The Rocky Horror Picture Show is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and the cult classic musical is getting a vinyl reissue of its soundtrack. The deluxe edition of the original movie soundtrack will be pressed on 180-gram red-in-gold vinyl. The package will also be housed in a heavyweight gold-foil jacket and a newly designed inner sleeve, complete with never-before-seen photos and excerpts from producer Richard Hartley’s production diary.
“The Rocky Horror Picture Show, one of cinema’s most groundbreaking and provocative films, was based on the stage musical by Richard O’Brien, and shattered conventions with its bold characters, flamboyant style, and infectious rock ’n’ roll soundtrack,” a press release explains. “Its legendary midnight screenings – featuring shadow casts, fan costumes, and audience call-backs – redefined moviegoing and created a cultural phenomenon. Today, it remains the longest-running theatrical release in film history, with weekly screenings still held around the world.”
Hartley and O’Brien collaborated to create the original London stage production, with Hartley overseeing all the music arrangements. When the film was originally released, the musical director called it a “turkey,” as it flopped and was quickly relegated to midnight showings. It was here that the ritual of late-night screenings and sing-alongs began.
Devotees can quote the entire film, but even casual fans can probably recite all of the film’s biggest hit, “Time Warp.” O’Brien wrote the song after a member of the cast pointed out that there was no dance routine. He went to work overnight and brought the chorus to Hartley the next morning.
“And so he went home, and he came round to my flat the next morning,” Hartley told Billboard. “He said, ‘Look, I’ve got it here.’ And he got to a bit before the chorus, and he said, ‘I need to get from here to here.” I said, “Okay, well, let’s do these chords.’ And that was the chorus. I recorded it quickly on a cassette, he went off to rehearsals, I wrote it all out, and then we rehearsed it in the afternoon. That’s how it was done.”
Hartley had to cut songs and rearrange them to make them suitable for the silver screen, and “Time Warp” evolved into the beloved version we know today.
“‘Time Warp’ was the first one we cut and it sounded great,” he said. “When we got the singers in, Jim, the director, had this thing about Wizard of Oz — the Australians do have a big thing about The Wizard of Oz — so he said, ‘Could we make it a bit like the Munchkins?’ I said ‘yeah, okay.’ So we slowed the whole thing down half speed, and then they sang it at pitch. When we speeded it up, we got this sort of Munchkin sound. When you listen to it, you can just hear it. We mixed it in very subtly. When you see all those Transylvanians, it makes them look even weirder.”
Relive the scene and play along with the sheet music for “Time Warp” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
