The Rocky Horror Picture Show (soundtrack)

Release and reception

The album peaked at No. 49 on the Billboard 200 in 1978. It reached No. 12 on the Australian albums chart and No. 11 on the New Zealand albums chart. William Ruhlmann of Allmusic gave the album a star rating of five stars out of five and described it as the "definitive version of the [Rocky Horror] score".

Following its initial release, the album was not successful, and was deleted everywhere but in Canada. Marty Scott, co-founder of Jem Records, obtained a licensing agreement from Ode Records owner Lou Adler, which enabled the album to be imported to the United States. Scott also obtained a production and distribution license from Adler, which resulted in renewed interest in the album.

Unincluded songs

The soundtrack omits two of the songs sung in the film: Rocky's "The Sword of Damocles", and the Frank-N-Furter-led "Planet, Schmanet, Janet" (often erroneously referred to as "Wise Up, Janet Weiss"). Also omitted is "Once in a While," which was shot for the film but later unincluded.

"The Sword of Damocles" and "Planet, Schmanet, Janet" are included on the album "25 Years of Absolute Pleasure" however "Planet, Schmanet, Janet" is missing the last verse (don't get hot and flustered) and they are in mono and ported directly from the film itself and so include all the sound effects and dialogue that would normally be omitted from a soundtrack album.

In 2011 these three songs were released, as MP3 format only, in their stereo, studio mixes on the download only release "The Rocky Horror Picture Show Complete Soundtrack: Absolute Treasures 2011 Special Edition". The album was later issued on double red vinyl for the film's 40th anniversary. However, incidental music and cues are not included and "The Sword of Damocles" features an unknown lead vocalist in place of Trevor White. The latter is included with Trevor White's vocals as a bonus track for the iTunes edition; this is the same version found on the "25 Years of Absolute Pleasure" release, albeit in stereo and contains the dialogue and sound effects from the film.

Track listing

All tracks written by Richard O'Brien.

Bonus tracks (1989 CD release)

1. "Time Warp (1989 remix – extended version)"
2. "Time Warp (music – 1 = background track = U mix)"

Personnel

In popular culture

As announced by video game developer/publisher Activision in a press release on 12 October 2010, "Time Warp", "Sweet Transvestite", and "Hot Patootie – Bless My Soul" were released for the game Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock as downloadable content on 26 October.

Chart performance

The album initially charted in the US in 1978, however, in 2010, following the "Rocky Horror Glee Show" episode of Glee, the album re-entered the Billboard 200 at number 55.