The Godfather 1972

In its matching up of Andy Williams titles for a two-fer release, Collectables Records has opted to combine Williams' spring 1972 album Love Theme From "The Godfather" with his spring 1974 album The Way We Were, skipping over his fall 1972 album Alone Again (Naturally) and his fall 1973 album Solitaire. (Those two are together on another disc.) The theory may have been that these two both had something to do with the movies while the two in between did not, but in fact all of these albums take the same approach, more or less. That approach is to have Williams present his interpretations of songs from the pop charts of the period. As it happens, these two albums mark significant milestones for the singer, albeit of opposite sorts.

A pair of groovy albums from Ray Conniff – both with a wonderful 70s vibe! "Alone Again Naturally" takes its title from the leadoff version of the great Gilbert O'Sullivan tune – and Ray conducts his group with a surprisingly bouncy vibe at times – mostly a sing-song mode that has the voices of the Conniff Singers hitting all their best bright modes. "Theme From The Godfather" has Ray Conniff taking on a host of mellow tunes from the mid 70s – mixing his full arrangements with a few electric touches, and really using the Ray Conniff Singers to their best effect! The whole thing has that subtle sensual quality that easy listening was hitting during the sexual revolution – quite a change from the Conniff groove of a generation before, and one that seems an even better fit for the vocals.

Popularly viewed as one of the best American films ever made, the multi-generational crime saga The Godfather is a touchstone of cinema: one of the most widely imitated, quoted, and lampooned movies of all time. Marlon Brando and Al Pacino star as Vito Corleone and his youngest son, Michael, respectively. It is the late 1940s in New York and Corleone is, in the parlance of organized crime, a "godfather" or "don," the head of a Mafia family. Michael, a free thinker who defied his father by enlisting in the Marines to fight in World War II, has returned a captain and a war hero. A few months later at Christmas time, the don barely survives being shot by gunmen in the employ of a drug-trafficking rival whose request for aid from the Corleones' political connections was rejected. After murdering a corrupt police captain and the drug trafficker, Michael hides out in Sicily while a gang war erupts at home. Once Michael has been groomed as the new don, he leads the family to a new era of prosperity, then launches a campaign of murderous revenge against those who once tried to wipe out the Corleones, consolidating his family's power and completing his own moral downfall. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards and winning for Best Picture, Best Actor (Marlon Brando), and Best Adapted Screenplay, The Godfather was followed by a pair of sequels.

When the aging head of a famous crime family decides to transfer his position to one of his subalterns, a series of unfortunate events start happening to the family, and a war begins between all the well-known families leading to insolence, deportation, murder and revenge, and ends with the favorable successor being finally chosen.

The story spans the years from 1945 to 1955 and chronicles the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael, steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.

Francis Ford Coppola's legendary continuation and sequel to his landmark 1972 film, THE GODFATHER, parallels the young Vito Corleone's rise with his son Michael's spiritual fall, deepening THE GODFATHER's depiction of the dark side of the American dream. In the early 1900s, the child Vito flees his Sicilian village for America after the local Mafia kills his family. Vito (Robert De Niro) struggles to make a living, legally or illegally, for his wife and growing brood in Little Italy, killing the local Black Hand Fanucci (Gastone Moschin) after he demands his customary cut of the tyro's business..

Hugo Mario Montenegro was a composer, arranger, and conductor who is primarily known for his movie work in the '60s, as well as his adaptations of film scores like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Montenegro began to branch out after the Hang 'Em High album, recording a diverse array of albums, ranging from show tunes to electronic experiments. Throughout the late '60s and '70s, he continued to score films, including Lady in Cement, The Undefeated, The Wrecking Crew, Tomorrow, and The Ambushers, among many others. He continued composing and recording until his death in 1981. This SACD release combines 2 LP on 1 SACD - "Love Theme from The Godfather" (1972) & "Music from A Fistful Of Dollars / For A Few Dollars More / The Good, The Bad And The Ugly" (1968).