Alex North
American composer Alex North hardly needed films to enhance his reputation. A graduate of Juilliard and the pupil of such musical heavyweights as Ernst Toch and Aaron Copland, North was responsible for the incidental music in several major Broadway productions of the 1940s, notably Death of a Salesman. He also composed for the ballet, for symphony orchestra, and even for Benny Goodman. North's earliest film work consisted of the scores for documentary films, an activity he engaged in from 1937 through the early 1950s. His first feature-film score was for 20th Century-Fox's The 13th Letter; he followed this with a steady parade of scores for such memorable pictures as Viva Zapata (1952), The Rose Tattoo (1955), The Bad Seed (1956), Spartacus (1960), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1967), Under the Volcano (1984) and Prizzi's Honor (1985). His most popular composition, "Unchained Melody" (for the 1955 prison picture Unchanged), received a whole new lease on life in 1990 thanks to the runaway hit film Ghost. Yet despite so impressive a resume, Alex North never received an Oscar in any of his 15 nominations. Finally, in 1986, the Academy threw him that guilt-absolving bone, the "Lifetime Achievement Award." Perhaps Alex North's most ambitious film score was the one nobody heard -- he was engaged by Stanley Kubrick to write the music for 2001: A Space Odyssey, only to have Kubrick rudely pull the rug from under him by substituting such classical pieces as "Thus Spake Zarathustra" and "The Blue Danube Waltz." With teeth clenched, Alex North wrote a terse article describing his frustration for Jerome Agel's 1969 compendium The Making of Kubrick's 2001.
© Hal Erickson /TiVo
Similar artists
Discography
20 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
-
The Agony And The Ecstasy
Film Soundtracks - Released by Varese Sarabande on Jul 27, 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cleopatra (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Varese Sarabande on Jan 1, 1963
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
2001 (World Premiere Recording)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Varese Sarabande on Jan 1, 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Spartacus (Original Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Geffen on Jan 1, 1960
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (Original Motion Picture Score)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Varese Sarabande on Jan 1, 1966
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Viva Zapata!
Film Soundtracks - Released by Varese Sarabande on Jan 1, 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Streetcar Named Desire (Original Score)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Varese Sarabande on Jan 1, 1951
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
North By North / Journey Into Fear (Original Motion Picture Soundtracks)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Citadel - Mafy on Mar 23, 1998
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Africa - Original Soundtrack Recording
Graunke Symphony Orchestra of Munich
Soundtracks - Released by BSX Records on Nov 7, 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Streetcar Named Desire - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Remastered)
Pop - Released by Screen Classics on Jan 27, 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Main Title / Training the Gladiators (Part I) / The Breakout / Love Sequence / Glabrus Defeated / Spartacus Defies Crassus / Final Farewell and End Title (From "Spartacus" Original Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Soundtrack Records on Sep 26, 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Streetcar Named Desire (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Capitol Records on Oct 1, 1951
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cleopatra (Original Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Universal Music Enterprises on Jan 1, 1963
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The King and Four Queens
Film Soundtracks - Released by Cinematica on Sep 22, 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Sound And The Fury (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Geffen on Jan 1, 1959
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Rainmaker (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Master Classics Records on Feb 1, 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?
Film Soundtracks - Released by Rhino - Warner Records on Jan 1, 1966
The Qobuz Essential Discography16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
La Rose Tatouée (O.S.T - 1955)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Vintage Music on May 2, 1955
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Enchanted
Alternative & Indie - Released by 6876364 Records DK2 on Apr 4, 2024
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo