Lalo Schifrin - Quiet Village (Cha-Cha-Cha)
Is it getting hot in here? The summer starts now, and isn't it about time for one of those ridiculous, manically exhaustive and meticulously remastered instant box sets from me? I hope you answered yes.
It's also International Music Day, or something. So music is what we have, and a bit of it.
This guy passed away almost exactly a year ago, having just made his 93rd birthday. Since then I've been wanting to put together something awesome and special on him, worthy of the cultural impact of such a massive figure.
He's almost the archetype of that artist whose name most people don't know, but they've been listening to his music their whole lives.
Things he's written, particularly ones done for films and TV, are a part of the fabric of our musical epoch to a molecular extent.
Really, some of the most epic, beloved and influential movies of our lifetimes are in no small way still enjoying that lofty status, decades after they were made, due to the hypnotizing soundtracks he composed for them.
Cool Hand Luke, the classic Dirty Harry trilogy, Bullitt, Joe Kidd, Enter the Dragon... the list goes on.
And if those aren't iconic enough for you, have a hum -- and it better be in the original 5/4 time, or I'm having Uncle Davey Brubeck and his brass knuckles pay you a visit -- at the theme to Mission: Impossible.
I mean, I'm new to pieces of music so ingrained in the global culture of the human race that they are essentially a meme in themselves that will last forever.... is that song good?
The story goes he penned it in all of 90 seconds, too. And put it in 5/4 to make it just Morse Code accurate and metrically weird enough to last 300 lifetimes.
And you? All you gotta do to please Uncle Dave is to grab what I have here today, which oughta truly meat the bone as per what makes the music of Lalo Schifrin -- born this day in 1932 -- something cinematically seismic.
So how many pulsating film and solo Lalo bangers do I have in the chamber... how many did you count, punk? Was it just a couple? Is it 75 of them, clocking in at a phat four hours and change? Do you feel lucky? Then let's Funk.
Lalo Schifrin
Lalo Schifrin's Funk Lunchtime
1967-1985
CD1
01 Dirty Harry (main title) (1971)
02 The Osterman Weekend (theme) (1983)
03 Escape from Tomorrow (single) (1974)
04 Bolero (single 1975)
05 Candy Store Frenzy (Nunzio 1978)
06 Ring Around the Moon (Gypsies 1978)
07 King Kong (Towering Toccata 1977)
08 Chuco (Boulevard Nights 1979)
09 Water, Fire & Mines (Escape to Athena 1979)
10 Check Out Time (Mission: Impossible 1970)
11 Middle of the Night (No One Home 1979)
12 Mr. Magic (Serial 1980)
13 Magic Carousel (Rollercoaster 1977)
14 Radio Source No. 1 (Pretty Maids All In a Row 1971)
15 Quiet Village (Cha-Cha-Cha) (Black Widow 1976)
16 Chile Caliente (Boulevard Nights 1979)
17 Lunchtime (The Mean Season 1985)
CD2
18 Theme from Enter the Dragon (Enter the Dragon 1973)
19 Sanctus Benedictus (Rock Requiem 1971)
20 Mission Blues (Mission: Impossible 1969)
21 Golden Needles (main title) (1974)
22 Sudden Impact (main theme) (1983)
23 The Shadow (Mannix 1968)
24 Dona Donna (single B-side 1975)
25 Potrero Hill (Magnum Force 1973)
26 Zebra Three (Starsky & Hutch 1975)
27 Amityville Frenzy (Amityville Horror 1979)
28 Most Wanted Theme (Towering Toccata 1977)
29 Tabú (Black Widow 1976)
30 Cocktails of Fire (Sudden Impact 1983)
31 Latin Soul (single 1972)
32 Burning Bridges (Kelly's Heroes 1970)
33 Moonlight Gypsies (Gypsies 1978)
34 Day of the Animals (Towering Toccata 1977)
35 No More Lies, Girl (Dirty Harry 1971)
36 Mission: Impossible (unused main title edit) (1970)
37 Palancio (Magnum Force 1973)
CD3
38 No One Home (No One Home 1979)
39 Baia (Black Widow 1976)
40 Dancing In the Clouds (Concorde - Airport '79) (1979)
41 Incantation (w.Dizzy Gillespie) (Free Ride 1977)
42 Roller Coaster (Towering Toccata 1977)
43 Su Lin (The Monk)/The Big Battle (Enter the Dragon 1973)
44 Hey, Nunzio! (Nunzio 1979)
45 Uncle Herbert (The Big Brawl 1980)
46 Boulevard Nights (Boulevard Nights 1979)
47 Black Widow (Black Widow 1976)
48 Midnight Woman (Towering Toccata 1977)
49 Status Symbol (The Osterman Weekend 1983)
50 Shoot the Mayor (edit) (Mission: Impossible 1970)
51 Dirty Harry (single B-side) (1972)
52 Frenesi (Black Widow 1976)
CD4
53 Magnum Force (main title) (1973)
54 Bullitt (end title) (1968)
55 Out of Town (Brubaker 1980)
56 Secret Code Synthesizer (Whole Lotta Schifrin Goin' On 1969)
57 The Pin (Murderer's Row 1967)
58 The Plot/Quiet Plot/Against the Clock (Mission: Impossible 1970)
59 Silence (Starsky & Hutch 1975)
60 Jaws (Black Widow 1976)
61 To Cast a Spell (Gypsies 1978)
62 Theme from St. Ives (1976)
63 Williams/Williams On the Run (Enter the Dragon 1973)
64 Theme from The Master Gunfighter (1975)
65 Starsky & Hutch (season 1 main theme) (1975)
66 The School Bus (Dirty Harry 1971)
67 Turn Every Stone (Mannix 1968)
68 Relations (Brubaker 1980)
69 Theme from Medical Center (single version 1971)
70 Spill the Wine (single B-side) (1971)
71 Ape Shuffle (Theme from Planet of the Apes) (single) (1974)
72 Traveling (Return from Witch Mountain 1978)
73 Introit (Rock Requiem 1971)
74 Final Prayer (conclusion) (Rock Requiem 1971)
75 Enter the Dragon (end title) (1973)
Total time: 4:10:39
compendium of Lalo Schifrin funk bangers, from all his many (mostly 1970s) film soundtracks & albums
selected, assembled, edited & remastered for unity by EN, June 2026
1.46 GB FLAC/direct link
1.46 GB FLAC/direct link
You'll doubtlessly recognize a good few of these tracks, especially if you're me, and you've been into The Osterman Weekend since you first saw it at the 99 cent theater in 1983, when you were bad-hair-and-awkward-eyeballs-deep in the 11th grade.
I have a couple more posts of the excruciatingly tragic Death Memorial variety before we put June in the spittoon, but Lalo Schifrin's 94th birthday compels you to funk your weekend all the way into Magnum Force oblivion with a whole light-up dancefloor's worth of his most hip-twirling tunes!--J.
6.21.1932 - 6.26.2025