{"id":50904,"date":"2024-12-16T11:52:26","date_gmt":"2024-12-16T10:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ec2dac39-8d8c-4cce-91a3-f8adad3c5b34"},"modified":"2024-12-16T13:10:32","modified_gmt":"2024-12-16T12:10:32","slug":"home-alone-who-wrote-the-music-for-the-festive-classic","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/home-alone-who-wrote-the-music-for-the-festive-classic\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Alone: who wrote the music for the festive classic?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By <\/p>

Published: Monday, 16 December 2024 at 10:52 AM<\/p>

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It\u2019s hard to believe that it\u2019s 30 years since the classic Christmas comedy film Home Alone<\/em> (1990) was released. The story about a small boy accidentally left behind when his family go to Paris for the holidays has become staple viewing for all ages at Christmas.<\/strong><\/p>

Home Alone composer: who wrote the music to the much-loved film?<\/strong><\/h2>
Supporting the slapstick comedy scenes \u2013 as young Kevin defends his house from a pair of inept burglars \u2013 and the oh-so-warm-heated seasonal glow is an original score by none other than John Williams<\/a><\/strong>, who we named one of the greatest movie composers of all time<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>

Four of the best John Williams recordings<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul>
Writer\/Director Chris Columbus couldn\u2019t believe his luck when Williams agreed to score his little family comedy, but the composer was won over by its charm and heart.<\/p>
Williams dug deep into his festive armoury to create music that underlined both the comedy and the warmth, with colourful orchestral set pieces, original songs and a nod-and-a-wink to Tchaikovsky\u2019s Nutcracker<\/em><\/a><\/strong> (see the cue \u2018Holiday Flight\u2019).<\/p>
Five lesser-known John Williams scores<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul>

<\/div> <\/figure> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-did-home-alone-feature-original-songs\">A beguiling mix of new songs and seasonal classics<\/h2> John Williams teamed up with his old friend, the acclaimed British lyricist Leslie Bricusse to write a pair of songs for the film. The most famous is \u2018Somewhere in My Memory\u2019, which picks up the main theme. \u2018Star of Bethlehem\u2019 is a more traditional carol for choir, organ and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/what-instruments-make-up-an-orchestra\/\">orchestra<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/tv-and-film-music\/john-williams-best-scores\">Ten of the greatest John Williams scores<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> The choir also sings the traditional \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/carol-of-the-bells-lyrics-and-music\">Carol of the Bells<\/a><\/strong>\u2019 and \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/what-are-the-lyrics-to-o-holy-night\">O Holy Night<\/a><\/strong>\u2019 in the film, and Williams ends proceedings with a rousing chorus of \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/we-wish-you-a-merry-christmas-lyrics\">We Wish You a Merry Christmas<\/a><\/strong>\u2019.<\/p> Aside from Williams original score and songs, the film features classic seasonal tracks like \u2018White Christmas\u2019 (The Drifters), \u2018Please Come Home for Christmas\u2019 (Southside Johnny Lyon) and \u2018Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas\u2019 (Mel Torm\u00e9).<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/christmas-carols\">The greatest Christmas carols of all time<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-can-you-buy-the-soundtrack-for-home-alone\">Can you buy the soundtrack for Home Alone<\/em>?<\/strong><\/h2> Yes you can. In fact Sony has just re-released its \u2018Anniversary Edition\u2019 of the original soundtrack album. It features selections from Williams\u2019s score, the original songs, carols and the classic Christmas tracks mentioned above.<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/B016P8K0QY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Buy the Home Alone<\/em> soundtrack from Amazon<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> La La Land Records released Williams complete original score for the film in a 2015 limited edition set.<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Published: Monday, 16 December 2024 at 10:52 AM It\u2019s hard to believe that it\u2019s 30 years since the classic Christmas comedy film Home Alone (1990) was released. The story about a small boy accidentally left behind when his family go to Paris for the holidays has become staple viewing for all ages at Christmas. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":50905,"template":"","categories":[1,17],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/home-alone-who-wrote-the-music-for-the-festive-classic.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/home-alone-who-wrote-the-music-for-the-festive-classic-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/home-alone-who-wrote-the-music-for-the-festive-classic-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/home-alone-who-wrote-the-music-for-the-festive-classic-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/home-alone-who-wrote-the-music-for-the-festive-classic-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/home-alone-who-wrote-the-music-for-the-festive-classic.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/home-alone-who-wrote-the-music-for-the-festive-classic.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Monday, 16 December 2024 at 10:52 AM It\u2019s hard to believe that it\u2019s 30 years since the classic Christmas comedy film Home Alone (1990) was released. The story about a small boy accidentally left behind when his family go to Paris for the holidays has become staple viewing for all ages at Christmas.…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/50904"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}