King Kong vs. Godzilla - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack LP

Doxy Cinematic (2018)

This is pretty much the last of the Godzilla soundtracks that is readily available on vinyl, at least that I'm aware of.  During the online San Diego Comic Con it was heavily implied that Mondo will be releasing a bunch of the Godzilla and other Toho soundtracks in time, though what movies may receive this treatment wasn't really clarified.  All I know is that if nothing else, I really hope that some day I will be able to own the soundtracks for all of the Showa Godzilla movies.  They are true slices of my childhood.

And during that childhood, few movies were as big a deal to me as King Kong vs. Godzilla.  While Terror of Mechagodzilla was always my personal favorite, even as a kid I knew that Godzilla's battle with King Kong was much more well known and more important to the masses.  Grownups with zero interest in Godzilla movies knew there was one where he fought King Kong.  The soundtrack is every bit as fun as the movie is.

This is one of my favorite Akira Ifukube scores.  There is plenty of brass heavy Godzilla city pounding music, but what I like the most about this soundtrack are the island themes.  While looking back at some of the island scenes these days, you can't help but cringe a little bit.  That said, Ifukube's score for these scenes, particularly "The Sleeping Devil," steal the show and elevate everything in camera.

I now have vinyl soundtracks for Godzilla 1954, King Kong vs. Godzilla and two compilations of music from the Showa and Heisei era films.  There are a lot of gaps still left.  I'm hopeful that Mondo will be able to fill those up in the coming years, but from what I saw on their YouTube panel, I'd be very surprised if we got a chronological walk through of every soundtrack.  I'll take whatever I can get, but I'm hopeful we get it all.