I'm So Disappointed! No Ferris Bueller's Day Off Soundtrack!?

[OBleedingMe]

I just recently saw this movie, and I loved the music they had in it, but after three days of constant searching, I finally found out the director John Hughes refused to release a soundtrack!! His excuse was that the songs were too diverse and they would never "work" together. What an idiot! They could have made a fortune with a Ferris Bueller soundtrack!!
So I've been trying to download as many songs from the movie as I can via finding them in the credits/websites and d/ling them through file-sharing programs. But even that only goes so far. A good 20% of the songs were made SPECIFICALLY for the movie and there is no other known recording of them except for 20 or 30 45 RPMs distributed to members of the crew and John Hughe's fan club.
I found a site that somehow managed to grab all the music from the movie and make a pirated compilation for a complete soundtrack... except that they refuse to sell or give the CD to anyone else except those who worked on it! What selfish asses... anyway, if I'm somehow wrong about this, someone please let me know! 🙁

 

[dskodj]

You are possibly correct, there was never a soundtrack documented. All that was released really in goings with the film was a 7" (45) and 12" single for Yello's "Oh Yea". Which on the 12" had 3 versions, the extended mix, original mix and a trippy remix called "indian summer mix". Im guessing at one point there was plans for a soundtrack cause on my 12" it says from the soon to be released original motion picture soundtrack of "feris..". So I guess it was scrapped last min. I had bought that 12 when it first came out. Yello then almost a year later shoved the track on their LP called "One Second". There very well may be a soundtrack out there however, I never had heard the story you spoke of before. A few good examples that are like this film.."Gremlins" and "Prom Night". Both of those films had rarely documented anywhere soundtracks and now days..they are worth a ton (I have them both .. hehe). I'll see what I can find out about "Feris" and let ya know😉

 

[buggs]

I think I remember reading somewhere that they could only get the rights to the music they had in the film for the film and not on a soundtrack album as most the songs in the film were songs already recorded by other artists and released on their own albums and the artists didn;t want a soundtrack to take away from their own album sales. I could be totally wrong, or thinking of another soundtrack album entirely. But I thought I remembered that being the case.

But then again, now that I think about it, I do remember seeing a CD of the soundtrack in Tower Records in the summer of 1986. The cover was the poster cover. I thought I saw it next to the TOP GUN soundtrack when I bought that. You know how Tower would have seperate standee shelves of their newest stuff broken down into musical catagory in the new release section. I swear I saw it. I could also be mistaking it for the Laser Disc of it when I was tooling around Tower Records near Ala Moana in Hawaii in the summer of 1997. But for some reason I remember seeing it in CD next to the Top Gun soundtrack when I bought it.

Yeah disco. Alot of soundtracks got put into moratorium after a year or two of release and have never been redone for CD's. Now there are a few soundtracks that they have remastered with all of the music from that film, even the stuff that couldn't fit on an album, or even double album when it was first released. Superman and the OT Star Wars movies are a good example of that.

 

[TklDuo-Ann]

they refuse to sell or give the CD to anyone else except those who worked on it! What selfish asses... anyway, if I'm somehow wrong about this, someone please let me know! 🙁

Selfish but smart. They'd end up with all sorts of lawsuits if they did. I DO have one possible solution for you, though. If you have or can get your hands on a copy of the movie and your VCR or DVD player hass the hookups, I've found that it's possible to pull an audio tape from a video by hooking up to a box that has the ability to record. I'd offer to make one for you. But, our copy of the movie is pretty worn and wouldn't give you much quality.

Ann

 

[buggs]

Now that I think about it, I do remember seeing the CD of the soundtrack at tower records in the summer of 1986. I distinctly remember picking it up and looking at the cover. Remember when CD's first came out alot of them where in that long, thin box with the CD inside of it? The box was the same width and thickness as the CD cover, but it was like 2 and a half times longer. And the CD was at the top of the box. And the box had the same cover art and everything, it was just a longer box. I remember holding it in my hand and looking at the back. The front had Ferris's upperbody, head resting on crossed arms, over white. And I remember the back had some pics on it, and the type for the tracks was the same black and red that the title was. I really do think there was a CD and it has just gone into morritorium. In fact I remember saying to myself that I was going to buy it after I bought another soundtrack CD first cause I wanted that song that was played while they where going through the museum.

 

[dskodj]

Ok heres the offical word after talking to a few contacts I know about it (they are VERY repitible sorces). There was no soundtrack ever released comercialy (for the reasons already stated about John Hughes not thinking they would sound good on one LP). There was a 12" promo only single/EP released to radio DJ's with extended mixes of some of the tracks from the film (the Yello one what I mentioned was one of em on it). So that is the only "soundtrack" ever to exsist..and it wasnt really a soundtrack technicly. But, if you buy used vinyl and are a collector id say to look for the 12" DJ promo used. Ya may pay high for it, but you'd have the one and only offical item for the film. My other suggestion would be to compile the soundtrack yourself and find the songs for the film. Also, there are quite a few bootlegged made soundtracks out there that have been floating around since the mid 80s on vinyl and CD (which Buggs..this is probably what you saw back in '86, Tower was known for carrying some boots). Hope this information is useful and can help you in either getting a bootlegg, getting the original vinyl promo, or making your own🙂