Stu Phillips, known principally for his work on the soundtracks of American television shows in the ’70s and ’80s, delivers a suitably psychedelic and trippy soundtrack for one of the films that defines the hippy culture of the late ’60s and early ’70s, Russ Meyer’s cult classic, Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (1970), a parody of Mark Robson’s film, Valley Of The Dolls (1967), based upon the best-selling novel by Jacqueline Susann. The film tells of an all-girl pop band who get caught up in the sex and drug-fuelled world that is Hollywood. While weird and self-consciously trashy, this is one of the more watchable and indeed, more cinematic, films by Meyer, the king of exploitation cinema. Perhaps the most interesting fact about the film is that the script was a joint effort between Meyer and the renowned film critic, Roger Ebert.
The soundtrack begins with Phillips’s beautiful, melodic compositions such as Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls – Theme, which is complemented by a vocalised version by folk group, The Sandpipers, in which the members sing in unison in a typically hippy, hypnotic fashion befitting the era. Following Phillips’s music are a series of pop and rock songs, the most notable of which are the love-in mover, Come With The Gentle People, by the film’s fictional band, The Carrie Nations, and their more sedate number, In The Long Run. One final piece of trivia – the song Incense and Peppermints by the group, Strawberry Alarm Clock, features in the Jay Roach/Mike Myers 60s spy pastiche, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997).
Finally, this soundtrack, while a classic in its own right, has been largely invisible for years and is now, thankfully, available for streaming, though tangible copies in different formats can still be found online. Sampled tracks below…
fortheloveofcelluloidblog 