2006 Varese Sarabande release
The 2006 Varese Sarabande CD was the first official standalone release of the score. Its credits, taken from the back of the disc, list:
- Music composed and conducted by Elmer Bernstein
- Produced by Elmer Bernstein
- Album produced by Robert Townson
- Scoring mixer: Robert Fernandez
- Orchestrations by Peter Bernstein and David Spear
- Supervising music editor: Kathy Durning
- Performed by The Hollywood Studio Symphony
- Ondes Martenot: Cynthia Millar
- Mastered by Erick Labson
Track listing
The album collects 39 cues, including the "Ghostbusters Theme," "Dana's Theme," "Zool," and "End Credits."
| # |
Title |
Length |
| 1 |
Ghostbusters Theme |
3:00 |
| 2 |
Library and Title |
3:02 |
| 3 |
Venkman |
0:31 |
| 4 |
Walk |
0:30 |
| 5 |
Hello |
1:36 |
| 6 |
Get Her! |
2:01 |
| 7 |
Plan |
1:25 |
| 8 |
Taken |
1:08 |
| 9 |
Fridge |
1:01 |
| 10 |
Sign |
0:54 |
| 11 |
Client |
0:38 |
| 12 |
The Apartment |
2:45 |
| 13 |
Dana's Theme |
3:31 |
| 14 |
We Got One! |
2:02 |
| 15 |
Halls |
2:01 |
| 16 |
Trap |
1:56 |
| 17 |
Meeting |
0:38 |
| 18 |
I Respect You |
0:54 |
| 19 |
Cross Rip |
1:07 |
| 20 |
Attack |
1:30 |
| 21 |
Dogs |
0:57 |
| 22 |
Date |
0:48 |
| 23 |
Zool |
4:12 |
| 24 |
Dana's Room |
1:40 |
| 25 |
Judgment Day |
1:19 |
| 26 |
The Protection Grid |
0:42 |
| 27 |
Ghosts! |
2:15 |
| 28 |
The Gatekeeper |
1:12 |
| 29 |
Earthquake |
0:33 |
| 30 |
Ghostbusters! |
1:13 |
| 31 |
Stairwell |
1:14 |
| 32 |
Gozer |
2:48 |
| 33 |
Marshmallow Terror |
1:25 |
| 34 |
Final Battle |
1:30 |
| 35 |
Finish |
2:13 |
| 36 |
End Credits |
5:04 |
| 37 |
Magic |
1:37 |
| 38 |
Zool |
3:12 |
| 39 |
We Got One! (Alternate) |
2:04 |
2019 Sony Classical release
For the 2019 reissue, Sony Classical reassembled and remixed the score, expanding several cues and re-titling many of them. It was released on CD and vinyl, with a separate Japanese edition that added an extra track. The credits, drawn from the album booklet, list:
- Music composed and conducted by Elmer Bernstein
- Executive in charge of music for Sony Pictures: Spring Aspers
- Album produced by Peter Bernstein and Tom Laskey
- Scoring mixer: Robert Fernandez
- Original supervising music editor: Kathy Durning
- Orchestrations by Peter Bernstein, David Spear and Patrick K. Russ
- Performed by The Hollywood Studio Symphony
- Album mixed by Jeanne Montalvo and Jennifer Nulsen at Swan Studios, NYC
- Mastered by Andreas K. Meyer at Swan Studios, NYC
Track listing
| # |
Title |
Length |
| 1 |
Ghostbusters Theme |
3:01 |
| 2 |
Library |
2:23 |
| 3 |
Venkman |
0:33 |
| 4 |
Hello |
1:37 |
| 5 |
The Best One in Your Row |
1:08 |
| 6 |
Get Her! |
2:04 |
| 7 |
Plan |
1:27 |
| 8 |
Dana's Theme |
3:33 |
| 9 |
Fridge and Sign |
1:58 |
| 10 |
Attack |
1:33 |
| 11 |
Client |
0:36 |
| 12 |
Dana's Apartment |
1:41 |
| 13 |
Same Problem |
1:09 |
| 14 |
We Got One |
2:03 |
| 15 |
Zuul Part 1 |
0:47 |
| 16 |
Meeting 1 |
0:39 |
| 17 |
I Respect You |
0:59 |
| 18 |
Who Brought the Dog |
1:00 |
| 19 |
Zuul Part 2 |
4:15 |
| 20 |
Steel Drum |
1:31 |
| 21 |
Cross Rip |
2:18 |
| 22 |
News |
1:45 |
| 23 |
Judgment Day |
1:20 |
| 24 |
Mistake |
0:39 |
| 25 |
Halls |
2:31 |
| 26 |
Ballroom |
1:04 |
| 27 |
Trap |
0:56 |
| 28 |
Meeting 2 |
1:15 |
| 29 |
Earthquake |
0:35 |
| 30 |
Stairwell |
1:22 |
| 31 |
Gozer |
2:52 |
| 32 |
Let's Go |
1:16 |
| 33 |
We're Going to Save the World |
1:28 |
| 34 |
Mr. Stay Puft |
0:34 |
| 35 |
Final Battle |
1:34 |
| 36 |
Finish |
2:15 |
| 37 |
Zull (Album Version) |
3:14 |
| 38 |
End Credits (Japan version only) |
|
The 2019 Sony Classical reissue was also pressed on vinyl, and Mondo produced a separate limited edition vinyl release the same year.
Use in Ghostbusters: Afterlife
Bernstein's original score is heard throughout Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), woven into the film alongside new music. For the film's opening, Cynthia Millar again performed and recorded with the ondes Martenot, this time at Abbey Road Studios in London, just as she had played the instrument for the original 1984 film.1
When Jason Reitman asked Millar what she could do with the ondes Martenot that had not been done on the first film, she found that the instrument could play a full octave lower than it had been used before, which produced one of the score's standout moments early in the movie.2
The production reused material directly from the 1984 recordings. Even the noise floor was sampled from the original score's multi-track tapes, so that at a high enough volume a listener can hear a shift in the background noise as the Sony logo appears.2
Throughout Afterlife, snippets of the score (and reworked versions of it) recur across the film. They surface during the early scenes establishing the Shandor Mining Company property and the discovery of Egon Spengler's gear, including the shot of the PKE Meter under his armchair; in quieter moments following Phoebe and Podcast around Summerville; over the arrival of the Ecto-1; and in the climactic sequences as Zuul and Vinz Clortho take their places.
