CD Review: Best of Godzilla 1954-1975 Soundtrack {Godzilla Reviews EXTRA} 

The showa era Godzilla music is always wonderful to listen to. I find having it on while working on stuff really helps get work done, and pleases the eardrums.

Your rendition of the "military theme" is SPOT ON! I could almost see the stock footage shots of battleships over your image - brilliant! And your "Mosura" song had me all aflutter! And that "Da da da daaaaah, da da da de daaaaah... " had me in stitches! You are truly one of the chosen - extraordinary!!!

I got chills when you sang the Mothra song. You killed it!

Man you're so good at imitating the tracks from the Godzilla movies.Almost uncanny. I've watched this episode three times already. Great stuff.

The soundtracks are good. Brings back childhood memories. Those were the good old days!

I only saw three (3) Godzilla movies: 1) The original; 2) Godzilla vs. The Thing (Mothra); and 3) King Kong Vs. Godzilla. I saw the ending of one more film, where the poor brute was radioactively melted down. The staging and the soundtrack made me suddenly feel sorry for the guy. Then, one of the actresses in some control room was weeping. Your enthusiastic promotion of the soundtracks convinces me that the continuity and appeal of this series has escaped my notice. I think I will play some, while I putter around my space. Your Bom-Bom's, Bwah's and Dun-dunts will do well. Once you get your Hollywood contract, insist they let you continue all that. (5.13k subscribers today!)

You have an infectious sense of fun.🥳 A very enjoyable review. Thanks Miss Weiselberry!

I swear John Williams borrowed the "ba ba ba bump" bit from Godzilla' s original theme during the original escape from Tatooine by the Millennium Falcon. A little homage. If the "Destroy all monsters" theme doesn't get you moving, you may be dead. I play this at work sometimes and get strange looks from the 20-somethings. They are obviously not as cool as you. Edit: "Escaping Tatooine" 2:19 mark. Also...under the "appreciate the time you're in" moment think of this. I first saw Blade Runner on HBO in 1983. I saw it again in 1986 on a bootleg VHS and became enthralled with the Vangelis soundtrack. I had to drive up to lovely Lapeer, 14 miles from my house, to go to Flipside records and look through their six inch thick catalog of all known published songs and soundtracks to find where to write to get a copy cuz I couldn't find it anywhere. You couldn't just go online and order it back in those days. Several letters to Polydor records and a wait of 10 weeks produced a corporate form letter that said "Title is not in catalog". So I blatantly violated copyright law, patched the VCR through my cassette recorder and recorded the whole movie onto two 90-minute cassettes. Spent many a long-distance run listening to them.

The *BUUUUUUMMMMM, BUM BUM BUM BUM BUMMMMMMMMM* Godzilla theme was actually introduced in *King Kong vs. Godzilla,* it just got cut out of the American version. Arrgh... A lot of the music in that one was updated for use in the *Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah* score. The Criterion release of the Showa Era films is the only way to watch it with the original music right now, and it is expensive. It includes entries on each film written by Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski. The two of them also wrote a biograhy on Ishiro Honda called *Ishiro Honda: A Life in Film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa.* I didn't know if I'd be interested in it outside of the info on his kaiju movies, but it turned out to be super interesting the whole way through. I highly recommend it. There is also a very informative book by David Kalat that I would recommend called *A Critical History and Filmography of Toho's Godzilla Series.* I don't think I've mentioned those here before. Those are both still in print (for now), but there are others that I've been trying to find that sound good, but have gone out of print and go for quite a bit now...sigh... Rodan's theme was also used as Rodan's theme in *Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II.* It was weird hearing it at the end of *Godzilla 2000,* but that one was scored by someone other than Ifukube. I'm assuming they just stuck it in there as recognizable classic Godzilla music. And since the Japanese version of that one has never been released over here, I don't know if it was even in the original. I liked how you described Godzilla's theme from *Godzilla vs. Hedorah* as "silly, intoxicated..." I always refer to it as the "Bumbling Hero" theme. I can't stand it. That *Scarlet Pimpernel* track sounded cool, will definitely check it out. Another great video, Weezy, thanks!

So after your most recent video about War of the Gargantuas, I had an interesting exchange with a fellow commentator. In our small discussion I mentioned how dissatisfied I was with most Kiaju films and walked away confused at their point of view but willing to understand their perspective. So the past few days I spent rewatching some Kiaju classics both serous and light hearted in tone to see weather or not I still feel the same way about them with a new perspective, sad to say no my opinion still stands with me. The reason I mention this is because whilst rewatching the movies, I was so lost in my train of thought I completely forgot I was watching a movie. And it happened several times but the uniqueness of my situation was the music. The music distracted me from thought and brought me back to the task at hand. Listening to a few notes of memorable themes, I decided instead to spend an evening listening to the music of the genre. And I am really hating myself for being such a pessimist, but I feel the music overshadows the movies themselves. I remember the musical themes better than stories in which they are attached too. And in some case felt the music is stronger on its own with no context; don’t know if it’s because I am too familiar with the stories themselves or I am just needing a new experience from the genre. So I looked at your Godzilla music playlist to see if I hadn’t heard a track before and I am happy to say we both listened to same tracks at least once however I want to add two to your list. Both Godzilla related: the first is Mothra Metal (isao Bito and The Peanuts) and the second Godzilla’s Rage but he has a guitar/ metal cover. Both of these tracks are symphonic Metal and intense. The Mothra Metal is on the same channel you found Forever Godzilla, the epic 80’s rendition. And yes the peanuts are featured in a metal cover of Mothra’s theme. It sounds so wrong… but it feels so right. *actually I want to add a third one, Erika’s/Biollante theme. The love theme is beautiful but not as impactful as Erika’s theme in my opinion.

