Episode 19 - Valley of the Dolls
The Baton: A John Williams Musical Journey - A podcast by Jeff Commings
The 1967 film "Valley of the Dolls" was, on the surface, like any other assignment John Williams had in his early film scoring career. His task was to adapt music from five original songs by Andre and Dory Previn, and put in some original music of his own. The gig turned out to be a major step forward for the Maestro, marking his first screen credit as "John Williams" since his debut as a film composer. Plenty more significance come from his work on this film, and host Jeff Commings discusses them and takes a listen to highlights from the score in this episode.