Dirty Original Soundtrack

The Great Race is a 1965 American Technicolor slapstick comedy film starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Natalie Wood, directed by Blake Edwards, written by Blake Edwards and Arthur A. Ross, and with music by Henry Mancini and cinematography by Russell Harlan. The movie cost US$12 million ($79,431,238.10 in 2016 dollars), making it the most expensive comedy film at the time. Before the film was released, the soundtrack was re-recorded in Hollywood by RCA Victor Records for release on vinyl LP. Henry Mancini spent six weeks composing the score, and the recording involved some 80 musicians. Mancini collaborated with lyricist Johnny Mercer on several songs including "The Sweetheart Tree", a waltz released as a single. The song plays on along the film as the main theme without chorus (except in the entr' acte) and it was performed onscreen by Natalie Wood with the voice dubbed by Jackie Ward (uncredited). It was nominated for but did not win an Oscar for best song.

Jerry Goldsmith's most provocative feature film score, Basic Instinct brilliantly evokes the sex and suspense that together galvanize the onscreen narrative. Ominous piano, stiletto-sharp bursts of strings, and bubbling electronics combine to capture lust in all its myriad forms, from carnal desire to murderous rage, as well as delineate the subtle differences between each iteration. Goldsmith scores the film's notoriously graphic sex scenes with particular aplomb, achieving what can only be described as an orchestral orgasm as the music builds to its climax. For all its sophistication and invention, Basic Instinct is above all the work of a dirty old man, and it's fascinating.