Re-Post: MA-52 - Adventures of Superman - original MUTEL catalog recordings

I recently heard from a new friend asking about this release.  Previous posts of this release were victims of the Great Server Swap, so here it is again.

When I wrote to Vintage Soundtrak for information about their MUTEL music, I received a mimeographed list, several pages long, listing the various cassettes for sale.  That’s all I remember! I think the tapes were something like $20 each.

I originally learned about Vintage Soundtrak in a STARLOG article.  I’m not sure which issue, though.  Just this past week, I went page-by-page through STARLOG  issues 4-5, 7, 10-14, 17-21, 25-7, 29, 31, 33,  35-6, 38-9, 41-2, 51, 57, 61, 63-65, 67, 69, 71-224.  And I didn’t find it!

I sent money orders for two tapes.  I’m pretty sure they were at different times.  First I sent off for Season One, Volume Two, because I liked the selection titles.  When I popped that tape into my player and I got smacked in the face with “Mysterioso,” I was agog!  I love this kind of creepy, atmospheric stuff.

Remember, this was in the early 1980s, and the TV series, when shown, usually didn’t feature the B&W episodes.  Oftentimes the sillier color episodes were what you came across on the small screen.

Next, I ordered Season One, Volume One.  They sent me Season Two, Volume Two, with an apology that they were out of what I ordered but hoped the replacement was sufficient.  It was!

This is what the cassettes look like.

Now, the “catalog” they originally sent me had selection titles and brief one or two paragraph notations.  I’m happy I kept that catalog, because the cassettes arrived with no labeling except the stickers on the tapes themselves.

I made my own cassette-case inserts using info from the original mimeoed catalog.

 

Also this past week, I went through my “memory files” and folders of articles and clippings and other stuff, but did not find the catalog sheets from Vintage Soundtrak.  So, unless somebody else has better preservation skills, we may never know more about this firm, which evidently in the 1980s had possession of, or access to, the MUTEL discs.

And, as I mention in the notes for this release, at least one collector (who knows more about this stuff than I do), feels that these cassette-to-mp3 dubs have better sound quality than the Varese-Sarabande 2000 CD release.

So, here is my track list:

01. Mysterioso (2:13)

02. Wax Museum (1:32)

03. Build to Sting (0:18)

04. Frantic Rhythm (1:53)

05. Violin Scream (1:19)

06. The Getaway (0:57)

07. Fight (3:13)

08. Jump the Fence! (1:19)

09. Queasy (1:34)

10. Deserted Village (1:33)

11. Rip Through Fear (1:03)

12. Face at the Window (1:44)

13. Eerie Oboe (1:22)

14. Flute to Finale (0:53)

15. Night of Terror (2:29)

16. Sad Romance (1:20)

17. Monkey Mystery (1:18)

18. Airport (0:37)

19. Slow Carousel (0:46)

20. Radio Waltz (1:43)

21. Tango (2:09)

22. Silsby Pastorale (1:43)

23. Life and Death (2:28)

24. Romantic Interlude (1:54)

25. Blue Melody (1:41)

26. World of Tomorrow (3:10)

27. Menace (1:34)

28. City Desk (1:21)

29. Sword of Damocles (2:56)

30. Cat Burglar (1:28)

31. Atlantic Rollers (2:09)

32. Solemn Moment (1:31)

33. Sea Power (1:35)

34. Scotland Yard (2:59)

35. Prelude to Crime (0:24)

36. Crime Doesn't Pay (2:47)

37. Changing Moods I (3:01)

38. Changing Moods II (2:48)

39. Humorous In & Out (0:34)

40. Chameleon Moods (2:40)

41. Free for All (1:35)

42. Hope Abandoned (2:47)

43. Arctic Wastes (2:25)

So, combine this with MA-55 - Adventures of Superman - More Library Recordings from last September, and you will have everything I’ve got, as far as music goes, from the Adventures of Superman series.

Up, Up, and Away!