The opening number is a song (one
of three) written by song meister Randy Newman and sung by Steve
Martin, Martin Short and the other guy. While it is generally
sensible, the lyrics are completely absurd in places
"wherever you find us, is where we will be" - well,
yeah. Oh and the long drawn out falsetto notes which don't crack
for a moment and may find the unsuspecting in fits of hysterics.
Bernstein's main theme is introduced in the second track, along
with a few smatterings of Newman's Amigos theme. Both have an
opening phrase over which "The Three Amigos" fits
extremely well, wonder whether they were intending to use
Bernstein's tune as the title song, who knows? (Who cares?)
Anyway, it's a great theme and played to the hilt by the
orchestra (the sound being particularly splendid, even on LP). There are a few dialogue tracks
which aren't nearly as annoying as you'd think. It's not really
enough to tell the story with, but provides with a few memories
of the film if you've seen it and some strange gibberish for
everybody else. The second song is sung by the Three Amigos when
they arrive at the town they are attempting to save, comments are
passed on the patrons "looks like someone came in here with
the ugly stick." After a menacing piano intro, there is a
change of heart and the Amigos launch into My Little Buttercup.
Hmmmm, quite. It sounds pretty funny on disc, but is really quite
hilarious on screen as they perform it as a song and dance
routine in their lycra Amigo costumes in front of the most grubby
looking Mexicans they could find. Other scenes of dialogue
feature the singing bush (the voice of Mr Randy Newman himself
curiously altered to sound worse than usual). Bernstein's score
bounces in and out of the dialogue scenes, but none of the best
music is obscured in any way and so can be enjoyed on its own
terms. There are some rather lovely guitar solos as well as some
good, slightly silly creeping around music. However, when the
main theme appears in brassy, blazing glory is when it really
starts to cook.There is a distinctly strong Mexican flavour to
much of the rest of the score, which works very well at
delineating the locals from the Amigos. The third and final song starts
with the guitar intro from another song, the name of which I
cannot remember, however you'll know it when you hear it. Blue
Shadows on the Trail is what Mr Newman has called his song and is
actually rather nice indeed, although the way its performed on
screen (with horses for backing singers and the most patently
phoney Texan background in the world ever) is appropriately
silly. The final track is a great compilation of the main theme
mixed with the Three Amigos song theme and ends
an extremely entertaining score. Sadly, the score has only been
released on LP so far and there don't appear to be any plans to
release it on CD. This could make purchase somewhat tricky, but
I've seen it in quite a few record fairs for virtually no money
(although I have a copy on Minidisc from a friend - which also
means that I don't have a track listing, sorry). If you want to
hear some really awful singing, then I can thoroughly recommend
the demo versions for the songs as sung by Randy himself on his Guilty
boxed set.. his falsetto is really something, really, honest.... Rating ~ Although there are quite a few
comedy western films, only Mel Brook's Blazing
Saddles and The Three Amigos made any
kind of splash as spoofs of the genre. Who better to write the
music for a spoof than the man who started what is probably the
most popular style of main theme for a Western but Elmer
Bernstein? Why, Elmer Bernstein of course. It has to be said that
this score was in Bernstein's "crap comedies" phase
where there didn't seem to be many good assignments coming his
way. Bernstein of course always wrote some great music for
undeserving films. The Three Amigos wasn't
perhaps as great is as it could have been, but was certainly
vastly better than some of Bernstein's assignments at the time.
