October 10, 2019
David Spear’s Soundtracks to DINOSAURS Reissued on CD
Released in 1984, DINOSAURS was the first in a series of family-oriented documentaries produced by Richard Jones and hosted by Gary Owens and Eric Boardman. DINOSAURS was a half hour program about a subject that hadn’t been given much attention at the time. While the intention was just to make one documentary on the subject, the response to DINOSAURS was so positive that Richard Jones ended up making several more documentaries on the subject of dinosaurs, including MORE DINOSAURS, DINOSAURS DINOSAURS DINOSAURS, PREHISTORIC WORLD, THE RETURN OF THE DINOSAURS, SON OF DINOSAURS, THE WONDROUS WORLD OF WEIRD ANIMALS, and THE VOLCANO SHOW.
For DINOSAURS, Jones wanted an original orchestral score. He was not interested in library music or an electronic score. Composer/conductor David Spear was recommended to him. He had the distinction of being Elmer Bernstein’s orchestrator on several scores and also Spear’s parents produced and starred in children’s programming that had a lot of original music elements.
David Spear began his career orchestrating many film scores for Elmer Bernstein including ANIMAL HOUSE, GHOSTBUSTERS, AIRPLANE and HEAVY METAL. After his Broadway debut as Music Director of Merlin, the Magical Musical, Spear scored three Academy Award nominated films: BALLET ROBOTIQUE, RAINBOW WAR and THE COURAGE TO CARE. He also wrote the music for the Emmy Award winning documentary, SURVIVING EVEREST, for National Geographic.
Previously released on vinyl and audio cassette in the 1980’s and later released on compact disc in the early 1990’s with additional music, Dragon’s Domain Records now presents MUSIC FOR DINOSAURS, featuring previously unreleased music and also featuring selections from THE WONDROUS WORLD OF WEIRD ANIMALS and THE VOLCANO SHOW for the very first time. The music has been mastered by James Nelson at Digital Outland and the liner notes have been written by producer Richard Jones.
Dragon’s Domain Records, to be distributed through buysoundtrax.com, presents MUSIC MUSIC FOR DINOSAURS is a limited edition release of 500 units. The CD comes with free digital download/digital booklet.
Watch a new video with Eric Boardman talking with composer David Spear about the Dinosaur score and playing samples of the score: https://vimeo.com/365177201
For tracklist, to order, and/or hear sample tracks from the scores, see bsxrecords
