''Hocus Pocus: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack'' is the score for the 1993
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios unit ...
Halloween comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
of the
same name. It was composed and conducted by
John Debney
John Cardon Debney (born August 18, 1956) is an American composer and conductor of film, television, and video game scores. His work encompasses a variety of mediums and genres including comedy, horror, thriller, and action-adventure. He is a l ...
.
The soundtrack was first officially released on October 1, 2013, over twenty years after the film's release, by
Intrada Records
Intrada is an American record company based in Oakland, California, owned and managed by Douglass Fake. The company specializes in movie and television soundtracks, notably those by the late Jerry Goldsmith.
Intrada was founded in 1985 by owner ...
. The album included the complete film score along with bonus material.
Background
In 1993, Debney's agency released a promotional CD containing 19 tracks from the film, in hopes of a future commercial release. However, it did not come to fruition, and the promo has since become a rare collector's item. The film did not have a soundtrack album available to the public until Intrada Records released their special complete edition in late 2013.
As a result of the score being cut from its original running time of over 60 minutes down to 43 minutes in Debney's promo, as well as all the music from the prologue sequence being removed, many
bootleg recordings
A bootleg recording is an sound recording, audio or video recording of a performance not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. Making and distributing such recordings is known as ''bootlegging''. Recordings may be ...
of the score were
leaked online, most containing all the music from the film in addition to never-before-heard alternates, some of which did not appear on the official release.
The music was conducted by Debney and orchestrated by Brad Detcher and
Don Davis.
James Horner
James Roy Horner (August 14, 1953 – June 22, 2015) was an American composer. He was known for the integration of choral and electronic elements, and for his frequent use of motifs associated with Celtic music.
Horner's first film score was in ...
was originally slated to score the film, but became unavailable at the last minute, so Debney had only two weeks to score the 96-minute film. Prior to the production of the film, Horner wrote a two-minute theme for Sarah (commonly known as "Come Little Children"), which ended up being used in the film, and featured in Intrada's edition of the score (officially titled "Sarah's Theme").
The song "
Almost Unreal
"Almost Unreal" is a song by Swedish pop music duo Roxette, released on 10 May 1993 as the lead single from the soundtrack of the 1993 live action adaptation of '' Super Mario Bros.'', which starred Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo, Dennis Hopper, and ...
" by
Roxette was written for the film, hence the lyric "I love when you do that hocus pocus to me". At the last minute the producers replaced them with
En Vogue
En Vogue is an American vocal girl group whose original lineup consisted of singers Terry Ellis, Dawn Robinson, Cindy Herron, and Maxine Jones. Formed in Oakland, California, in 1989, En Vogue reached No. 2 on the US Hot 100 with the single ...
, though they too were ultimately dropped. "Almost Unreal" ended up being used for the
film adaptation of the
Nintendo game series ''
Super Mario Bros.
is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The successor to the 1983 arcade game '' Mario Bros.'' and the first game in the ''Super Mario'' series, it was first released in 1985 for ...
'', which was released two months prior.
Track listing
Unassembled cue list
# "Main Title"
# "Main Title Pt. 2"
# "Garden of Magic No. 1"
# "Thackery Follows Emily"
# "Witches' Lair Pt. 1"
# "Witches' Lair Pt. 2"
# "Witches' Lair Pt. 3"
# "To the Stake"
# "Death to the Witches"
# "Meeting Allison"
# "Max Loses Shoes"
# "The Closet"
# "Hallowe'en"
# "Max and Dani"
# "Divertimento #17 in D, K. 334"
# "To the Witches' House We Go"
# "What's That?"
# "The Black Candle"
# "The Girls Come Home"
# "Escape from the Witches' Lair"
# "Witches on a Rampage"
# "Get the Book!"
# "Binx's Story"
# "Graveyard Attack"
# "Evil Intent"
# "The Calming Circle"
# "Winnie Wants Children"
# "The Master"
# "Fingers"
# "Hallowe'en Holiday"
# "Springing the Trap - Part 1"
# "Springing the Trap - Part 2"
# "Up in Smoke Aftermath"
# "Is It Safe?"
# "Ernie Goes Too Far"
# "Winnie's Lament"
# "Witches Flight"
# "Witches Take Dani"
# "Sarah's Theme" (Garden of Magic No. 2)
# "Max Fools the Witches"
# "Winnie Catches Up"
# "Billy Speaks"
# "Witches Capture Dani Pt. 1"
# "Witches Capture Dani Pt. 2"
# "Witches Demise/Resurrection"
# "String Tremolo" (Bridge to End Song)
# "End Credits Pt. 1"
# "End Credits Pt. 2"
References
{{Hocus Pocus
1993 soundtrack albums
2013 soundtrack albums
Intrada Records soundtracks
Walt Disney Records soundtracks
John Debney soundtracks
Hocus Pocus
Disney film soundtracks