Originally released on November 18 1997, TITANIC: Music From The Motion Picture contained 15 tracks, most of which were arrangements of material from the film rather than material straight from the film and included the more restrained version of the song My Heart Will Go On performed by Celine Dion. This album soon became the biggest selling film score in history, with over 30 million copies sold. In negotiating his deal with Sony Music, James Horner was so confident in the film and the album he managed to earn approximately $1.20 for every copy sold, providing him with enough income and recognition to be able to choose his projects more freely, based on their individual merit or relationships with filmmakers and not based on any financial incentives.
Over the years, the album has undergone extensive repackaging but all contents remained the same. Of note are two unique 5.1 surround presentations which gave the music a significant audio quality improvement over the original album:
Released in 1998, DTS Entertainment issued the Titanic soundtrack in DTS 5.1 surround audio. Offically categorized as a 'DTS Music Disc', the audio CD was playable on any conventional CD or DVD player with a digital output connected to a DTS capable audio decoder, giving the 15 track album a wider dynamic range, and unique mixing in the 5.1 channels: Front left and right stereo, Center, LFE (Low-Frequency Effect) and Rear left and right surround.
The album was also paired with the special follow-up album release Back To Titanic, released in September 1998 and featuring newly recorded suites by the London Symphony Orchestra and the Choristers of King's College, Cambridge. It contained both a piano solo performed by James Horner in The Portrait, as well previously unreleased score in the suite A Building Panic, both of which are available on this new La-La Land release.
In addition to various source music and a dialogue version of the Radio edit for My Heart Will Go On, Back To Titanic was more of a concept album than a soundtrack album.
In 2001 and 2003 Sony reissued the original Titanic soundtrack on their High-Resolution Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD) format. The 2001 release was a stereo-only version playable only on SACD players, while the 2003 release contained the same unique 5.1 surround mix as the 1998 DTS Music Disc, but at a vastly higher resolution audio format Direct Stream Digital.
Prior to the 2012 Anniversary Edition repackage, a Japanese release on the K2HD audio CD format was issued by Sony Japan in 2011. Once more, contents were the same as the original soundtrack album with no perceptible difference in audio quality.
This stunning new release from La-La Land is not to be confused with the 2012 "Anniversary Edition" 2-CD and 4-CD sets, released to coincide with both the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking, but also the 3D release of the film.
That 2012 Anniversary edition came in two formats:
A 2-CD set with the original soundtrack album remastered and a collection of recordings for the film by I Salonisti entitled Gentlemen, It Has Been A Privilege Playing With You Tonight.
A 4-CD set which included the original soundtrack album remastered, the Back To Titanic album remastered, the I Salonisti album and a fourth disc titled Popular Music From The Titanic Era.
This new 20th Anniversary La-La Land release is remarkably different, in that is contains not only the entire film score on discs one through three, but also an expanded selection of work by I Salonisti recorded for the film along with the Irish source music by Gaelic Storm from the Third Class parties. Every piece of music from the film is included here, with around 90 minutes of unreleased material from the film score alone.
Previously missing from the 2012 Anniversary Edition, the new release of source music includes Oh, You Beautiful Doll, Come Josephine In My Flying Machine, The Merry Widow, Meditation De Thais, and an extended version of the most notable of them all, Nearer My God To Thee.
The Gaelic Storm tracks Blarney Pilgrims and John Ryan's Polka were included in both edited form and different mixing with dialogue from the film on the Back To Titanic album, retitled An Irish Party in Third Class. Additional tracks include Kesh Jig and Drowsy Maggie Dance, all heard throughout the film's Third Class party sequence.
