New Music on Film Books -- A Hard Day's Night and Grease

Sept. 21, 2011 - PRLog -- Music on Film
a series from Limelight Editions

***Authors available for interview***

   A Hard Day’s Night by Ray Morton
United Artists wanted to make a quick, low-budget film starring the Fab Four so that its record division could put out a motion picture soundtrack, and what they got was a startlingly fresh movie that broke new ground in both subject and plot, not to mention seven great new Beatles songs. This book is the full story of the making of the greatest rock-and-roll movie of all time. With introductions of the film’s stars, the rise of Beatlemania, the film’s frantic six-week shoot, and how both the film and album met with great critical and popular success, this book is a treasure trove of fun facts and stories for fans of music, movies, and the Beatles.

Ray Morton (Los Angeles, CA) is a senior writer and columnist for Script magazine and the author of three previous books on film history: Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Making of Steven Spielberg’s Classic Film, King Kong: The Making of a Movie Icon from Fay Wray to Peter Jackson (both Applause Books) and Amadeus: Music on Film (Limelight Editions). A graduate of New York University and the American Film Institute, Morton also works as a script analyst and consultant.

Sept. 13, 2011   $9.99    978-0-87910-388-0     Paperback   128 pages   color photo insert

   Grease by Stephen Tropiano
In the summer of 1978, Grease was the word. Grease captured the look and feel of an old-fashioned Hollywood musical while taking audiences on a nostalgic trip back to poodle skirts and sock hops. This book takes a look at the cultural phenomenon from its humble beginnings as a fringe musical in Chicago to its unparalleled success on Broadway to the film that became the highest-grossing movie musical of all time. Get an in-depth, up-close look at the talent on the screen and behind the camera, including an interview with film director Randal Kleiser. Thirty-plus years later, Grease is still the word!

Stephen Tropiano (Los Angeles, CA) is the author of Obscene, Indecent, Immoral and Offensive: 100+ Years of Censored, Banned and Controversial Films and Cabaret: Music on Film (both Limelight Editions) and The Prime Time Closet: A History of Gays and Lesbians on Television (Applause Books). He is also the current editor of the Journal of Film and Video. He is the founding director of the Ithaca College Los Angeles Program, where he teaches courses in film and television history, theory, and criticism.

Sept. 27, 2011   $9.99    978-0-87910-389-7   Paperback   128 pages   color photo insert

Visit limelighteditions.com for video trailer of A Hard Day's Night: Music on Film

Also available from Music on Film
West Side Story      Barry Monush         ISBN: 978-0-87910-378-1          
This is Spinal Tap      John Kenneth Muir      ISBN: 978-0-87910-377-4    
Cabaret          Stephen Tropiano       ISBN: 978-0-87910-382-8
Amadeus          Ray Morton          ISBN: 978-0-87910-381-1  

   
Available Spring 2012 from Music on Film
Purple Rain             John Kenneth Muir   ISBN: 978-0-87910-396-5
Rocky Horror Picture Show    Dave Thompson   ISBN: 978-0-87910-387-3


Praise for Music on Film Series

“Some of the best movies are musical films, and now there’s a handy pocket-sized book series that chronicles the paths it took to make these films….If you have a film history buff in your family, these books are great presents to consider.”                      – Moniqueblog

“Music on Film, which takes a more agnostic approach to the cultural connection between music and movies, is a pocket-sized series of scholarly tomes on music-themed films ranging from chestnuts like West Side Story to the chests-and-nuts faux glam rock of This Is Spinal Tap….Though slim, Muir's book presents copious Tap trivia, most of which has yet to be warmed over on the internet (score one point for print).”                                           – Bohemian.com

“The Music on Film books are slender volumes, but they are ideal gifts for both die-hard and casual fans. Die-hard fans already know a lot about their favorite movies, but they don't mind reading the same information over and over again. Casual fans will appreciate having juicy tidbits collected in one document rather than having to scour the Internet for fragments.”       – The Admiral’s Corner

“For the non-scholar, perhaps the most entertaining parts of the book are the little anecdotes and tidbits of trivia that fill the pages.”                              – Blogcritics

“Each of the paperback volumes by Limelight Editions is devoted to one major motion picture and fits easily in the palm of your hand.  I read the first title cover to cover in one train long commute, which makes for not only a compact traveling companion but an information-packed reference guide.”
– Chicago Stage Style

"This focus on history rather than criticism makes the book a fun read, and I was happy to pick up some anecdotes and facts I was previously unaware of."                     – Bookgasm