The remainder of the score often uses fragments of these themes for its substance. One cue of singular beauty is "Trip to Earth," which offers some of the wondrous atmosphere that Williams later fleshed out to a greater degree in Hook. A minor-key variant of the Krypton theme in "The Fortress of Solitude" is an emotional play aided in the cue by eerie, high female voices. The straight action cues are overshadowed by moments like the latter half of "The Big Rescue" (or "Helicopter Sequence"), which cranks out a reprise of the title fanfare. Some of the better action cues were never available on the original LP or CD albums for Superman, further diminishing their memorability. The album situation for this score was initially frustrating for many Superman fans, though they would be ultimately rewarded for their patience with two stunning releases of the score in 1998 and 2000, as well as even more astronomical treatments of the score in 2008 and 2019. The original 1987 release on CD was far from complete, not even featuring the same quantity of music contained on the LP release. For some mainstream listeners, however, it could be argued that the 73 minutes of music presented on that original CD was all that was really necessary for a cursory appreciation of the composition's highlights. In 1998, Robert Townson commissioned an effort to completely reconstruct the score for a re-recording by John Debney and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. The resulting 2-CD set on the Varèse Sarabande label not only maintains the integrity of Williams' original composition, but it added 13 minutes of noteworthy material not available on the 1987 Warner release. Although there were skeptics at the time who did not believe in the concept of the multitude of re-recordings that were undertaken by Varèse and other labels in the late 1990's, this presentation of Superman features a performance among the best of all the efforts of the era, ranking alongside Vertigo on Varèse and Raise the Titanic on Silva Screen Records. Rather than serving as an interpretation of Williams' score, the beauty of the coordination effort for this recording of Superman is its total and complete faithfulness to the original composition. Debney and the ensemble achieve stellar results in their goal of producing a sound that recreates the original feel and power of Williams' work without resorting to any temptation for embellishment.

Outside of the crisp digital sound of the 1998 re-recording provided by Varèse, casual listeners won't likely be able to tell a difference between that product and the original. While the additional selections and better arrangement of the music may not be sufficient to alone attract your purchase, the sound quality will. Hearing the majority of the score in outstanding digital quality, especially with such precise attention to the restoration of the music, makes this set a must-have for collectors of Williams' classic Bronze Age scores. The opening few minutes of the "Planet Krypton" cue alone will blow you out of your seat. The packaging, complete with track-by-track analysis, is a fascinating read as well. It could be argued that Varèse and the RSNO never reached these soaring heights again. The 2000 Rhino release really met most demands by Superman score fans, presenting forty additional minutes of previously unreleased music from the original recordings in what was considered at the time to be a definitive release. If you were for some reason deterred from the Varèse album, the early 2000 set of double CDs offered the complete score with such attention to detail that it was originally thought that a significant revisional album release of Superman was never again to be necessary. As comprehensive as it could possibly be, the Rhino set combines the superior arrangement of the Varèse album with a collection of previously unreleased and alternate cues. Along the same lines as similar treatment at the time for Jaws, Close Encounters, and a number of other classic Williams scores, this Rhino set, despite a somewhat cumbersome slip case, competed well while in print. Some of its additional cues were necessary additions to your collection at the time, including the rousing "Star Ship Escapes" and "The Big Rescue." A large portion of missing cues from the second half of the film was also finally made available, leading to a very satisfactory chronological presentation. For good measure, Rhino also included the pop versions of the love theme performed by Margot Kidder, as well as source cues, alternate takes, and the score's familiar concert arrangement. Despite the 2000 album's strength, Film Score Monthly and Warner Brothers teamed up in 2007 to produce an even more comprehensive Superman set for release in February of 2008. The resulting 8-CD product was devoted to all four of the original feature film scores and Ron Jones' 1988 animated series music. Its selling point was the extensive, newly available material from the Ken Thorne and Alexander Courage sequel scores arranged from Williams' original themes.

While the music from Superman isn't significantly different on the 2008 set when compared to the out-of-print Rhino one (there is a handful of additional alternate material that was discovered but it only amounts to a couple of minutes in length), the improvement in sound quality was an attraction for those already settled on the 2000 set. Only after Rhino had produced that set were original, first generation masters of Superman discovered, and it from this source that FSM's presentation is made. Even so, for 99% of casual listeners, the awesome FSM product is redundant when considering only Superman. The related material from the subsequent scores, however, is in many places similar enough to the original work by Williams to serve as alternate music of the first composition. The only problem with the FSM set is that it is clearly targeted at the most devoted of concept and film music collectors. At a hefty price of $120, it was one a few sets available from the label that topped the hundred-dollar mark. Somewhat surprisingly, the first edition of this set, limited to 3,000 copies, sold out relatively quickly, and FSM pressed a second edition of another 3,000 copies that remained available at the same price. The production quality of the FSM product is truly stunning, easily the most attractive and fascinating item ever to come from Lukas Kendall's company. The extensive information in the hardcover book included with the eight discs will keep you occupied for hours. But that wasn't the end of the Superman saga on album. In 2019, La-La Land Records took advantage of the discovery of even better sources, namely the actual tapes used to record the orchestra in the studio, to press roughly the same contents but with a few notable additions. The 2019 "40th anniversary" product is highlighted by its incredible sound quality, the kind of rousingly crisp clarity that really shames even the prior remastering work. Several fascinating alternate cues are also a major attraction, including a notable early rendition of "The Fortress of Solitude." The original LP presentation is supplied in magnificent sound, too. Missing from this set, however, is the bevy of supplement source materials; the label had included these 20 minutes, oddly enough, as part of its 2018 Superman II/Superman III set instead. If you're only interested in the best-sounding performances of music for the first Superman film, however, the Varèse and La-La Land presentations are nothing less than 5-star products that will serve most needs. Any of these albums will continue to make you wonder how this score could have lost the Academy Award to Giorgio Moroder's Midnight Express. Fickle, those voters are.   @Amazon.com: CD or Download