Francis Lai Itinéraire D'un Enfant Gâté

Quartet Records, Paramount Pictures and Universal Music Group present the remastered, expanded release of the iconic score by the great Francis Lai (A Man and A Woman, Life for Life, House of Cards, Dark Eyes, Bilitis) for the unforgettable 1970 romantic classic Love Story, directed by Arthur Hiller and starring Ryan O’Neal, Ali McGraw, Ray Milland and John Marley. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director, Screenplay and O’Neal and McGraw’s performances, but won only in the Best Original Score category (the only Oscar ever won by the prolific French composer). The choice of Francis Lai was a personal obsession of producer Robert Evans, who pursued the composer until he accepted, despite Lai initially refusing to compose the score due to other commitments. But Evans’ intuition was spot-on. Today, Lai’s Love Story score remains one of the most memorable and richly lyrical works in the canon of romantic film scores. The main theme remains one of the most famous melodies in film history, covered countess times—including an especially memorable arrangement by Henry Mancini for RCA.

Polydor France has released a soundtrack album for Claude Lelouch’s drama The Best Years of a Life (Les plus belles années d’une vie). The album features the film’s original music composed by Academy Award winner Francis Lai (Love Story, Bolero) and French singer/songwriter Calogero. The project marks the final film scoring project of Lai who passed away last November. Also included is the original title song by Calogero & Nicole Croisille.