Ennio Morricone - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Dagored, 2001)

A lot of you are probably saying, "Oh, I already have The Good, The Bad and The Ugly soundtrack, just with a different cover," and are preparing to skip over this entry. Hold that mouse. You may own a version of the soundtrack, but unless you have this Dagored double-LP reissue from 2001, you don't have the most complete version of the extremely influential music featured in the landmark spaghetti western. Or, as The Man With No Name would put it,

"You see, in this world there's two kinds of people, my friend. Those with the original version of The Good, The Bad and the Ugly soundtrack, and those with the Dagored expanded version. I prefer the expanded version."

Of course, it's not worth getting into a serious disagreement with your record collector friends about which version of the soundtrack is better.

And don't do anything foolish like pointing a gun in someone's face to prove your point.

But having said that, you'd still be hard-pressed proving that this expanded reissue isn't superior to its predecessor. For admirers of film score composer extraordinaire Ennio Morricone and especially for fans of Il Buono Il Brutto Il Cattivo, it just doesn't get any better than this beautifully-packaged, double-LP magnum opus that contains not just the well-known material from the original version of the soundtrack, but the (count 'em) ten bonus tracks as well. I have a friend who is actually more obsessed with this movie even than I am (if that's possible), so much so that several years ago, he used his cassette deck to record all of the music directly from his Laserdisc version of the film. For the longest time, I had a dub of this audio tape and used it to enjoy soundtrack numbers from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly whose titles I did not know. The good people at Dagored have seen to it that this music shall neither remain nameless nor unreleased, and they have done an excellent job with this first-rate expanded reissue. Several of the bonus tracks contain elements of the "Titoli" theme, but I can never get enough of that distinctive whistling, Bruno Battisti D'Amario's one-of-a-kind guitar, and those human attempts at coyote howls. And the surprises don't stop with the bonus tracks. This album also features the unedited full-length versions of "La Storia di un Saldato" and, more interestingly, "Il Triello," the stirring piece that accompanies the film's riveting final duel scene. If you need a good spaghetti western fix but don't have the three hours necessary to watch The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, listening to this is the next best thing.


1. Il Buono Il Brutto Il Cattivo (Titoli)
2. Tramonto
3. Sentenza*
4. Fuga a Cavallo*
5. Il Ponte di Corde*
6. Il Forte
7. Inseguimento*
8. Il Deserto
9. La Carrozza Dei Fantasmi
10. La Missione San Antonio*
11. Padre Ramirez*
12. Marcetta
13. La Storia di un Soldato
14. Il Treno Militare*
15. Fine di una Spia*
16. Il Bandito Monco*
17. Due Contro Cinque*
18. Marcetta Senza Speranza
19. Morte di un Soldato
20. L'Estasi Dell'Oro
21. Il Triello

*previously unreleased