to the music score shows
an awareness for the authentic popular musical idioms of the 1920s,
but this is hardly surprising because Dodd was a veteran of the
music industry, who at one time became president of APRA.
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Dodd's biggest claim to fame was her fitting out English words
to the tune Granada by Spanish composer Lara, and then watch it
soar up the charts in the 1950s in a version sung by Frankie
Laine.
Trove lists many of Dodd's works here.
(Below: Dorothy Dodd at the APRA awards, then accepting a
platinum award for her song Granada, with host Daryl Somers on the
right, and below that at another awards ceremony with singer Glenn
Shorrock, and below that, with Coral and George Dasey, Dodd third
from left, and Marjorie Hesse on the right).
http://trove.nla.gov.au/people/615762?q=creator%3A%22Dodd%2C+Dorothy%22&c=people
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Singer and composer Billy Field:
Billy Field was, at the time the film was made, a hot number in
the popular music game, with three hit singles, Bad Habits and You
Weren't in Love with Me (1981) and in 1982, True Love, though his
song over the end credits for the film, Undercover, didn't do any
business.
Field has a short wiki here.
(Below: Billy Field)
Singer Julie Chenery:
Julie Chenery, who sings the Australiana classic by Dorothy
Dodd, Outback to the Ocean, had a classically trained voice. She
won a Conservatorium Opera Scholarship in the late 1960s, and
graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium, and later sang with the
Australian Opera. She was a working singer, and her appearance in
Undercover was a typical example of her willingness to give it a
go. AusStage has a brief list of a few of her performances here.
See this site's photo gallery for Chenery in action in the
film.
The soundtrack was released as an LP, with a 45 also
released.
LP details:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Fieldhttp://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/contributor/226772
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LP WEA 250346-1 1984Composer: Bruce Smeaton All compositions
published by J. Albert & Son except * published by D. Davis
Recorded at Alberts Studios, Studio 301 and Paradise Studio, Sydney
Australia Engineers: Col Freeman, David Hemming, Gerry Nixon and
Richard Lush Special thanks to Bill Donaldson
SIDE 1:Undercover - Theme (B. Smeaton)Polka In The Park (B.
Smeaton)Polka Survey (B. Smeaton)Narcissus (E. Nevin)Golden Hills
(D. Dodd) Vocals: Mick LeytonMagnetic Rag (S. Joplin)Amapola (J. M.
LaCalle/A. Gamse)Too Much Raspberry (S. K. Russell)Yes Sir, Thatʼs
My Baby (G. Kahn/W. Donaldson)Nola (F. Arndt)The Celebration (B.
Smeaton)Are You Lonesome Tonight (B. Turk/L. Handman)Scandal Sheet
(B. Smeaton)Am I Blue (G. Clarke/H. Akst) Vocals: Billy Field
SIDE 2:Baby Face (B. Davis/H. Akst)Great White Train (D. Dodd)
Vocals: Boy Scout ChoirGreat White Train (D. Dodd) Vocals: Mick
LeytonLibby Leaves (B. Smeaton)Frank Proposes (B. Smeaton)Overture:
Extract From Symphony No.5 (Tchaikovsky)The Golden Cockerel
(Rimsky-Korsakof)
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Dance Of The Sprites (Chopin)Polovtsian Dances From Prince Igor
(Borodin)Let Me Call You Sweetheart (L. Friedman/B. Whitson)From
The Outback To The Ocean * (D. Dodd) Vocals: Julie CheneryWaltz
From The Sleeping Beauty (Tchaikovsky)Undercover (B. Smeaton/D.
Dodd) Vocals: Billy Field
45 details - it apparently did no business:
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45 WEA 7-259708 1984 (Picture sleeve)Recorded at Paradise
Studios Sydney, AustraliaRe-Mixed at Albert Studios SydneyProducer:
Billy FieldEngineer: David Hemming
Side A: Undercover (3'05") (B. Smeaton/D. Dodd)
(Chappell/Control) Vocals: Billy FieldSide B: Am I Blue (2'55") (G.
Clarke/H. Akst) (J. Albert & Son) Vocals: Billy Field