Randy Newman & Elmer Bernstein - ¡Three Amigos! (2006)
EAC RIP | APE+CUE+LOG ~ 253 MB | 17 Tracks | MP3 CBR 320 Kbps ~ 165 MB | ArtWork
Genre: Original Picture Soundtrack | Label: Collector's Choice | Release Date: 10 October 2006
With such a strong pedigree both in front of and behind the camera (a cast led by Steve Martin, truly hilarious in virtually anything he did at the time, a screenplay by Martin, Lorne Michaels and - yes - Randy Newman, and directed by John Landis), Three Amigos! should have been a wonderful comedy. Sadly, it wasn't - the Magnificent Seven parody does include some side-splitting moments, but generally doesn't rise above being mildly amusing. Still, it's a fun - and deliciously silly - way of passing some time, and has its own devoted following.
Musically, it had real pedigree too - songs by Newman (he would only write them if they let him help out on the screenplay), score by none other than Elmer Bernstein. Newman's songs are wonderful - very silly themselves, but performed with such faux gusto by the main cast (Martin and his fellow amigos Chevy Chase and Martin Short, with a cameo from Fred Asparagus at one point) they're difficult not to love. The amigos' anthem is "The Ballad of the Three Amigos", very funny in its way; "My Little Buttercup" is actually the comedy highpoint of the film, as they act as if they're going to pelt out a powerful number before actually delivering a twee little love song; and then there's "Blue Shadows on the Trail", which despite its tongue-in-cheek nature is actually quite lovely. Newman himself makes a heavily-altered vocal cameo as "The Singing Bush" (which provokes another of the comedy highlights, as the amigos approach a bush which is inexplicably singing in the middle of the desert and innocently ask "excuse me, are you the singing bush?")
Bernstein's score is dominated by a theme which - and I know this isn't the kind of thing one should say if reputations are anything to worry about - is actually one of his most memorable. He'd long ago stopped scoring westerns at this stage, and I'm sure he couldn't really have been terribly happy at working on this kind of film, but it still allowed him one more shot at rolling out his classic bag of tricks, and the expansive theme is simply wonderful. Throw in the over-the-top suspense, the ridiculously melodramatic romance and above all the heroic action music and you get a rambunctuous, exciting comedy score.
I must admit that I generally find Bernstein's comedy scores to be a little overrated, but this is up there with Airplane! as his finest work in the genre. (Perhaps he was only truly inspired by comedy films which featured exclamation marks?) The album is very tightly-produced, but be warned that one or two tracks do feature brief dialogue excerpts. For fans of the film these are actually likely to be warmly-received (they don't overlap with the music to a great extent), though others will dislike them. It's all very silly, and I feel almost guilty for giving it four stars, but the music is the one part of the film that absolutely works from start to finish and this is a terrific album. It was released (with seemingly barely anyone noticing) for the first time on CD in 2006, with new liner notes from Jeff Bond. Recommended.
Tracklist:
01. The Ballad Of The Three Amigos 2:30
02. Main Title 2:12
03. The Big Sneak 2:03
04. My Little Buttercup 2:15
05. Santa Poco 2:21
06. Fiesta And Flamenco 1:03
07. El Guapo 2:33
08. The Return Of The Amigos 2:44
09. Blue Shadows On The Trail 2:43
10. The Singing Bush 0:47
11. Amigos At The Mission 2:10
12. Capture 0:40
13. El Guapo's Birthday 1:02
14. The Chase 3:15
15. Amigos, Amigos, Amigos 4:08
16. Farewell 2:14
17. End Credits 4:04
 EAC RIP:EAC extraction logfile from 19. November 2006, 15:54 for CD
Randy Newman & Elmer Bernstein / !Three Amigos!
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Filename E:\CD Scans\Three Amigos\EAC\Randy Newman & Elmer Bernstein - !Three Amigos!.wav
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