VLE-9207 Music From The Motion Picture Music Composed and ...jimlochner.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/BarefootInTheParkNotes.pdf · Music From The Motion Picture Music Composed and

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Music From The Motion Picture

Music Composedand Conducted by

Neal Hefti

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With five marriages under his belt, playwright Neil Simon knows a thing or two about the marital timeline — from dating to divorce. So it is no surprise that when Simon’s third play, Barefoot In The Park, opened on Broadway at the Biltmore Theatre on October 23, 1963, his comedic take on the frenzied first weeks of wedded cohabitation ran for 1,530 performances — the biggest hit of his career. Within five months of the opening, Paramount Pictures had purchased the film rights. Robert Redford and Jane Fonda (replacing Geraldine Chaplin) star in the 1967 film as newlyweds Paul and Corie, with veteran actor Charles Boyer as their quirky upstairs neighbor and Mildred Natwick reprising her stage role (and earning a well deserved Oscar® nomination in the process) as Corie’s mother.

“I think this is an ideal picture for me to begin with,” Broadway director Gene Saks told The New York Times about his film debut. “It has a small cast, a strong, worked-out story and I like the characters.” Fonda said, “This is one of the few scripts I ever read that made me laugh out loud.” “I think Doc Simon has opened up the play for us,” said Redford, who had also starred in the Broadway version. “It’s the difference between touching a real tree and a plastic one.” Filmed on location in Central Park and Greenwich Village, the trees were real. The actual “barefoot in the park” was filmed on a sub-freezing day in Washington Square Park and, according to a publicity trifold, the persistent smog that was so prevalent in New York City at the time created a bluish winter haze, “the perfect atmosphere for the February day called for in the script.”

“Barefoot In The Park is one howl of a picture,” howled Variety. Boxoffice proclaimed it “fun, fun, fun all the way! [...] Clever dialog, good acting, suitable music and A-1 photography make this an audio-visual delight.” The Daily News said it was “the kind of picture that fills Radio City Music Hall with happy customers for weeks and weeks. The hilarious comedy [...] comes off better on screen than on the stage.”

Visitors to Radio City were treated to a lavish program prior to the film. The Music Hall Grand Organ welcomed the audience, followed by a documentary short, The White House — An American Heritage, and the current stage show, “Alive and In Color.” The Music Hall Symphony Orchestra’s “Salute to TV Westerns” led into “Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch,” the Ballet Company’s satire of Western dancehall scenes. Puccini’s “Un bel di” from Madama Butterfly, sung

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A Hefti / Simon Double-Feature

including “The Good Earth” and “Wild Root.”Hefti formed his own band in 1951, with lead vocalist Frances Wayne, whom he had met and

married during their tenure with Herman’s band. Throughout the decade, he arranged a number of tunes for Count Basie, including the classic Grammy® Award-winning Atomic Basie album. He became head of A&R (Artists and Repertoire) at Reprise in the early ’60s, arranging for Frank Sinatra and conducting the albums Sinatra and Basie: A Historical Musical First and Sinatra and Swingin’ Brass. Hefti also branched out into film music, composing a string of singing, swinging scores like Sex And The Single Girl (1964), How To Murder Your Wife, and Boeing, Boeing (both 1965). His iconic theme for the 1966 Batman television series brought even bigger fame and a Grammy® Award for Best Instrumental Theme.

Hefti’s score for Barefoot In The Park (1967) begins with a lilting title song [track 1] that waltzes under Paul and Corie canoodling in a carriage ride in Central Park. With lyrics by four-time Oscar®-winner Johnny Mercer, the carefree melody is the embodiment of marital bliss. The song was later included on the shortlist of ten songs sent to the Music Branch for Academy Award® consideration, though it didn’t make the final cut. Hefti orchestrates the theme in a number

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by Iris Bala, provided a strange introduction to the Rockettes in mini trench coats kicking up their heels in “Dangerous Mission,” a spoof of spy films. Rounding out the program were The Alcettys and their plate spinning and balancing act capped by the “Gold Record Awards,” featuring singer Suzanne Barry, The Lang-Manno Singers, and the entire company. The following year, Radio City hosted a similarly spectacular show for Simon’s next hit comedy.

