I’ve done it for my prequel edits. TPM retains its recording, though I’ve swapped out AOTC and ROTS. Originally I had Gerhardt’s for AOTC and an alternate take from the original SW for ROTS, but now I’m leaning towards McNeely for AOTC and Williams’s Hollywood Sound recording for ROTS.
I also guess I need to find one for TLJ.
I don’t know if I’ve heard the alternate version. Was it on the Complete Score album? I think released in 97 and rereleased in 04?
On the 97 SE album (yes, rereleased in 04), on track 13 after the alternate Binary Sun, there are a few minutes of silence, and then they play a few takes from the original recording of the main title. So there are actually multiple alternate takes in there, though you have to be somewhat careful because the original main title that was used in the film is actually an edit of more than one take put together.
Technically Williams did rerecord for TLJ, though for whatever reason it was not ultimately used. Hopefully that’s not the case next time.
He did? That is interesting. Where did you read that he did rerecord the main title? Too bad it can’t be accessed anywhere.
Rian Johnson has stated it on quite a few occasions. He even posted a video on his instagram of Williams conducting it. So… technically there is an accessible recording of it, but it was recorded with an iPhone, so not exactly usable.
So total, that gives you:
- Alternate Take from A New Hope Complete Score album
- The Hollywood Sound
- The Boston Pops performance
- Greenaway’s Life in Music
- McNeely’s main title
- Gerhardt’s main title
To be honest, I’m retreating from the alternate ANH take myself, for a few reasons. But the others are good, and I think there are a least a couple other good ones somewhere out there, if I’m remembering correctly.