The Legacy of John Williams

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Table Of Contents

• Film Details
• Music Credits
• Essential Discography
• In Williams’ Words
• Quotes and Commentary
• Videos
• Bibliography and References

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Film Details

Year: 1973
Studio: United Artists/Lion’s Gate Films
Director: Robert Altman
Producer: Jerry Bick
Executive Producer: Elliott Kastner
Writer: Leigh Brackett, based on the novel by Raymond Chandler
Main Cast: Elliott Gould, Nina Van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden, Mark Rydell, Henry Gibson, David Arkin, Jim Bouton, Warren Berlinger
Genre: Crime – Drama – Mystery

For synopsis and full cast and crew credits, visit the IMDb page

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Music Credits

Music Composed and Conducted by John Williams

“The Long Goodbye”
Music by John Williams
Lyrics by Johnny Mercer

Featuring performances by The Dave Grusin Trio, Jack Sheldon, Clydie King, Irene Kral

Recorded on June 20 and July 21, 1972 at Western Recorders, Inc., Hollywood, California, on August 10, 1972 at The Goldwyn Studios, Hollywood, California, on November 25 and 27, 1972 at TTG Studio, McCadden Place, Hollywood, California

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Essential Discography

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Selected Re-recordings

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In Williams’ Words

“We would go into a dentist’s office or an elevator and there would be this ubiquitous and irritating music playing. It was threaded through, kind of like an unconscious wallpapering technique. I think it’s completely unique. I don’t think anyone has tried it quite the same way before or since.”¹

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Quotes and Commentary

“Johnny Mercer and John Williams wrote the song before we started shooting, and we came up with the concept of (performing it) in so many different ways, both indigenously in the film and on the (sound effects track). It was just a conceit, an idea that worked out well.” ²
– Robert Altman

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The music for The Long Goodbye is steeped in modern jazz, which instantly suggests the film’s modern time frame and urban environment. Williams wrote a bluesy melody that was flexible enough to be arranged in a wide variety of settings. He was joined by legendary lyricist Johnny Mercer, who wrote the haunting words that are sung across the film’s soundtrack. Mercer’s lyrics reflect the brooding gloom of a lost romance or a missed opportunity (“It’s too late to try/when a missed hello/becomes the long goodbye”). The words don’t necessarily relate to the film’s story but fit the tone of the melody and the permeating mood of loneliness that runs throughout the film – exposing Altman’s ongoing subtext of Marlowe as a wanderer throughout an era in which he doesn’t belong. It was Altman’s suggestion that all of the music in the film should be an arrangement of this theme song. “He wanted Marlowe to hear the same song throughout the picture wherever he went,” Williams told an audience at a 1978 lecture for the National Film School in London.
As David Thompson stated in his 2005 book, Altman on Altman, the director wanted “every occurrence of that song arranged differently, from hippie chant, to supermarket muzak, to radio music, effectively achieving the correct mood for the hero’s encounters with eccentric Californians, while pursuing his case.”
The Long Goodbye, then, is saturated in the melody of this song, which Williams and Mercer finished writing prior to filming. As Altman instructed, every bit of music heard in the film is drawn from the tune of that title song. Even sound effects like the doorbell at the Wade home plays the opening melody of the tune; Marlowe whistles the tune to his cat when it refuses to eat a second-rate brand of cat food; gang leader Marty Augustine absently hums it to himself while waiting for Marlowe to arrive at his high-rise office; a lush vocal version is heard from the car radio while Augustine’s mistress waits in the car as Marty and his hoods confront Marlowe in his apartment; a house party at the Wade’s beach home after Roger’s return includes a group sing-along of the song’s chorus in the manner of the gospel pop hit “Oh Happy Day”.
Formal arrangements of the melody serve as the film’s commentary underscore. Williams recorded two primary vocal renditions of the song – one as a melancholy nightclub jazz performance intoned by respected bebop crooner, trumpeter, and actor. Jack Sheldon; the other as a smooth and sultry torch song vocalized by veteran session singer Clydie King.
Reflecting different perspectives, these versions of the song follow Marlowe through the film like a haunting Greek chorus, reflecting his mood and that of 1973 Los Angeles as it is reflected through Vilmos Zsigmond’s photography.³
-Randall D. Larson

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Videos

Opening Title sequence from The Long Goodbye (1973)

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John Williams conducts “Theme” from The Long Goodbye, arranged for violin and orchestra | Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin | Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Williams | 2022

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Brett Mitchell performs his original piano arrangement of “The Long Goodbye”

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Bibliography and References

. Larson, Randall D. – “The Song of The Long Goodbye,” The Long Goodbye – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack liner notes, Quartet Records, 2012
. McCulley, Jerry – The Long Goodbye – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack liner notes, Varèse Sarabande, 2004
. Sherwood Magee, Gayle – Robert Altman’s Soundtracks: Film, Music, and Sound from M*A*S*H to A Prairie Home Companion, Oxford University Press, 2014
. Zuckoff, Mitchell – Robert Altman: The Oral Biography, Alfred A. Knopf, 2009

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Footnotes

1. Quoted in Zuckoff, 2009 ↩︎
2. Quoted in McCulley, 2004 ↩︎
3. Larson, The Long Goodbye – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack liner notes, 2012 ↩︎

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