CD REVIEWS - Rocky- 30th Anniversary Edition & Rocky Balboa - The Best of Rocky


Rocky - 30th Anniversary Edition
Music by Bill Conti
EMI 09463-66400-2-0 (EU)
13 Tracks 31:21 mins

Rocky Balboa - The Best of Rocky
Music by Bill Conti & Various Artists
EMI 09463-76267-2-6 (EU)
18 Tracks 65:57 mins

Unlikely as it seems, Sly Stallone is back on our screens playing the character who made his career, Rocky, at the ripe old age of 59. And Bill Conti, whose music has become synonymous with the character, is back to score the film, but rather than release a soundtrack album for the film, EMI have instead put out two albums. The first, a digitally remastered reissue of the original Rocky soundtrack album, featuring Conti's splendid score, including the gold single "Gonna Fly Now," the exciting, inspirational main theme, with its great opening fanfare, plus his propulsive fight variations and tender love theme for Rocky and Adrian. In addition to providing the vocals for "Gonna Fly Now," DeLitta Little and Nelson Pigford also perform "You Take My Heart Away," giving the love theme a voice.
The second album is something of a "greatest hits" compilation, featuring tracks from Conti's scores from the series, plus mostly beat-driven and it has to be said, somewhat dated, pop songs from the films, like the classic "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor, James Brown's "Living in America," and John Cafferty's "Hearts on Fire." To bring things up to date, there is "It's a Fight" by Three 6 Mafia from the new and final outing, Rocky Balboa; plus an unnecessary John X remix of "Gonna Fly Now," with dialogue and a vocal by Natalie Wilde. All this, plus key dialogue excerpts from the films interspersed. So, if you haven't got all the previously issued soundtracks from the series, this may be the one for you.