The Legendary Italian Westerns
The major Morricone fan is probably going to also want the Rhino two-CD  anthologyA Fistful of Film Music, but this is a 31-track, 73-minute  sampler (at a budget price!) devoted to the western music that made him famous  is a fantastic sampler.  Most of the familiar Morricone/Leone title themes are  here (several selections from "Fistful of Dollars," "For a Few  Dollars More," "Once Upon a Time in the West"--although curiously  not "The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly").  But perhaps most exciting are  the many tracks (and movies) you've probably never heard of ("A Gun for  Ringo," "Guns Don't Argue").  All of it, however, is unmistakably  vintage Morricone, with those twanging guitars and melodramatic, sweeping  choruses.  Hysterical and epic, over-the-top and genuinely moving, nobody's ever  written music quite like this.--Jim Emerson