The Last Unicorn (Album)

The last Unicorn
America soundtrack
Publication (s)	19th November 1982
admission	1982
Label (s)	Virgin Records
Format (s)	MC , LP , CD
Genre (s)	Movie soundtrack
Title (number)	15th
running time	38 min 18 s
occupation	Jimmy Webb - arranger, composer The London Symphony Orchestra - orchestral accompaniment Gerry Beckley - lead vocals , piano, backing vocals (song 1, 3, 6, 15) Dewey Bunnell - Lead Vocals, Guitar, Backing Vocals (Song 2) Michael Woods - solo guitar, backing vocals Brad Palmer - bass, backing vocals Willie Leacox - drums , percussion Katie Irving - vocals (song 4, 5) Jeff Bridges - vocals (song 5)
production	Jimmy Webb
chronology View from the Ground (1982) The last Unicorn Your Move (1983)
Single releases 1983 The Last Unicorn 1983 Man's Road / In the Sea

The Last Unicorn (English: The Last Unicorn ) is a soundtrack album from 1982 of the same name animated film The Last Unicorn , which on the story The Last Unicorn of US author Peter S. Beagle is based. The music comes from the American composer Jimmy Webb and was interpreted by the British-American rock band America and the London Symphony Orchestra . The album was initially released on Virgin Records as an LP .

background

The soundtrack to the film shows a partly melancholy mixture of fairy tale motifs and gloomy moods reminiscent of the works of Wagner . It accompanies the painful story of a unicorn in search of its conspecifics, who were captured by a mad king and driven into the sea. King Haggard is determined to claim these magical creatures for himself. The contents of the songs were adapted to the plot and illustrate the feelings of the unicorn that it experiences on its journey.

In the opening credits of the film, the title theme underlines the animated scenes on tapestries in the background. The soundtrack with all pieces of music was released in Germany in 1982; this version did not exist in the United States. Mia Farrow sang two songs in the film that were sung by Katie Irving for the album .

content

The cover story The Last Unicorn tells of the legend of a mythical creature that is said to still be in the forests of this world and that it will still be there when the last eagle circles over the remains of the once high mountains. Even if everything seems to begin to die at the beginning of winter, the laughter of the last unicorn can be heard in the distance when it calls out: “I'm alive”. The unicorn learns by chance in the story that it seems to be the last of its kind in the world. Disbelieving and sad, it goes in search of the other conspecifics and tries to fathom their fate. This is where the song Man's Road begins , which is about the arduous, long road that the unicorn is now treading. Tired, hungry and without any indication of the whereabouts of the others - even the stars seem to be fading - it is now anxiously walking on the paths of people. The song In the Sea clarifies the questions that the unicorn asks. Is there anyone who could tell them what happened to their fellows? Do the fish in the sea, the stars in the sky or the birds in the trees know where the unicorns went? In order not to suffer the same fate, the unicorn must take the human form of a woman. The problems this brings with it are discussed in the song Now That I'm a Woman . Very soon she can no longer remember that she was a unicorn and what she is actually looking for. Instead, feelings begin to arise in her that she has never known before, love and compassion for the people, especially for Prince Lir, the adopted son of King Haggard. Both sing the duet That's All I've Got to Say . The other pieces are instrumental and only in the last song Unicorn and Lear the circle comes full circle and the title topic is included again.

Reviews

James Christopher Monger describes the soundtrack in his review as "a jewel from another time" that even later animated films could not achieve.

Album and covers

• Three tracks from the album were decoupled: the title song The Last Unicorn individually and Man's Road and In the Sea together on a single . The band America had in the US in the 1970s and early 1980s a number of successes, including two number-one hits. Still, they couldn't place themselves there with these movie songs. The soundtrack also didn't make it into the charts. In Germany, The Last Unicorn, on the other hand, was the trio's first and greatest success .
• The German version of the title song, Das letzte Einhorn , was sung by Frank Turba .
• The Last Unicorn also appeared in several cover versions , including by Declan , Gregorian ( Last Unicorn ), Groove Coverage , Kenny Loggins , Michael Hirte and Monika Martin ( When the night is tenderly silent ). In-Mood feat. Juliette and Marc van Linden entered the German charts in 1999 with their respective versions.

Track	title	sung by	length
1	The Last Unicorn	America	3:07
2	Man's Road	America	3:23
3	In the Sea	America	3:15
4th	Now That I'm a Woman	Katie Irving	2:36
5	That's All I've Got to Say	Jeff Bridges , Katie Irving	2:42
6th	The Last Unicorn (Part 2)	America	3:07
7th	Forest Awakens	instrumental	2:09
8th	Red soup	instrumental	0:30
9	Red Bull Attacks	instrumental	3:36
10	The Cat	instrumental	1:39
11	The Tree	instrumental	1:19
12	Haggard's Unicorns	instrumental	2:10
13	Bull Unicorn Woman	instrumental	2:46
14th	Unicorns in the Sea	instrumental	1:50
15th	Unicorn and Lear	America	3:28

Chart placements

album

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		DE	CH
1982	The Last Unicorn	DE33 (10 weeks) DE	CH21 (5 weeks) CH

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

single

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		DE	CH
1984	The Last Unicorn The Last Unicorn OST	DE38 (9 weeks) DE	-

Web links

• Publications by The Last Unicorn in the catalog of the German National Library
• The Last Unicorn (Original Soundtrack) on discogs.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Release date
2. ↑ The Last Unicorn (Original Soundtrack) on discogs.com
3. ↑ ^{a b} Jimmy Webb - Last Unicorn on allmusic.com.
4. ↑ The last unicorn (Lyrics) on songtexte.com.
5. ↑ Man's road (Lyrics) on songtexte.com.
6. ↑ In the Sea (Lyrics) on songtexte.com.
7. ↑ Now that I'm a woman (Lyrics) on golyr.de.
8. ↑ That's all I've got to say (Lyrics) on golyr.de.
9. ↑ Frank Turba - The Last Unicorn on musik-sammler.de
10. ↑ Covered by: on hitparade.ch
11. ↑ The Last Unicorn by In-Mood feat. Juliette on the charts.
12. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: DE CH