What a great review! I have those two CDs on vinyl format and love them.

Whoa super nice rendition of the Mothra song by the way! I always wondered where Godzilla's other famous theme started and I was surprised to hear it in the Japanese version of King Kong v. Godzilla!

You're so good at performing the music! These are some of my favourite videos 😊

I have the 1954-1975 Cd and the 1984-1995 CD. I love them both.🥰 Love the Mothra song and you did a great job with it. Bravo!

Wow!....that was incredible, I laughed, laughed I tells ya lol, I laughed from pure astonishment, I don't speak Malay but for my ears your attempt at the Mothra song sounded absolutely fantastic!, it really was very good. Don't be surprised if your Mum or another family member start using it as a ringtone lol, " Oh, that!?! that's just my daughter singing the Mothra song fantastically well in Malay" lol. The tracks from The Scarlet Pimpernel and Destroy All Monsters do sound very similar, I'm not at all familiar with the music of the Godzilla films except for two or three but hearing you discuss them and how they impact the story and viewers has really helped me appreciate them, your fantastic playlist was a huge help also, sorry some have been removed but glad you have the 💿🎶. ~ Thank you Ms Weiselberry ~

Well, thanks for going through all of the pieces one-by-one. Excellent, and excellent singing voice (I actually sang along with you on that just for kicks, but need to have the words in front of me---and more practice!---before taking my show on the road! --big HA). Didn't the first CD start with the original Godzilla roar? I'd have thought that the ideal "prelude" to what was to come over the decades, film-wise and music-wise. Really disappointed that the Peace song was not included/that seems kind of an oversight. Again, thanks for another exhaustive, (partially-sung) tres tres tres good fun review.

You have a nice singing voice and I like how you describe the music. You always seem very knowledgeable about the musical instruments used on the sound recordings you review. I think you might have mentioned it before, but what instruments do you play? Although I love listening to music and watching musicals, I'm not familiar with all the different types of musical instruments.

Thank you for an excellent overview of the Godzilla soundtracks . I will have to pick those up . I also enjoy Ennio Morricone’s soundtracks for The Mission , Cinema Paradiso , and The Good , the Bad , and the Ugly. Bear McCreary’s music for Battlestar Galactica is also great . I look forward to more soundtrack and movie reviews from you !

I liked this video before watching it, because I knew you wouldn't disappoint, and you didn't! The epitome of excellence as always!

Hi J, happy mid-week to you. I've owned this album for about two weeks now, and took your advice to play it back to back with the other (84-95). Quite a contrast! I do hear a difference in brightness/quality, but many of the themes are the same and it's fun to compare the versions of each piece. As with the other, some pieces are very moving. Sacred Springs (vocal) is worth the price of admission. Overall, liking this collection so far. Btw, I'm a fan of your singing too, please feel free to continue if you're so inclined. Thanks for this awesome review.

Wow!! Your rendition of the Mothra song was amazing - truly. I am in awe.

CDs are my favourite thing to collect haha i love colecting them and listening to them, CDs are litterally the only thing i ask for at christmas and my birthday lol

Excellent, informative, entertaining and very detailed commentary on the music included. Thanks for the enthusiastic review.

I love how the videos feel so like 2009s ish also love your vids

Most of the music was replaced in the Americanized King Kong vs. Godzilla, which explains why the music wasn't very memorable when you were watching it. The Japanese version is one of my favorite big G movies. There is nothing good to say about the US version. The Mothra theme is probably the most memorable of the G music. You did a great job on it. I don't notice the music as much as you do, but some songs definitely stand out. Having said that I don't like US versions of the G movies, I do like the Save the Earth song. It was entirely created for the US version. The Japanese theme song is completely different. It makes sense that they wouldn't include it, but it is a good song. I agree that Prayer for Peace from the 1954 movie should have been included. Too bad you didn't do the video with the G blanket in the background. Even though I'm not big into the music, this may be a set that I need to get. Thanks.

Thanks for doing this review. I love Your multi-tracked take on the "Mothera" theme. It sounds like the "peanuts" with those harmonies. Some trivia for fun, the "March" song was mostly in 9/8 time. As a kid, that always caught my attention, as it was landing somewhere "else" when the melody restarted. Thanks again Best to You Jerome D5

I have that one as well as the Godzilla 1984-1995 CD and the Godzilla 2000 Millennium soundtrack.

