Press Release from Dragon's Domain:
Dragon’s Domain Records presents music from the original score to KING KONG, composed by the legendary Max Steiner (GONE WITH THE WIND, CASABLANCA, THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE) for the legendary 1933 epic adventure KING KONG, directed by by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, written by James Ashmore Creelman, Ruth Rose and Cooper, starring Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong, Bruce Cabot, Frank Reicher and Sam Hardy.
Director Carl Denham (Armstrong) leads a film crew to a remote, uncharted Pacific Island in search of the legendary Kong, a gigantic ape. After the island’s inhabitants abandon actress Ann Darrow (Wray) to Kong, Denham and his crew pursue the beast through the dinosaur-infested jungle. They eventually capture Kong and take him to New York as a sideshow attraction, with disastrous results...
Born on May 10th, 1888, Max Steiner was an Austrian composer and conductor who emigrated to America and became one of Hollywood's greatest musical composers. Steiner was a child prodigy who conducted his first operetta when he was twelve and became a full-time professional, proficient at composing, arranging, and conducting, by the time he was fifteen. Threatened with internment in England during World War I, he fled to Broadway; and in 1929 he moved to Hollywood, where he became one of the first composers to write music scores for films. He is often referred to as "the father of film music", as Steiner played a major part in creating the tradition of writing music for films, along with composers Dimitri Tiomkin, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Franz Waxman, Alfred Newman, Bernard Herrmann, and Miklós Rózsa.
Steiner composed over 300 film scores with RKO Pictures and Warner Bros., and was nominated for 24 Academy Awards: His filmography includes THE INFORMER, NOW, VOYAGER, AND SINCE YOU WENT AWAY, LITTLE WOMEN, JEZEBEL, CASABLANCA, THE SEARCHERS, A SUMMER PLACE and GONE WITH THE WIND, which ranked second on the AFI's list of best American film scores, and is the film score for which he is best known. He was also the first recipient of the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score, which he won for his score for LIFE WITH FATHER. Steiner was a frequent collaborator with some of the best known film directors in history, including Michael Curtiz, John Ford, and William Wyler.
Originally released on vinyl in 1976 by Entr’acte and later on compact disc in 1993 by Label X, Dragon’s Domain Records is excited to bring KING KONG roaring back to the marketplace, featuring a rerecording of music composed by the legendary Max Steiner, performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Fred Steiner. The music has been newly remastered by James Nelson at Digital Outland. The booklet includes the original extensive liner notes written by Fred Steiner and Fay Wray for the album.
