War Games was different. First I wrote the lyrics for about six or seven different songs to go in various scenes in the film. Then Arthur B. set them to music and expanded on them for his score. I sang Video Fever through the Synclavier II, never having heard, or heard of Dale Bozio (still haven’t), with Brian and Anthony, two very talented and creative guys. I loved working with them. We got Yvonne Elliman to sing “Edge of the World”, which I always thought was beautiful and the closest Arthur and I ever got to writing a song for a film which might have been nominated for something, but the producer Frank Yablans had a daughter who was miffed that Arthur didn’t use her as his orchestrator (she’d been studying orchestration for 3 months) and talked her father out of using the song in the film. We wound up with a harmonica. Lovely, but not Academy nomination material. And so it went. I was first viola, not violin, on all the recording sessions.

I was surprised and a bit shocked to read Arthur B.’s liner notes on the re-release. What can I expect? I broke our engagement. Twice. Still, It was a memorable if disappointing project, and I will always be glad at having worked with John Badham, a great guy and such an excellent director.

I know this because I recently missed a WarGames/Blue Thunder double feature with the director and I was like, oh, so he made both movies, didn’t know that. So… yeah.

per doc popular’s quotes, i read through the (lovely, extensive) liner notes booklet from the OST, and here is the scoop on the three bleepers songs on the track:

“rubinstein wrote three tunes that were developed into songs: the three-note “gaming” motif for broderick’s character is introduced with the source cue “video fever;” the quirky song “history lesson”. . . and the reflective melody the composer introduces midway through the film was developed into the song “edge of the world.”

of video fever:

“vocalist and lyricist cynthia morrow (who was also first violinist on many of rubinstein’s scores at the time) does a creditable imitation of dale bozzio of missing persons, and both “video fever” and “history lesson” carry the techno-pop vibe of the early ‘80s well.”

the beepers was a side project type thing for the composer, and yes they did work on blue thunder (which was also directed by john badham and released in 1983)—rubinstein wrote both scores practically on top of each other.

thanks for the link the music is really nice.

And god, WarGames really did have one of the coolest catchphrases in the history of cinema.

More Quote Amusement: Detroit’s new mayor is an admitted geek, and quoted both Star Trek and Terminator 2 in his swearing-in address.