Spinal Tap: This Is Spinal Tap (soundtrack) [HIP-O RECORDS]

Why you'll love it

This reissue is newly remastered from the original stereo analog tapes and pressed in the Czech Republic. Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer and Rob Reiner wrote the songs, and they're sharp enough to work as the real heavy metal they're sending up.

This edition

• Remastered from the stereo analog tapes
• Pressed in the Czech Republic

About the album

Spinal Tap began as the subject of Rob Reiner's 1984 mockumentary and went on to play Wembley Stadium. Michael McKean is singer David St. Hubbins, Christopher Guest is lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel and Harry Shearer is bassist Derek Smalls, and the soundtrack is the album the band in the film would have made, played completely straight.

Guest, McKean and Shearer produced it themselves, with David Kaff as keyboardist Viv Savage and Ric Parnell as drummer Mick Shrimpton, and Patrick McDonald engineered. "Hell Hole" and "Heavy Duty" nail the arena swagger, "Stonehenge" goes full prog pomp, "(Listen To The) Flower People" spoofs the band's psychedelic past and "Gimme Some Money" its beat-group days. "Big Bottom" became the bass anthem Soundgarden played in early live shows, and at Live Earth in 2007 Spinal Tap played it at Wembley with bassists from several other acts.

The cover copies Smell the Glove, the fictional album from the film, and the 2025 sequel, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, sent a new crowd back to the originals. We checked the amplifier at our counter; it still stops at ten, which may explain a great deal.

Also at Kops: more Spinal Tap on vinyl · browse Soundtracks

Tracklist

Listen

On Polydor / UMe, a reissue of the 1984 soundtrack.