When it opened at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre on Broadway on March 10, 1965, The Odd Couple introduced audiences to those loveable mismatched middle-aged divorcees Felix and Oscar. Simon got the idea for the play from his television writer brother Danny, who “literally had that existence,” Simon said in American Film. “He got divorced, moved in with his best friend to save money on the alimony, and got into terrible fights because my brother was cooking the pot roast, and the girls were coming late. My brother was going to write the play, but he could not write by himself because he was so used to working in collaboration. So I wrote [it] instead.” The play, which starred Art Carney and Walter Matthau, who won a Tony Award for his performance, ran for over two years. Within months, Paramount had bought the film rights with Billy Wilder signed on to direct Matthau and Oscar®-winner Jack Lemmon (Mister Roberts), who, unfortunately for Carney, was a more “bankable” star. By the time the film premiered in 1968, Matthau had copped his own Best Supporting Actor Oscar® for Wilder’s The Fortune Cookie (1966), starring alongside Lemmon.

“The Odd Couple is wise, witty hilarious — as well as universal,” Judith Crist said in New York. “Few movies can make that claim.” “For what it’s worth,” said Charles Champlin in the Los Angeles Times, “I clocked 208 laughs, and I may have missed a couple.” The New York Post upped the ante — “There are a million laughs in The Odd Couple at Radio City Music Hall. What more do you need or want to know?” This time, the Radio City stage show was wall-to-wall Irving Berlin in honor of the songwriter’s 80th birthday. But with apologies to Puccini and Irving Berlin, the real musical star at both engagements was Neal Hefti’s music.

Born October 29, 1922, in Hastings, Nebraska, Hefti began playing the trumpet at age 11. In high school, he started arranging and playing in local bands to help his family financially. Two days after graduating in 1941, he was asked to tour with Dick Berry’s band, which had lost some of its musicians to the war effort, followed by stints with Charlie Barnet, Charlie Spivack, and others. Hefti was classified 4-F during the war after being hit by a car in New York and breaking his pelvis, and joined Woody Herman’s band in 1944, composing some of Herman’s most popular hits,

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drunk Paul channels his inner Velasco and climbs out on the roof [track 18]. “Hefti’s score,” said Variety, “is on the subdued side, adroit for the unfolding of the plot, but it

makes for a pallid main title, where, in a comedy, there should be some punch.” Though that “pallid” waltz is certainly appropriate for the main title’s romantic carriage ride, perhaps the trade journal would have preferred one of the more contemporary covers featured on this disc [tracks 18 & 19].

The trade journal was more complimentary to Hefti’s spare score for The Odd Couple, saying “[it] adds a good lilt.” Films and Filming called it “slight but lovely,” while the Catholic Film Newsletter said, “Neal Hefti has contributed a pleasant, unobtrusive musical score.” Part of the score’s unobtrusiveness is due to its brief length — a mere 18 minutes — with cues that often serve as musical transitions between the film’s basic three-act structure. But Hefti composed a main theme [track 20] that has only grown in stature in the intervening decades. The theme, written in D minor, bounces along with a dotted rhythmic accompaniment in the harpsichord and vibraphone, while the saxes swing the melody with an ironic confident counterpoint to the two

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of groovy arrangements throughout the film, including a gentle bossa nova [track 9] and a full-throated jazz band when Corie searches for Paul in Washington Square Park [tracks 16 and 17].

A running gag in the film is derived from the ordeal of climbing five flights (six, if you count the front stoop) to Paul and Corie’s apartment. Hefti scores the sequences [track 4] by breaking up the melody of the main theme into short sound bites, alternating with ascending scales in a jazz trio for bass, vibraphone, and bongos. Shimmering tremolo chords seesaw in the violins as Corie walks into the new apartment [track 3] followed by a lighthearted scherzo duet in the flute and oboe. A Hammond organ lends a hip feel to “Mother’s Surprise Visit” [track 5], while pizzicato violins and vibraphone take the lead in the sweet theme for the mother-daughter relationship [track 6].

Mr. Velasco’s (Boyer) slinky flute theme [track 7] swings around an ascending organ line and oscillating violin chords. An alto saxophone later colors the theme into “Blues For Paul” [track 13], while the instrument serves as the heart of the plaintive “Cocktail Juke Box” source cue [track 16]. Hefti shakes it up internationally with Albanian-flavored belly dancing music [track 12], complete with accordion, bamboo flute, bongos, tambourine, and zither, a theme that reappears when a

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middle-aged divorcees trying to survive in their newfound bachelorhood. The organ takes over the theme in a slightly slower tempo as Jack Lemmon’s Felix wanders the streets of Manhattan contemplating suicide [track 21], while the tempo slows down even further as he wanders along the waterfront [track 23], with the flutes giving voice to his pain.

