The
Rocky soundtrack album is often overlooked thanks to the poor musical
reputation of the rest of the series. In this
case, however, that reputation is undeserved. The brilliant Bill Conti is
responsible for the musical end of the Rocky
phenomenon.
The
original soundtrack album was composed,
conducted, orchestrated and produced by Conti, an accomplished
composer who has a well-deserved reputation for serving up
exciting scores which easily span the boundaries between
traditional classical film scores and contemporary rock
music. The best example of this bridge is in his music for
the Rocky series, but the scores for other films such
as The Karate Kid and For Your Eyes Only also
demonstrate the same effortless fusion.
"When
I wrote the script for Rocky," Sylvester Stallone
remarks in the liner notes,
"I wanted passion music. I wanted a symphony of
powerful men, of lonely women, of thick-necked losers, of
human ships that crash in the night. Of love. Of
courage. Of dignity cast in bronze.
"I only wished the music could come from inside me, but
I was born with ears of stone. Bill Conti shook
everyone's hand [at the initial consultation] and walked out
the door. Three weeks later, Conti walked in the door
with music under his arm.
The music began.
I was sweating.
I am impossible to satisfy, I thought.
I was cheering!
How did this thin man with an Afghan dog, seize the soul of
every character and set it to music?! Then it dawned on me.
Simple. How could I have not known at our first meeting that
he was brilliant: Bill Conti is Italian."
Rocky is a particularly good
example to demonstrate the economy in Conti's use of
thematic material. The familiar main title seems to contain
all the thematic elements, and most of the soundtrack seems
to spring from there with deceptive ease. This is despite
the fact that other tracks are so varied in nature, ranging
from the boxing fanfare through classical contrapuntal cues
to the songs to a romantic interlude.
Conti's recording of Rocky's Theme,
"Gonna Fly Now", reached #1 in July of 1977.
Penned by the songwriting team of Carol Connors and Ayn
Robbins, "Gonna Fly Now" was most recently named
on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest
motion picture songs - it was ranked #58.
One track
left to the devices of anther musical mind was "Take
You Back". Written by Sylvester Stallone's
younger brother Frank, the song went on to appear (in
various versions) in all the sequels except Rocky IV.
Frank Stallone recalls: "When I did the a
cappella song for Rocky, "Take You Back,"
that was just a simple nothing song, but it's become a
little culty thing . . . I like writing, I like the
process."
Vocals on the album are provided by DeEtta Little, Nelson
Pigford and Valentine. Little and Pigford's rendition
of the love song "You Take My Heart Away" (written
by Connors and Robbins) made it to #35 on the Top 40 musical charts of
1977.
