RSD 2015: The Family Way on vinyl

“The Family Way” soundtrack album from 1967 is due out on vinyl for Record Store Day 2015

There wasn’t much in the way of Beatles related releases for Record Store Day 2015, but this one warrants attention.

Paul McCartney

The Family Way: Original Soundtrack Recording

Format: 12″ Vinyl

Label: Varese Sarabande

Release type: RSD Exclusive Release

Info by RSD: This 1967 soundtrack composed by Paul McCartney is one of the most elusive Beatles souvenirs. The original vinyl album has been long out of print, and it is commanding sky-high prices on the collector’s circuit.

The Family Way is a 1966 British comedy-drama film based on Bill Naughton’s play All in Good Time (1963). It began life in 1961 as a television play, Honeymoon Postponed.The film was produced and directed by John and Roy Boulting, respectively, and starred father and daughter John Mills and Hayley Mills.

The soundtrack was composed by Paul McCartney and released on an album in January 1967, effectively the first solo-Beatles outing, musicwise. The album was credited to “The George Martin Orchestra” and issued under the full title The Family Way (Original Soundtrack Album). A 45rpm single, again credited to the George Martin Orchestra, was issued on 23 December 1966, comprising “Love in the Open Air” backed with “Theme From ‘The Family Way'”, as United Artists UP1165. The Family Way won an Ivor Novello Award in 1967 and was last seen on CD in 2011, remastered from the original first generation stereo master tapes. Varese Sarabande was the company behind the release then, as they are now, only on vinyl. The CD included the unreleased stereo mix of “A Theme From The Family Way” as a bonus track, which had appeared originally as the B-side of the 1966 UK/US 7-inch single by the Tudor Minstrels. It is not known if this track will be included on the vinyl edition, or if it will merely mimic the original album release.

The recording took place over November and December 1966, before the Beatles began work on their album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. McCartney’s involvement in the project was minimal, according to biographer Howard Sounes, who quotes George Martin’s recollection that he had to “pester Paul for the briefest scrap of a tune” with which to start writing the score. After McCartney had provided “a sweet little fragment of a waltz tune”, Martin continued, “I was able to complete the score.”

Despite the RSD blurb about the rarity of the vinyl album, it’s easily found on ebay, prices range from £3.72 (auction) to £85.12 (Buy it now). When we first came to London on an interrail trip back in 1982, “The Family Way” album, Australian edition was readily available at the HMV shop in Oxford Street.

Record Store Day is April 18, 2015.