Hefti channels a period rock beat and humorous James Brown-like guitar riff [track 22] as the source cue for a tacky strip joint. The upbeat “Tomatoes” cue [track 24] underscores the easy early stages of Oscar and Felix’s cohabitation, while the violins sing the main theme over a steady Batman-like accompaniment once the two finally get on each other’s nerves [track 25]. The CD closes with a demo of the main theme [track 30] sung by Hefti and four-time Oscar®-winning lyricist Sammy Cahn.

The Hartford (CT) Courant said the original Barefoot soundtrack album was “commercially appealing. This should get plenty of air time as mood is carefree.” As part of the album’s promotion, Dot Records supplied dealers with foot print stickers to lead customers into their retail stores. When it came to The Odd Couple, the record company filled out the 18 minutes worth of music with excerpts of Simon’s dialogue. “The accents alone of the actors are an absorbing study,” said Films and Filming, “and the gentle affectionate music and rich comedy, with strong Jewish flavour, combine to make an utterly delightful record,” though the reviewer rightfully called attention to the poor decision to dub canned applause and laughter to the dialogue excerpts (thankfully excised from this release). “Highly recommended,” the magazine concluded, “despite this gaffe.”

“One of the reasons for Neil Simon’s success,” said Boxoffice, “is that he gives us humorous characters in humorous situations that we identify with because they really aren’t too far-fetched from the truth about human nature and life as it sometimes can be.” Simon continued his string of film and stage hits, winning three Tony® Awards and a Pulitzer Prize in 1991 for Lost In Yonkers. Hefti also scored his third Simon film adaptation in 1970 with Last Of The Red Hot Lovers. If Barefoot In The Park showcases the composer’s softer side, The Odd Couple, not surprisingly, features a more cynical musical take, both of which are filtered through Hefti’s impressive jazz roots. This premiere of these two expanded scores proves that Hefti and Simon were the perfect marriage of music and dialogue. Nearly 50 years later, Neal Hefti’s film music is still top floor entertainment.

— Jim Lochner

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ViolinsIsrael BakerHarold AyresAmold BelnickShirley CornellJames GetzoffHoward W. GriffinWilliam HymansonDavida JacksonIrving B. KatzBernard KundellJoseph LivotiRalph SchaefferSid SharpPaul C. ShureRalph SilvermanMarshall SossonAl SteinbergTibor Zelig

ViolasAlbert FalkoveRichard R. FerrinLeon FleitmanMyra Kestenbaum

ViolinsIsrael BakerPaulo AlencarHarold AyresArnold BelnickShirley CornellHyman GoodmanWilliam HymansonIrving B. KatzJoseph LivotiJack L. PepperRalph Schaeffer

Hollywood Studio Symphony

BAREFOOT IN THE PARK

THE ODD COUPLE

Virginia MajewskiJerome J. ReislerAbraham Weiss

CelliMargaret AueHarold BemkoJoseph DiTullioDavid FilermanRaphael Ray KramerAlexander ReismanEmmet Sargeant

BassesGeorge “Red”

CallendarAlfred B. McKibbon

FlutesLouise M. DiTullioSheldon W. Stokes

WoodwindsNorman BennoGene Cipriano

Ralph SilvermanMarshall SossonBarrie Alan StottDorothy Wade

ViolasMyer BelloLeon FleitmanAllan HarshmanMyra KestenbaumVirginia MajewskiAbraham Weiss

Justin GordonClifford “Bud” Shank

French HornsArthur E. BrieglebHuntington BurdickJames DeckerGale Robinson

TrumpetsJohn AudinoFrank BeachDon FagerquistLouis HalmyJames Zito

TrombonesJames HendersonRichard NashRichard NoelKenneth Shroyer

DrumsRoy HarteWilliam Kraft

CelliDavid FilermanElizabeth

GreenschpoonCharlotte HarrisRaphael Ray KramerEmmet Sargeant

BassAlfred B. McKibbon

FluteClifford “Bud” Shank

PercussionDale L. AndersonHal BlaineLarry BunkerFrank W. CappVictor FeldmanMilton HollandShelly ManneEarl C. PalmerEmil RadocchiaGil Surabian

HarpCatherine GotthofferKathryn Julye-Gilbert

Piano, KeyboardsMaury DellRussell FreemanMichael MelvoinJames G. Rowles

GuitarDennis BudimirJoseph GibbonsBarney Kessel

ClarinetAbe Most

SaxesNat BrownPlas Johnson, Jr.

