THE BEST VERSION

My best version of the main theme is actually the Billy Strange
version from his album Secret Agent File. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. theme
there is absolutely fantastik. All of the album is great by the way. Only
Crescendo made a terrible mistake when they reissued the album on cd.
they forgot one original track, in fact one of the most original called
the 9th Man Theme, a rocking version of Beethoven Ode To Joy from the
9th Symphony. Why they didn't keep in the cd is insane. and absolutely
illogic to me. It was part of the original album and I feel that any
decent music company should at least release an album on cd with the
original line up. If they want to add bonus tracks, that's fine with me
but at least they should deliver first the original line up. The track
I miss so much didn't referred to any movie or tv theme: just a playful
fantasy on Beethoven well known melody and a pretty nice one too by the
way. It's a shame Crescendo didn't do the job properly on this cd. They
included as a bonus track a classic from Shostakovitch that was used as
the main theme for the tv series: Reilly Ace Of Spy, But that cut was
used only for the sake of being a "spy theme". Unfortunate, it breaks
the mood of the whole album with a classical piece that had at first
nothing to do with spying. They should have stuck first to the original
album and never mix with classical genre in there. This piece of
classical music doesn't fit anywhere in there. It's maybe a great piece
of music but not at all at his place among rock oriented instrumentals.

Crescendo also cut down some drum's beating in the Get Smart's
theme also. Another stupidity. Does anyone knows about music in this
company? Lucky for us though, the theme from The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is
all there in in perfect stereo.

I'd like to know id the Gallant's version of the main theme is
available or was made available at any moment in time in the past?
Must I understand that this version is the famous second year's
version? I'm looking for that version on cd anywhere for as long as I
can remember. Does anyone knows anything about that? If I'm not mistaken
that version was adapted by Lalo Schifrin, a style that already
previewed Mission Impossible's main theme. The theme, the one with the
flute and the bongos was always my favorite and I'm dying to get a good
sound version of it. The one version I discovered on cd which is the
closest of the second year's version is on a low budget cd from U.K.
presenting tv-themes. It's a good cover but not quite exactly like the
original we get on the video tapes. The rights must belong to MGM. Maybe
the fan clubs could inquire at MGM if they could expect to hear this one
day on a cd?

All the best!

Luc Lepage, Montréal