V/A: The Rocky Horror Picture Show (soundtrack) [ODE SOUNDS & VISUALS]

Why you'll love it

This Ode pressing puts the original 1975 film soundtrack back on vinyl. It reached No. 49 on the Billboard 200, went gold in the US, and AllMusic gave it five stars as the definitive version of the score.

About the album

Few soundtracks have had a second life quite like this one, and Canada gets some of the credit. Richard O'Brien's 1973 stage musical became a film in 1975, and Richard Hartley produced the cast album at Olympic Studios in London. For a spell Canada and South Africa were where you could reliably find it, until Jem Records' Marty Scott licensed it from Ode boss Lou Adler and brought it back to American shops.

Tim Curry owns the record from "Sweet Transvestite" onward, O'Brien sings "Science Fiction/Double Feature" and leads "The Time Warp" with Patricia Quinn and Little Nell, and Meat Loaf barrels through "Hot Patootie, Bless My Soul." Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon carry "Dammit Janet" and "Over at the Frankenstein Place," and Charles Gray narrates in his finest deadpan. The band includes John "Rabbit" Bundrick on keyboards, with Clare Torry among the backing singers.

It first charted in America in 1978 and came back to the Billboard 200 in 2010 after Glee devoted an episode to it, and three of its songs ended up in Guitar Hero. The record lets you do the Time Warp at home, at a sensible hour, without anyone throwing toast.

Also at Kops: more The Rocky Horror Picture Show on vinyl · browse Soundtracks

Tracklist

Listen

On Ode Sounds & Visuals, a reissue of the 1975 soundtrack.