Released March 1981 Artist Tangerine Dream Movie Thief Genre Electronic music | Length 39:07 or 40:11 Release date March 1981 Label Virgin Records | |
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Recorded February - November, 1980 Similar Tangerine Dream albums, Electronic music albums | ||
Thief (1981) is the second soundtrack album by the German band Tangerine Dream and their fifteenth album overall. It is the soundtrack for the film Thief, directed by Michael Mann. It reached No. 43 on the UK Albums Chart in a 3-week run.
Contents
"Beach Theme" and "Beach Scene" are two different mixes of the same piece. The album version of "Dr. Destructo" is quite different from the film version. An extended version of "Dr. Destructo" was available only on a promo single. "Igneous" is a remix of "Thru Metamorphic Rocks" from the 1979 album Force Majeure. Neither "Beach Theme" nor "Trap Feeling" appear in the film.
After Tangerine Dream completed the soundtrack, Mann needed another sequence. As Tangerine Dream was on tour, Craig Safan composed and performed "Confrontation". The original 1981 Elektra LP released in the U.S. featured "Confrontation", but subsequent releases featured "Beach Scene" instead.
During the 1980s, Toronto television station CITY-TV used "Scrap Yard" as their background music when inserting technical difficulties slide cards.
The soundtrack was also nominated for Worst Musical Score at the 2nd Golden Raspberry Awards.
Tangerine dream dr destructo from the album thief
Versions
There are currently two versions of the soundtrack available with different track listings and album covers. Version A has "Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" above the title followed by "James Caan" just below. "Composed and Performed by Tangerine Dream" appears at the bottom. Version B just has "Tangerine Dream" above the title.
In 2004, Wounded Bird Records re-released version B with "Confrontation"; there were however two mispressings, one with the version A track list, and one with "Igneous" removed instead of "Beach Scene" All had the listing for version B on the CD and cover.
In 2014, Perseverance Records released a re-mastered, 9 track version that included both Beach Scene and Confrontation, thus correcting the errors on previous releases where both tracks were never on the same disc.