Around 3:40 Jerome Weiselberry says how she likes the original rendition of the Godzilla theme. I've noticed that, in this version, with the (movable solfege, sorry, I don't have perfect pitch) 'me-re-do' motif ('me' like 'May'; 3rd scale degree in minor, 1/2 step lower than 'mi'), the 'me' is getting a particularly sharp accent that gives the theme a lot of drive and (perhaps not coincidentally) makes the motive sound a lot like 'GO-ji-ra! GO-ji-ra!'.

Love this compilation although the "Save the Earth" song from "Godzilla vs Hedorah" is very much missed.

Jerome, that was really you performing those multi-track vocals? Freakin' awesome! You're just the best - period!

Props to giving the song a try. Sounds pretty good. You have a good voice there :). The highlight for me is pretty much any of the music pieces from Terror of MG. Just got to love the themes to all three monsters. Not to mention I also love the music that plays in the Godzilla vs Kumonga music. Thankfully in my younger years I was able to accumulate almost all of the Showa Kaiju films soundtracks on cds. Some really amazing scores for me were Varan's and Rodans OST. Also manage to get all the Showa Gamera film OSTs...now those were some really neat music scores.

I love godzilla films

Collecting score music is like playing Zelda in first person in a tesseract platform with pocket dimensions. Score music is an addictive vice for avid collectors. Great video 📹 👍.

Been missing your reviews and watching a lot of kaiju stuff in general on RU-vid and I must say, you provide the best commentary on the music of those that I've seen! Any updates on when you'll get around to more non-Godzilla Toho movies which may or may not be available on the Internet Archive if one were inclined to see them there (I wouldn't know)?

So, anybody else want to see her do a video in which she spends five minutes singing, "Godzilla", by Blue Oyster Cult? "Oh No! There goes Tokyo Oh Oh Godzilla!"

She sings too?! Nice tone and vibrato!

One of my favorites of all of your videos! Own your reproduction of the music! Really fun!

Didn't make that connection between Mothra vs Godzilla's title theme and Requiem 'til now. Thanks for pointing that out. Also, your take on Mothra's theme was actually quite nice. Maybe you've figured it out since recording this, but 11:28 is Mahara Mothra. I love how Ifukube reused and further developed all of his themes from the Showa era into the Heisei era.

You’ve been in band and/or choir! Call it an educated guess. Excellent review! You should tackle Phantom of the Opera next!

I had a feeling you would sing the Mothra song eventually. The Mothra song doesn't bother me anymore, I prefer the Peanuts' version of it. I just found out that the Mothra was sung in Indonesian which they approximated to Japanese and Sacred Springs is all in Filipino.

Thank you for this video! So fun and very thoughtful review. Also please tell me you sing the Godzilla theme out loud regularly, I can't be the only one.

kinda depressed tonight...hearing you replicate Big G's greatest hits certainly lifted my spirits!

That's awesome... I need to get that CD.

Brilliant video! You have a pretty good musical ear too. Nice bit of vibrato at 13:44 :). I would love to hear your thoughts on the two Time Machine films from 1960 and 2002. The more recent version gets a lot of hate, but I absolutely love it.

You may be interested in Godzilla The Perfect Collection soundtrack CD sets.

Rebuena la musica hermosas piezas de arte.

The first "Godzilla" film was about the best what with Raymond Burr and all. If you can see the uncut version the Japanese certainly make an strong anti nuclear statement and rightly so.

I think you could do more soundtrack reviews!

I have both CD's. Mothra's Theme is my all-time favorite and usually skip right to it.

great video.

Apologies if this was discussed further down in the comments, but wasn't a good deal of Salter/Stein music from The Creature from the Black Lagoon used in perhaps the international release of King Kong vs Godzilla? Also, 10:04 - ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

The 1998 version will always be the best

The dubbed version of King Kong vs Godzilla scrapped the Japanese Ifukube soundtrack and used canned stock music so that’s why you hadn’t noticed the music before.

Awesome singing! Let's hear your piano playing soon.

I love your videos!

Most of the music in the American version of King Kong vs Godzilla is entirely different from the Japanese version. That's why the CD threw you off.

BTW, I don't know if you take requests but I'd love to see you do a review of 1981's Pennies From Heaven if only to see how you'd react to the scene where Christopher Walken tap dances in a wife-beater.

Don't you like Giant Robots? I love their soundtracks specially the Mazinkaiser's themes

VERY good singing! You can certainly carry a tune. Unlike, moi. lol

Always wonderful, "Jerry" .... may I suggest - think of upgrading your camera -- your character, your attractiveness and your fascinating way transcends any concerns your have regarding gray --

Happy Belated birthday

You are so beautiful. I love your videos please post another please

A new blank background ? Why ?

4:43 Hey Jerome. You are such a CUTE young woman!

10:43

Defund the copyright police

What Godzilla fan guy wouldn't want this lovely lady to be their girlfriend. Yes she's really a girl. Don't let the RU-vid name fool you.