Tricks & Treats 09: A Strange and Fascinating Journey

The Rocky Horror Picture Show has quite the history. We all know the story of how it bombed and then became a midnight hit at theaters all over the world. But do you know the story of the soundtrack? When the film was originally released, the film itself boasted a mono soundtrack. The accompanying album was released in stereo and contained different mixes and vocals from the film version. This is not that uncommon a practice in the world of film soundtracks. There are many albums that feature different takes than the ones used in the film. However, when the film finally saw a release on the home video market in 1990, Fox commisioned a stereo version of the film soundtrack. This was done by Chace Productions who created the "new mix" by using the soundtrack album and the original mono audio from the film. This frustrated many fans and also created some weird "out-of-synch" moments in the musical numbers. When the film came to DVD in 2000, Chace Productions was given the original 24-track music master and the original mono audio mix to create a 5.1 surround sound mix. At the same time, were also able to put the original mono track back into the film to give viewers a choice of which version they would like to "hear". Personally, I like pretty much every mix that I can get my hands on as I love this film and the music that goes with it. But there are definite variations in the mixes. For example: in the mono mix of "Science Fiction / Double Feature", Richard O'Brian's voice is predominant over the music and the saxophone plays throughout the song as opposed to the stereo mix where it comes in at the end. In "Over at the Frankenstein Place" the backing chorus are completely different takes in the different versions. In the mono version of "The Time Warp", you can hear Magenta hiss and moan throughout the song. See if you can notice these and other differences when you take a listen to The Mono Rocky Horror Picture Show Soundtrack! Here it is for you now. Enjoy!

The Rocky Horror Picture Show OST MONO