Various Artists: Miami Vice CD Track Listing

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Various Artists Miami Vice (1985)
Miami Vice (Music From the Television Series) - (Japanese Pressing)\n\nOriginally Released 1985\nCD Edition Released 1985 ??\nReissued CD Edition Released 1992\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: Jan Hammer shared the space on this record with a selection of songs that had been used in the TV series, the most notable of which was probably Glenn Frey's "Smuggler's Blues," a song that inspired an episode of its own. Bright, gaudy, and entertaining, a perfect Friday night soundtrack, with one hell of a brilliant piece of theme music. -- Steven McDonald\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nIncomplete, yet good soundtrack for 1st season of Miami Vice, June 26, 2002\nReviewer: Dan Dan Leimone (Tucson, AZ USA)\nHad I not been alive and a teenager when Miami Vice was originally on NBC, I'd probably wonder why anyone would bother with this soundtrack album. Many of the songs are available elsewhere, yet in spite of this, this album really stands on it's own in a way. Although very incompletely, it represents the music and feel of the '80s TV show "Miami Vice". "Miami Vice", more than any show I can ever remember before or since that wasn't about music, was very much driven by it's stellar music. The original music by Jan Hammer was it's signature sound, with the theme being a huge hit and used everywhere the entire last half of the '80s. The rest of the music used in the show was always fitting to the moment in the show, and came from many of the biggest names in music at the time. It seemed like everyone that mattered could be heard on Miami Vice, and having a song on the show often meant having it on the radio shortly after. "In The Air Tonight" wasn't a very big hit for Phil Collins when it was originally released in 1981, but in 1985 when it got entensive play on Miami Vice, it finally got the extensive play it deserved on the radio. MTV really hadn't come of age yet, and where I lived in Wyoming, it wasn't even offered by the local cable company. Miami Vice in a strange way filled the music video role for an hour every week. This album in all honesty is a weak representation of the music played weekly on Miami Vice, but before beating it up for that there are two major things to keep in mind. The first is that a complete Miami Vice soundtrack, even for just the first season when this album was released, wouldn't be a mere album, but a very beefy box set that most people simply would not have been able to afford. The other thing to keep in mind is the music licencing involved. This album was released on MCA. Non-MCA artist's labels would have had to approve each track and be be paid for it, which would've been a financial nightmare. Since most of the songs played on the show were available on the artist's own albums, it was to thier advantage NOT to have thier songs on this soundtrack album. I vaguely even remember seeing stickers on a few LPs back then saying something to the effect of "Featuring the hit "insert song Crockett or Tubbs pursued someone to here" as heard on Miami Vice". Keeping all that in mind, the small selection of songs here is pretty damn good. There is enough of a sampling of Jan Hammer's original works to bring about memories of hearing it on the show without boring the people that find instrumentals to be inadequate. "In The Air Tonight" was a show staple, and since it wasn't much of a hit when it was originally released, more people identified it with Miami Vice in 1985 than with Phil Collins's first solo album "Face Value". Same goes for Glenn Frey's "Smuggler's Blues". His album "The Allnighter" wasn't getting that much attention, but when this song became the theme music for the Miami Vice episode of the same name which featured an appearance by the former Eagle, it became an instant hit. "You Belong To The City" Frey actually wrote for the TV show, and since Frey was on MCA, the licencing complications for this album were avoided. It also became one of Frey's biggest solo hits. I don't remember the Chaka Kahn, Tina Turner, or Grandmaster Melle Mel songs being used in the show, which more than anything is probably just an indication of my musical tastes at 15. Even though I don't remember it being in the show, "Vice" is certainly fitting, and the other tracks jump out and scream 1985 mainstream. Listening to this album, much like catching an episode of Miami Vice being shown in syndication, brings back good memories of a much different time. A time when cops could still be the good guys, pop music could still be enjoyed by everyone, and had a place on prime time network television. Considering it's usually budget price, this album is certainly worth picking up if you were around to watch Maimi Vice in 1985, or have become a fan of the show's re-runs.\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nMusic from the MTV-influenced television series, January 13, 2002\nReviewer: Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota)\nAs soon as "Miami Vice" was to NBC as "MTV cops," it was clear music was going to be an integral part of the show. Rock composer Jon Hammer's theme became a smash hit and because it was a minute long it was used for several years as the official "timer" song for the NBA's three-point shooting contest. But one of the strengths of the show was the way it could integrate songs into its plots; Phil Collin's "In The Air Tonight" provided the emotional resonance to Sonny Crockett's thoughts about his failed marriage as he drove the streets of Miami in the show's pilot. When Ricardo Tubbs had to gun down the drug lord father of the woman he loved, the show used Tina Turner's "What's Love Got to Do With It?" They could not possibly have all of the great songs used to great effect on this disc, and, indeed, they do not even try. But then, most of those songs are available elsewhere. Here you get "Smuggler's Blues" and "You Belong To The City" by Glenn Frey as the standout songs, along with what proves to be an inadequate sampling of Hammer's original music. Still, this soundtrack album does give a true sense of the musical style of the show, although if you never watched "Miami Vice," you cannot fully appreciate this album.\n\n\nAMAZON.COM CUSTOMER REVIEW\nA Picture of the Early Miami Vice Days, April 18, 2000\nReviewer: "cloudlio" (Sao Paulo - SP - Brazil)\nTense and intense lifestyles, inner dramas, what would be Miami Vice without its music? We were then in the videoclip days and in the highest manifestation of the eighties in television. For now, Miami Vice may be not more than TV history, but surely was hard to make a good cops show after. Hopefully, in time, the show may be remembered not as a fashion that passed, but as an incredible source of ideas, language, and television pop art. Like it or not, Vice is unique.\nAnd what would be its music without the images? It's impossible to hear "In The Air Tonight" or "Chase" without remembering the dark Daytona Ferrari crossing the Miami streets at night, Crockett and Tubbs with their minds faster than the car, time seems to stop moving. "Evan" and "You Belong to the City" bring us Crockett's conflicts. "Miami Vice" the extended version had an unforgettable videoclip, an edition of episodes making a tiny episode with composer Jan Hammer as a bad guy, and well... he surpasses the heroes. Unfortunatelly this extended version has a remix version not released in CD. Jan's music for the show was a show apart. It surely deserves to be released in CD completely: it's no less important than Don Johnson acting... "The Original Miami Vice Theme" alone shows the Vice world in a minute's glance (despite of being almost imperceptibly different from the original show version). The voice of Tina Turner in "Better Be Good to Me" personalizes Gina, Trudy and their "female cops in hooker's skin" storms. "Flashback" is for Tubbs' grieve, revenge for his brother's death. Those are just some moments of uncountable moments this series made during five years of such real characters in a shocking colored world.\n\nThis Cd is a souvenir from Vice... In this show image is sound and sound is story.\n\nHalf.com Album Notes\nComposed by Jan Hammer.\nProducers include: Jan Hammer, Glen Frey, Allan Blazek, Arif Mardin, Joe Mardin.\n\n
This soundtrack cd contains 11 tracks and runs 42min 58sec.
Freedb: 8f0a100b
Buy: from Amazon.com

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