Scarface (soundtrack)

Scarface is an American film which relates the story of Tony Montana, a Cuban refugee who goes to Miami in 1980 with the Mariel boatlift, and there he becomes a drug cartel kingpin.[7] Scarface was created as the original soundtrack. Its songs were written and produced by Giorgio Moroder, an Italian record producer, along with other musicians.

Former frontwoman of the band Blondie, Debbie Harry, co-wrote "Rush Rush". The song's title is a reference to cocaine, and it was based upon Moroder's soundtrack American Gigolo (1980). Robbin Daw considered its lyrics "fit the overall druggy feel" of the film,[6] and Harry commented about it is "[a]s far as the films' themes and the lyrics [she] wrote, they were pretty much up to [her]."[6] The song also became Harry's debut single as solo artist after Blondie's breakup.[6] Moroder worked with Pete Bellotte, with whom he co-wrote "Scarface (Push It to the Limit)", "She's on Fire" and "Turn Out the Night". The first song features vocals of Paul Engemann, while in the other two Amy Holland sang. Arthur Barrow co-wrote "Shake It Up" and "I'm Hot Tonight", in which Elizabeth Daily performed, and "Dance Dance Dance", with Beth Anderson vocals. María Conchita Alonso appeared in the song "Vamos a Bailar". The soundtrack includes two instrumentals, "Tony's Theme" and "Gina's and Elvira's Theme".[3] Main theme, "Tony's Theme", is inspired, or more precisely a transcription of "the cold song", act three of the opera "King Arthur" by Henry Purcell.

The soundtrack incorporates elements of disco,[2] post-disco and synthrock.[3] According to John Richardson, Claudia Gorbman and Carol Vernallis, in their book The Oxford Handbook of New Audiovisual Aesthetics (2013), Moroder employed music as "material to conduct performances, experiences, and energies whose symbolic function and textural weight are elucidated by the aural materiality of its soundtrack", as in the 1965 American film Vinyl.[2] The main synthesizers used by Moroder for the Scarface soundtrack were the Roland Jupiter-8 and the Yamaha CS-80.[8]

Moroder received a Golden Globe Award nomination for his production work in the soundtrack.

MCA Records released Scarface on December 9, 1983,[1] through vinyl records.[9] After the release of the film, it began to gain notoriety as the time passed.[3] Due to this, in 2003 Universal Pictures re-released the film in DVD, and the soundtrack was remastered and released in compact disc.[10] According to Brian De Palma, the film director of Scarface, Universal Pictures had intended to re-release the film with a rap score, but De Palma has not allowed them to change the original score, as he considered it to be "perfect".[4] Thanks to the re-release, on March 7, 2004, Scarface debuted at number 98 in the French Album Chart. The soundtrack stayed in the chart for seven weeks.[11]

In its review for the website AllMusic, Jason Birchmeier compared Scarface to other soundtrack works of Moroder, including Flashdance and Electric Dreams, both released in 1983. Birchmeier considered the collaborations of Debbie Harry, Amy Holland and Elizabeth Daily to the soundtrack "much sheer fun", and Moroder's "moody" instrumentals as "quite moving". He considered the film to be "undoubtedly the one that withstood the test of time most impressively, growing in popularity as the years passed", something that did not happen with the soundtrack, and concluded with "Moroder's craft, as always, is notably distinct for its stylishness, if not for its tastefulness." Birchmeier gave Scarface a rating of three-out-of-five stars.[3] Ken Tucker, in his book Scarface Nation – The Ultimate Gangster Movie and How It Changed America (2008), commented that thanks to Moroder's "trashy-glam imagination [...] there's a lot of enjoyment to be gleaned" from his Scarface album.[12] In his review for the album Music Inspired by Scarface, a Def Jam Recordings hip hop compilation album inspired by the music featured in the film, Andy Kellman considered the compilation "threatens to complement the film better than" Scarface, and considered Def Jam's attempt to make a substitution with the original soundtrack "would've been a mistake".[13] Moroder received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Original Score at the 1984 ceremony, but lost to his soundtrack work for the film Flashdance.[14]

Scarface became a "celebrated" album in hip hop culture.[15] "Tony's Theme" was used in the GOOD Music song "Mercy" and Mobb Deep's "G.O.D. Pt. III" and "It's Mine".[6][15] While "On Fire" by Lil Wayne contains allusions from "She's on Fire",[6] "Push It" by Rick Ross samples "Scarface (Push It to the Limit)".[15] "Rush Rush",[16] "She's on Fire",[17] and "Scarface (Push It to the Limit)",[18] among other songs, were included featured on the soundtrack of the 2001 video game Grand Theft Auto III. They can be heard on its fictional "Flashback 95.6" radio station.[19]

Tracklisting adapted from AllMusic.[3]

All tracks are written by Giorgio Moroder, additional writing noted.

Credits adapted from Allmusic.[20]