Audio CD review:
Henry Mancini - The Thorn Birds

Henry Mancini - The Thorn Birds

Band: Henry Mancini Title: The Thorn Birds Rating: Release Date: 04 May, 2004 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Main Title 2: Go! 3: Drogheda 4: Young Meggie 5: Ralph, Meggie And Mary 6: Stuie Grows Up 7: Paddy And Fiona 8: Passion Play 9: The Story Of The Thorn Birds 10: Meggie Grows Up 11: Baby Hal Dies 12: The Rams And The Ewes 13: Parting 14: The Thorn Birds Theme 15: Fore On Drogheda 16: Search For Paddy 17: Father Ralph Returns And Funeral Procession 18: Meggie's Heartbreak 19: it's Shearing You're Hearing 20: Luke And Meggie 21: Marry Me, Meggin 22: Arrival At The Vatican 23: The Announcement 24: Meggie Leaves Drogheda 25: Arrival At Queensland 26: Beginning Of The End 27: Welcome To Himmelhock 28: New Kid In Town 29: Matlock Island 30: Beach Walk 31: Forbidden Love 32: Ralph And Meggie 33: Paradise Lost 34: Vacation's End 35: Meggie Leaves The Himmelhocks 36: Meggie Goes Home 37: Photographs 38: Together 39: Good-Bye, Dane 40: Justine Visits Drogheda 41: The Greek Tradedy 42: Bye Bye Dane 43: Loss Of A Son 44: Meggie Reveals The Truth 45: Be Happy 46: Ralph Dies 47: End Title 48: Anywhere The Heart Goes

Editoral Review But for Mancini buffs, this previously unreleased double-disc soundtrack for the massively successful 1983 ABC-TV miniseries (second in viewership only to Roots) will seem a more gratifying tribute to the American pop music icon's enduring legacy. The 10th anniversary of American film and television scoring titan Henry Mancini's passing was marked by the US Postal Service issuing a commemorative stamp in conjunction with a gala tribute concert hosted by Julie Andrews and astronaut-senator John Glenn. Novelist Colleen McCullough's grand soap opera about a priest caught up in a forbidden Australian outback-rooted romance eventually sprawls over five decades and half the globe, but Mancini skillfully keeps its emotional core focused via some of the most subtly romantic and elegantly understated writing of his career. His sublime melodic gifts yield the memorable Drogheda and Maggie themes, the former's portrayal of the vast Australian wilderness ingeniously carried at first by but a lone dulcimer, while the latter perfectly underpins the story's budding romance with tinges of bittersweet melancholy. -- Jerry McCulley .. You can see a complete list of all Henry Mancini discography, or go back to the Henry Mancini tabs