Airplane Soundtrack CD
Airplane.
1980, Paramount.
Elmer Bernstein.
La-La Land, CD, 2009, LLLCD 1093.
Rating: 
This spoof disaster movie proved a good opportunity for Elmer Bernstein (also responsible for writing scores for comedies ’Ghostbusters’ and ’Trading Places’) to poke affectionate fun at the music that accompanied the originals, including the ‘Airport’ series and ‘Jaws’. While he manages to raise a few chuckles, particularly in cues ‘Resolution/Tag’ and the ‘Jaws’ inflected ‘Main Title’ however, this is largely a functional score written to accompany on-screen action, with plenty of bite sized cues that provide little cohesion. ‘Lisa/Farewell/Takeoff and ‘Zip/Eggs/Roger, Take Off’ bring it up a few notches, along with some exciting and effective action cues but there aren’t enough of these to do the score as a whole justice. This may be a definitive edition, packed full of material, including some cues not used in the final film, but as a complete listening experience it remains a hit and miss affair with only Bernstein’s ample abilities to keep its head above the clouds.
Airplane Movie Soundtrack. Review: Tim Mowbray.
Track Listing:
1. Airplane! Main Title
2. Kiss Off
3. Ambulance Arrives*
4. Hari Krishna/Ticket/Nervous**
5. Lisa/Farewell/Take Off**/ Another Meeting
6. Fighting Girls
7. Love Theme from Airplane!
8. From Here to There
9. Head/Memory
10. Shimmer/Molumbo
11. Zip/Eggs/Roger, Take Over
12. Wild Violins/Sickness/Idea 
13. Thar She Blows!/Flash/Panel
14. “Where the Hell is Kramer?”*/Trouble
15. Mayday
16. Punch-Up/Kramer
17. Clumsy
18. Dog Fight/Failure/Pep Talk/ Notre Dame Victory March/Master
19. News
20. “Runway is Niner”*/”The Gear is Down and We’re Ready to Land”*
21. Crasher
22. Resolution/Tag
23. Notre Dame Victory March
24. Tavern
25. Everything’s Coming Up Roses*
26. Instruments
27. Disco**
28. Kiss Off (Alternate)*
29. Fighting Girls (Alternate)*
30. From Here to There (Instrumental)
31. Molumbo (Alternate)*
32. Zip (Original Version)
33. News (Alternates)*
34. Dog Fight (Short Version)
35. “Runway is Niner” (Alternate)*
36. “The Gear is Down and We’re Ready to Land” (Alternate)*
37. Tag (Instrumental)
* track not contained in film
** contains music not used in film
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