Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email


2025 June 02 • Monday

Here's Nile Rodgers with the 859th Soundtrack of the Week: Beverly Hills Cop III.

After an inevitable but still great run through of Harold Faltermeyer's "Axel F" theme, Rodgers brings in the orchestra for "Chop Shop Raid", a short but impressive cue that demonstrates an ease with the orchestral color spectrum.

"Your Cooperation/Back to Beverly Hills" has the shortest of orchestral introductions before swinging back into the groovy "Axel F" theme.

Pitch-perfect marching band music tell us "Welcome to WonderWorld" and then electronic instruments come stinging and sliding in for "Axel Saves the Kids", which has an insane rhythm track and lets Rodgers put his own spin on the "Axel F" theme.

Straight up and stripped down funk with minimal embellishment to the drums is what you hear in "Annihilator 2000" followed by a classic orchestral action cue for "Raid on Truck".

A cheeky, acoustic, orchestrasl version of the "Axel F" theme comes next in "Axel Okey Dokey" and then there's a love theme, "Janice Falls in Love". Keyboard does most of the work but guitar, bass and drums come in for support.

Rodgers returns to the orchestra and weaves the "Axel F" theme in and out of some tension/action music for "Secret Room/Axel in Mirror".

"Chase Through Park" is another effective orchestral cue with action and suspense, with the suspenseful mood continuing in "Axel & Dave/Axel, Ellis & Dave", which shows Rodgers coming up with some ingenious variations on the "Axel F" theme, letting the melody lay back over syncopated rhythms and staccato horns.

This combination of creative reimaginings of the main theme with terrific orchestral dramatic underscore continues for the remaining cues, Not the First Time/Bright Light/Axel Out of Bullets", "Axel Changes Matrix/Fool Named Axel/Sanderson Dies" and "Axel Fox".

And after all that there are alternate versions, source music, demos, etc. This was great and made me want to watch the movie!