To call The Family Way a holy grail for PAUL McCARTNEY fans would be missing a point: Macca wrote only the tunes (or “cues” in movie music-ese) here. He’s not on the record at all. The orchestrations were done by The Beatles’ producer George Martin, who by 1966 had already shown quite a bit of talent at arranging for orchestras and such; he’d done a good bit of it before ever laying ears on Liverpool’s finest. So when McCartney was approached to score this British comedy/drama’s soundtrack, there was probably no doubt who’d be doing the heavy lifting. And yet, without chunes, a record ain’t nothing but a slab of black wax.
The melody bits Paul gave George to orchestrate are quite catchy, and though a few of them reprise in different forms here and there (as you’d expect in a soundtrack), the barely 27 minute album is nice to listen to, even if you haven’t–and you probably haven’t–seen the movie. Starring Hayley Mills as a newlywed who gets mired in a comical series of events that prevent her and her husband from consummating their marriage, The Family Way was based on a Bill Naughton (Alfie) play, All in Good Time, and released in December 1966, just a half year before The Beatles would introduce Sgt. Pepper to the world.
This release is of the stereo mix of the record, most likely from the 2011 remaster that came from the original first generation master tapes and was used to produce Varese Sarabande’s first-ever stereo CD issue of the soundtrack. Another Record Store Day 2015 release, The Family Way is a nice addition to your Macca collection and certainly costs WAY less than a decent copy of the original vinyl.
2.5/5 (Varese Sarabande, 2015)
NuDisc 