Overboard Music By Alan Silvestri

Overboard

Music Composed And Conducted By Alan Silvestri

Performed By The Hollywood Symphony Orchestra

Album Produced By Cyril Durand-Roger

and Laurent Lafarge

Music Box Records MBR-007 Limited Edition of 1000 Copies

19 Tracks - Running Time: 45:10

Rating of 6.5 of 10

Overboard was a romantic comedy which was released around Christmas of 1987, which didn't exactly light up the box office at the time. However, it did gain a lot more popularity and really found its audience on cable and video which give the film a second life. The film which was directed by Garry Marshall, who would go on to direct the hit films Beaches and Pretty Woman soon after this, stars real life couple Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell as a pair of opposites in social world who by fate and also, a bit of deception fall in love. Hawn plays Joanna Stayton, a spoiled married rich socialite who's yacht is stranded in Elk Cove, Oregon. Dean Proffitt (Russell) is a carpenter and widowed father of four boys goes to Stayton's yacht to redo her closet and in the process she stiffs him for his pay in a battle of wills. After Joanna slips and falls off the yacht going after her diamond earring, she wakes up the next morning after being fished out of the water in the hospital with amnesia. Dean gets wind of this and instantly recognizes her and as a way of getting his revenge, brings her home as his wife, Annie so he can take care of his boys as well as being a housemaid while Joanna's real husband Grant (Edward Herrmann) is enjoying his time away from his missing wife. Joanna and Dean in the process start to fall in love each other and soon, she'll have to make the choice of continuing to live her extravagant life style or live happily with a roughneck.

When Overboard was released, Alan Silvestri was riding pretty high off the success of Back to the Future which had propelled him to the top of the A-list composers and the streak continued with the surprise hit Outrageous Fortune, the Richard Pryor comedy Critical Condition and Arnold Schwarzenegger's blockbuster hit, Predator, in which Silvestri wrote another memorable score for. For Overboard, which was his first and only collaboration with director Garry Marshall, Silvestri wrote a hip, romantic score that in its latter parts finds its romantic sensibility. Silvestri is a master at tugging at your heartstrings with his delicate sense of drama and tenderness. This is the sound that would ultimately definite the rest of his career soon after in scores such as Father of the Bride, Forrest Gump, Fools Rush In, The Parent Trap, What Women Want and Serendipity to name a few.

The score is based on two principal themes. The first one is a hip hillbilly Synclavier (synthesizer for the common readers) banjo theme mixed with an electric guitar by soloist Tim May which establishes the country like theme for Kurt Russell's character. The secondary theme is the "Love Theme" which is appears in two different versions. A more delicate and lush orchestrial version in the track "Annie And Dean" that is pure romantic Silvestri. The second version is more of pop 80's style version based on keyboards and makes use of his original intended use of the song "Love Will Find A Way" which had originally been conceived as a song for singer Bobby Caldwell to end the film with but ultimately ended with Randy Newman's "Something Special" instead. Silvestri also wrote a seperate rendition "Love Theme From Overboard" that was probably meant to play during the End Credits or used somewhere in the film which also features "Love Will Find A Way" in pop romantic way, also went unused.

The rest of the score is fun for the most part with some really nice set pieces in its first half of the album, but to me the strongest material lays in the second half of the score where Silvestri's full orchestrial sound begins to take shape as the film reaches its urgent romantic climax emphasized to a dramatic standpoint in "Turning the Boat Around", an orchestrial flourish as Russell and the kids make a desperate plea for Hawn to comeback to them, "The Jig's Up" with a dramatic piano and violin which emphasizes Russell's real intentions for Hawn's character, and "Finale", where Silvestri definitely displays his grand touch as they're all reunited as a family as Hawn's character has made what is the right choice for her life. There are some standout pensive yet romantic style tracks early on which include "I'm Sorry" and Something Not Horrible" which some delicate piano and strings.

The album is also filled with some more 80's style pop which was a staple of the era with "Dreamboat" which plays out like one of those old Jane Fonda workout background music videos, "World's Best", an unused track which is another fun pop track and She Really Is Something, a jazzy pop track.

Overboard is one of those Alan Silvestri scores that most would probably dismiss, but most would like because they saw the film or have seen the film endlessly on cable. The music is very effective when it is in the film, but with so many unused tracks makes for a rather interesting listen because you do get to hear Silvestri's original intentions for the score as a whole. In its state it, really works and really is one of his nicer efforts and its good to see that it has finally been released finally and hopefully his other comedic efforts such as Clean Slate for example get a shot a release.

Overboard is pure a 80's romantic comedy nostalgia that is made memorable by a film that really has surpassed its original critical and box office lambasting and found a home via cable, home video and now DVD, which you can find for five dollars at your local Best Buy or Target. Another reason is Alan Silvestri who is just one of those composers who knows exactly what a film needs and knows its sensibilities to make it that much better and the films success should certainly be attributed to his terrific composer.

Overboard is available at http://www.screenarchives.com

OVERBOARD is a 1987 romantic comedy film starring the star couple Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. The film was directed by Garry Marshall (Young Doctors In Love, Pretty Woman and The Princess Diaries) and produced by co-actor Roddy McDowall.

MUSIC BOX RECORDS is proud to announce for the first time available on CD the world premiere release of acclaimed composer Alan Silvestri's (Back to the future, Who framed Roger Rabbit, Captain America) score which has been remixed in stereo from the original session masters courtesy of the MGM archives.

Alan Silvestri was taking his first complete plunge into the real-life romance about amnesia turn bitchy socialite Joanna Stayton (Goldie Haw) into “Annie“, an instant wife and mother for the rough-edged, widowed carpenter Dean Proffitt (Kurt Russell) and his four out-of-control kids. Not only would Silvestri’s music skillfully follow characters Joanna and Dean from their first slapstick battles to their climactically soaring heartstrings, but OVERBOARD’s score would also mark the transition of his sound from energetic, electronic rhythms to the lush orchestral writing that defines his music today. His thematically-driven early works often distinguished themselves by incorporating both approaches, a bouncy, yet emotional Synclavier and symphonic energy that particularly befitted such comedies as Critical Condition, Summer Rental and Outrageous Fortune.

1. Main Titles (03:59)
2. Welcome Home (01:26)
3. Crabs'R'Us (01:17)
4. I'm Sorry (01:24)
5. She Really Is Something (Alternate Mix) (02:08)
6. Water Fight / Chase Mom / Couch Puppies (01:34)
7. Making Lunch (01:04)
8. Something Not Horrible (01:46)
9. No Boom Boom / There Is a God (01:18)
10. Dreamboat* (02:43)
11. Daily Chores* (01:03)
12. The Jig's Up (03:19)
13. Turning the Boat Around (01:53)
14. World's Best* (02:10)
15. Daily Chores (Alternate)* (01:58)
16. Annie and Dean (03:10)
17. Finale (05:03)
18. Love Theme from Overboard* (02:00)
19. Finale (Alternate)* (05:04)