Marnie
Super Deluxe Edition (2Lp+Cd+7'')

Soundtrack specialists Stylotone, in association with The Bernard Herrmann Estate, will issue for the first time ever, from the original master tapes, the original motion picture soundtrack to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1964 film Marnie, as composed and conducted by film score Maestro Bernard Herrmann.

Soundtrack specialists Stylotone, in association with The Bernard Herrmann Estate, will issue for the first time ever, from the original master tapes, the original motion picture soundtrack to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1964 film Marnie, as composed and conducted by film score Maestro Bernard Herrmann.

Marnie was a psychological thriller starring Sean Connery and Tippi Hedren. It was Hitch’s follow-up to The Birds and continued the British director’s outstanding run of films from the late ’50s through to the early ’60s (Vertigo, North by NorthWest, Psycho, The Birds, Marnie). By this point Connery had achieved superstar status with Bond and after some negotiations with EON productions, he stepped into the role of business owner Mark Rutland, fresh from being 007 in 1963’s From Russia With Love. Hedren was in The Birds, of course, and Marnie would be her last film with Hitchcock.

At this point, composer Bernard Herrmann had already worked with Hitchcock seven times, his score for 1960’s Psycho featuring some of the most iconic film cues ever recorded, but the score for Marnie would be his last for the filmmaker – at least his last that was used, because despite the long running director/composer partnership, Hitchcock rejected Herrmann’s score for Marnie follow-up Torn Curtain and the pair never worked together again.

Never-before-available, the soundtrack to ‘Marnie’ has been restored from the original music masters and has been assembled, mastered and cut at Abbey Road Studios by engineer Sean Magee (famed for his work on The Beatles remasters).

Norma Herrmann, Benard’s widow says of this work “Marnie held a special place for Benny. He always said to me that out of all of his recordings that one came closest to realising his original ideas. It was his favourite.”

Having reviewed Stylotone’s super deluxe packages before (see Twisted Nerve) I can’t stress just how good these are: everything is produced to the highest standard from the spot-varnished heavyweight 320gsm ‘tip on’ gatefold sleeves, to CD in the vinyl replica sleeves and the astonishingly good ‘quad’ poster. The sound is incredible.

The ‘Marnie’ Super-Deluxe soundtrack package
● 2 x 180g ‘Scarlet’ Coloured Heavyweight 12” Vinyl LP’s, cut at 45rpm.
● An Expanded ‘Vinyl’ Replica CD housed in a Scale-Copy of the Gatefold Sleeve - containing the Complete Score plus unused / alternate cues.
● An Exclusive 45rpm 2-Track 7” Black Vinyl Single featuring Nat King Cole’s rendition of the song ‘Marnie’ co-written by Bernard Herrmann c/w The Main Theme.
● A Download Card offering exclusive access to High-Resolution 24-bit WAV and 320kbps CBR MP3 Digital Downloads of the LP, CD and unused / alternate cues.
● A 30” x 40” (762mm x 1016mm) newly commissioned British Quad Film Poster. The poster has been specially printed using original 1960s production processes - matching not only the poster weight of the time but also the correct machine folds (since film posters would be machine folded and inserted into large brown envelopes before arriving in the post at cinemas - this was before digital media, kids!).
● To round off the Super-Deluxe package Bernard Herrmann’s biographer, Steven C. Smith, offers a unique and compelling insight into this soundtrack with his own sleeve notes.
● Assembled, Mastered & Cut by Sean Magee at Abbey Road Studios, London

More info at: Official website Stylotone