Music Composed by John Morris
Rating: *** 1/2

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from John Morris. No doubt this frequent Mel Brooks collaborator has spent his years in hibernation feverishly working on the musical version of ‘Blazing Saddles’: Fartsalot! But despite his absence he has given us some stellar work, from the hauntingly gorgeous Elephant Man to scoring some of the greatest comedies of all-time. Now La-La Land Records has released Spaceballs: The 19th Anniversary Edition marking Morris’ take on scoring the sci-fi genre for Mel Brooks’ last funny film.

If you are like me, you’ve probably seen Spaceballs 100,000 times after school on well-worn VHS. Listening to the first half of the album is like a trip down memory lane sending your imagination on a trip to Druidia in the cockpit of Capt. Lonestar’s Winnebago. Since the movie is a parody of the Star Wars Trilogy one would think that Morris would tip his helmet to Maestro Williams’ infamous opening track. Yet I find Morris’ melodic theme more of a homage to Superman than Star Wars. It is a very rousing, and hum-able melody with a very “Golden Age sound” in its orchestration – though the fun is almost ruined by synthesized laser sounds. Thankfully a version without the cheesy digital blasts has also been included.

John Morris

Like the main title, most of Morris’ themes have that “Golden Age sound”. When Lonestar and his crew cross the desert, the score pays homage to Lawrence of Arabia, while “The Schwartz” theme reminds me of sections from South Pacific. An interesting approach that gives the movie a much grander feel than perhaps it deserves.

One on the highlights of the album are the action cues. In the track ‘Lonestar-Corridor’ Morris takes the main theme and throws it in a minor key, peppering it with stuttering brass, adding a pinch of staccato piano, stirring strings and a sprinkle of xylophone for color. (These cooking adjectives are making me hungry.) Another brief highlight is ‘Mega Maid’, starting with rising twangy brass and woodwinds stings followed by sweeping strings with warming horns slowly rising until the onscreen transformation’s final crescendo, ending with the all important timpani.

For the anniversary edition the album producers grabbed every piece of music available from original album recording to alternate cues making the track-listing longer than Dark Helmet’s ship. But as any guy will tell you, it’s not the size that matters. The Love Theme is a prefect example of what I’m talking about. This is a gorgeous theme paying tribute to the style of Max Steiner, some really beautiful writing on Morris’ part. And if that’s not enough, there are eight versions of it on the album…and six of them are clumped together one right after the other. Each version offers subtle variations by shifting the rhythm and instrumentation, which are nice, but when listening to them in order sound like you accidentally hit the repeat button on your CD player. Also included on the CD is The Spinner’s dance track “Space Balls” which in my opinion is the musical equivalent of tripe.

Judging this album as a whole, whilst most of the music in this collection is an absolute joy to listen to there are too many repeated tracks that seem to be used merely for padding. So, I guess in terms of Spaceballs, it seems that small things come in big packages.

Music Composed, Conducted and Produced by John Morris; Orchestrations by Jack Hayes; Recorded and Mixed by Armin Steiner; Produced by Ford A. Thaxton; Executive Producers: MV Gerhard and Matt Verboys; Label: La-La Land Records, (LLLCD 1050); Availability: Limited to 3,000 units; U.S. Release Date: January, 2007.

01. Spaceballs - Main Title (2:32)
02. Long Ship/Dark Helmet Entrance/Evil Schwartz/Planet Druidia (2:24)
03. Wedding #1 /Here Comes The Bride/Retreat (1:42)
04. Hail To The Chief (0:14)
05. Bad Ship #1/Beam Bad Ship/Luggage Down/Matched Luggage/
Bad Year Blimp/Sharking The Ship (2:26)
06. First Desert/Desert Playout (0:52)
07. Love Theme (1:08)
08. Desert, Thristy, March, Falls/Bad Ship #2 (1:46)
09. Dink March (Colonel Bogey March) (0:27)
10. Into Cave/The Cave (1:28)
11. The Schwartz/Power Of Schwartz (0:33)
12. She Will Come (1:33)
13. Yogurt’s Goodbye/Bad Ship #2 (0:48)
14. Taking Her In/Lonestarr & Barf Enter as Guards/Lonestarr-Corridor/
After Stunt Doubles (2:56)
15. Bad Ship after Rambo (0:14)
16. Mega-Maid (1:36)
17. Tymp Hits/Schwartz Switchoff (0:34)
18. Entering The Ear/Down The Ladder/Hand Print #1/
Hand Print #2/Lonestarr & Helmet Fight #1/
Lonestarr & Helmet Fight #2/Lonestarr & Helmet Fight #3 (4:40)
19. Post-Explosion Barf (0:25)
20. Keep It for Yourself/Romance (1:00)
21. 2nd Wedding (0:55)
22. Yogurt’s Goodbye/Liquid Schwartz (1:01)
23. Fanfare for Prince Lonestarr /Kiss/Big Finish (1:24)
24. Spaceballs - Main Title (w/o Sound Effects) (1:46)
25. Spaceballs (3:46)
Performed by The Spinners
26. Spaceballs - Main Title (alternate) (1:53)
27. Druidia Landscape (0:22)
28. Ladder Down/Matched Luggage (0:52)
29. Love Theme Alt (1:12)
30. Love Theme D (2:17)
31. Love Theme DG1 (2:40)
32. Love Theme DG (2:27)
33. Love Theme - Revised (2:24)
34. Love Theme - Record Version (1:16)
35. March/Col Bogey Instrumental (0:42)
36. Power Of Schwartz/Yogurt’s Goodbye (1:00)
37. Mega-maid 1st Version (1:35)
38. Mega-Maid 2nd Version (1:36)
39. Schwartz Switch Off/Entering the Ear (1:44)
40. Yogurt’s Goodbye (0:37)
41. Kiss/Big Finish 1:21)
42. Spaceballs - Main Title (alternate #2) (1:57)
43. Love Theme (2:24)
44. Winnebago/Mega-maid (2:26)
45. Main Title (First Take) (1:44)

Total Playing Time: 70:39