Volume 7: The Crime Scene (Capitol 36129)
It's not the bullet that kills you, somebody once said, it's the hole. Bang. Similarly we're not interested in the crime here, but the chalk marks outlining the evil deed, the yellow tape that separates the perps from the bystanders. We're going to a place where the sidewalk ends and lurid life begins. Set in a period (mid-50s to mid-60s) when soundtracks blared to every pulp fiction Weegee or Jim Thompson or Robert Aldrich cooked up.
A time when atom spies hid microfilm in pumpkin patches, and a dapper playboy-beachbum named Murph the Surf masterminded the theft of the Star of India diamond. To a nation of hard-working lugs who played by the rules, it must have seemed like sleuths and hoods, cops and double-agents all had one thing in common: glamour.
The Fugitive was a TV hit, and that just rubbed it in -- Everyman Richard Kimball was a doctor one day, living on the lam the next. You were tantalizingly close to a life on the edge. How to cross that line? How to enter a world of danger and excitement? It was an unanswerable riddle. What is the sound of a one-armed man clapping?
The old icons don't seem so swank today. James Bond's toupee comes off in the pool, Murph the Surf's been born again. There aren't a lot of folks to cheer on either side of the barricade. So put on the "Peter Gunn Theme" and walk with the TV private eye to Mother's -- that was his favorite jazz roadhouse. Johnny Staccato sits in with the combo, and a dapper bloke in evening attire should be here any minute -- right after the hat girl finishes checking his piece. The only crime would be to leave before the late set.
I Spy - Earle Haden
Thinking Of Baby - Elmer Bernstein
From Russia With Love - Count Basie
Big Town - Laurindo Almeida and The Danzaneros
Man With The Golden Arm - Billy May
The Untouchables - Nelson Riddle
The James Bond Theme - Leroy Holmes
Mission: Impossible - Billy May
Harlem Nocturne - Spike Jones New Band
Walk On The Wild Side - Si Zentner
Mister Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - Elliott Fisher
The Wild Ones - Lou Busch
Staccato's Theme - Elmer Bernstein
Search For Vulcan - Leroy Holmes
Peter Gunn Suite - Ray Anthony
The Silencers - Vikki Carr
Music To Be Murdered By - Jeff Alexander with Alfred Hitchcock