PianoRussell D. Freeman

OrganPete Jolly

Neil K. LevangAllen ReussHoward RobertsThomas Tedesco

AccordionCarl FortinaJack Preisner

BouzoukiPaul G. Kakouris

MandolinMax Gralnick

OudGuy R. Chookoorian

ZitherKingsbury Keyes

CopyistsGene BrenLarry CramerDale R. McMickleJack Rock

GuitarJoseph R. GibbonsAlton R. HendricksonThomas Tedesco

Drums, PercussionDale L. AndersonLarry BunkerRalph S. CollierStanley LeveyJack Sperling

Executive Producers for Varèse Sarabande Records: Cary E. Mansfield, Chas Ferry and Bryon Davis

Executive in Charge of Music for Paramount Pictures: Randy SpendloveSoundtrack Album Coordinator: Michael Murphy • Project Consultant: Lukas Kendall

BAREFOOT IN THE PARK score recorded February 28, March 3 and 8, 1967 at Paramount Pictures Scoring Stage

Orchestrations by Nathan Lang Van Cleave and Gus LeveneTHE ODD COUPLE score recorded

September 29, October 17 and 18, 1967 at Paramount Pictures Scoring Stage Orchestrations by Neal Hefti and Harold MooneyPerformed by The Hollywood Studio Symphony

Orchestra Contractor: Philip KahganArt Direction for Varèse Sarabande Records: Bill Pitzonka

Digital Transfers by John Davis, Precision AudioSonicsMastered by Chas Ferry and Daren Chadwick Assistant Mastering Engineer: Cody Thompson

Special Thanks: Lilly Bennett, Mary Jo Braun, Dan Butler, Sheryl Carlin, Katie Colley, Dina Durant, Adam Ehrlich, Robert Gasper, Natalie Hayden, Tina Kiehl, Annie Killelea,

Elizabeth Kirkscey, Liz McNicoll, Vanessa Palmer, Jason Richmond, Elise Robertson, Jennifer Schiller, Kim Seiniger, David Sooc, Laura Thornburg, Eric Ybanez and Dony West

Music Composed and Conducted by

NEAL HEFTI

BAREFOOT IN THE PARK

1. Barefoot In The Park Main Title (3:31)

2. The Honeymoon (:41)3. A New Home Upstairs (4:39)

4. Six Flights Up (1:55)5. Mother’s Surprise

Visit (1:39)6. Presents (1:30)

7. Cold Visit / Night Visitor (:52)

8. Two O’Clock Capers (1:57)9. Mom Arrives For Dinner (1:36)10. Journey To

The Four Winds (1:24)

11. Shama Shama / Race Up The Stairs (3:50)

12. Blues For Paul (2:11)13. I Warned Her (1:50)

14. Victor’s Downfall (:32)15. Cocktail Juke Box

(Girl Talk) / Corie Grows Up / The Search (3:32)16. The Search Pt. 2 /

The Barefoot Stumbler (1:04)17. A Nut On The Roof /

End Title (3:47)Bonus Tracks:

18. Barefoot In The Park (Unused Rock Version) (1:59)

19. Barefoot In The Park (Unused Lounge Version) (2:14)

THE ODD COUPLE20. The Odd Couple

Main Title (1:39)21. Suicide Attempt

Pt. 2 (4:07)22. Metropole (2:19)

23. Waterfront Blues (:55)24. Tomatoes (:51)

25. Hostile Silence (1:18)26. Man Chases Man (:54)

27. Left With A Curse (1:38) (Not featured in the film)28. End Title (1:04)

Bonus Tracks:29. The Odd Couple Theme

(Instrumental Demo) (1:10) 30. The Odd Couple Theme

(Vocal Demo, Neal Hefti & Sammy Cahn) (1:27)

Performed by The Hollywood Studio SymphonyBarefoot In The Park Main Title by Neal Hefti and Johnny Mercer

Shama Shama Music by Danny Gould, Lyric by Luben Balabanoff, Conducted by Irvin Talbot; Instrumental Introduction by Nathan Lang Van Cleave

The Odd Couple (Vocal Version) Music by Neal Hefti, Lyrics by Sammy Cahn

Music Composed and Conducted by

NEAL HEFTI

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This CD contains the premiere release of the original film recording for each score in the best-available monaural sound.Published by Sony/ATV Harmony (ASCAP)

Motion Picture Artwork, Logos and Photography C1967, 1968 Paramount Pictures. All rights reserved. P2017 Paramount Pictures. All rights reserved. Manufactured by Varèse Sarabande Records, LLC,

9100 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 455E, Beverly Hills, CA 90212. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws. Printed in the U.S.A. Distributed by Universal Music Distribution, 2220 Colorado Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90404.

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