This is my cover of “The Ecstasy of Gold”. Composed by Ennio Morricone, it was part of his score for the 1966 Sergio Leone film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The music is played near the end of the film while the character Tuco (played by Eli Wallach) is frantically searching a cemetery for the grave that holds $200,000 in gold coins. It is one of the most well known of Morricone’s themes.
I could find no versions by any contemporaneous instrumental rock groups. However, Metallica regularly used “The Ecstasy of Gold” as the introductory music for its concerts.
“Swells” is an original instrumental intended to be in the style of the Shadows. Hank Marvin was one of the first rock guitarists to incorporate a volume pedal into his playing.
This is my cover of “The Bat”, which was the opening track n the Ventures 1964 album, “Ventures in Space”. It was composed by Lou Forbes as the title theme for the 1959 film “The Bat”, which starred Vincent Price.
“Invaders from Uranus” is an original instrumental intended to be similar to the style of the Ventures’ “outer-space” material. This particular sub-genre was kicked off by the Tornadoes hit “Telstar” in 1962. Quite a few copycats quickly followed.
The Ventures released “The Ventures in Space” in 1964, and was reportedly the first one which featured their use of Mosrite guitars.
This is my instrumental cover of “Omoide No Nagisa ( 銀色の道 )” – in English, “Beach of Memories”, a song written by the Japanese team of Shigeki Torizuka and Kunihiko Kase. It was a vocal hit in Japan in 1967.
Both the Ventures and the Shadows recorded instrumental versions of this song for the Japanese market.
My arrangement is not based on either of those, but has a traditional 1960’s type feel.
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