Goonies Never Say Die

In 1985, Richard Donner released, The Goonies - an old fashioned rollicking kids' adventure film, that over the years has built up a loyal fan base within each generation who has seen it. The film follows a band of kids know as The Goonies from the "Goon Docks" in Astoria, Oregon who go in search of buried pirate treasure in order to save their homes from demolition.

Chris Columbus who later went on to direct the first Harry Potter movie, wrote the screenplay from a story by Steven Spielberg. Whilst Goonies is generally speaking more enjoyable for children and teens than adults, it's still a lot of fun..if a bit shouty. Still, it grossed over US$61 million, placing it among the US' top ten highest grossing movies of 1985.

The movie also gave a few young actors their initial leg up in the movie business. Future Hobbit Sean Astin starred as Michael "Mikey" Walsh, the lead Goonie; Corey Feldman, (excellent in Stand By Me), played Clark "Mouth" Devereaux, the loud mouthed Goonie; Ke Huy Quan, (Short Round in the second Indy movie), played Richard "Data" Wang, the Gadget Goonie; Jeff Cohen played Lawrence "Chunk" Cohen, the food-loving Goonie who makes friends with the scary but gentle Sloth; Martha Plimpton played Stephanie "Stef" Steinbrenner the smart-mouthed, skeptical Goonie.

Dave Grusin's soundtrack for The Goonies has become one of those Holy Grail of movie scores, and although a rather lacklustre album of songs vaguely heard in the movie and one solitary track from Grusin's score was issued, nothing else has appeared. A widely available bootleg score has been circulating for many years which some greedy dealers have been charging a premium for.

WARNING: This is not the score heard in the movie but is in fact a rather clumsy cut up of an 18 minute suite from an album released in 1994 called Best Of Adventure on Cinerama/Edel CIN 2216-2 with Grusin's compositions performed by The City Of Prague Philharmonic and The Budapest Studio Orchestra, conducted by William Motzing. The track titles have been assigned somewhat randomly and the Cyndi Lauper track Good Enough added to give the release some sort of legitimacy/credibility.

It's posted HERE so you can save your money, that is until the official one comes out. Rumour has it that Varese Sarabande has shown an interest in releasing it but need some encouragement. If you want to sign a petition to show your support for releasing the official soundtrack click HERE for the link.