Per Qualche Dollaro In Piu' (For a Few Dollars More)

RCA Records faced a problem at the close of the 1960s, surrounding Ennio Morricone's music from Sergio Leone's "Man-With-No-Name" Westerns starring Clint Eastwood. The first one, A Fistful of Dollars, had yielded a successful soundtrack album when issued in America in 1967, despite the fact that Morricone had only recorded 14 minutes of music for it. There was demand for a soundtrack LP from the second movie, especially in the wake of United Artists Records' enjoying a substantial hit with its soundtrack release from the third movie in the trilogy, The Good, the Bad & the Ugly. The problem was that Morricone had only recorded 14 minutes of music from For a Few Dollars More. As a result, they assembled a soundtrack album on For a Few Dollars More, which included the six music tracks from that film and repeated the six original tracks from A Fistful of Dollars. It all sounds good, and it's interesting to hear the composer add the sound of an oboe to his distinctive use of trumpet, guitar, and whistling on a new and haunting melodic canvas of western musical landscapes. There are no notes, alas, and there's little other information printed, but the album is enjoyable as far as it goes. It should also be noted, however, that most of the key sections of this and A Fistful of Dollars are available at a lower price on RCA's Ennio Morricone collection, Legendary Italian Westerns, which is also well-annotated.