Film Album: Love Themes from Cleopatra (1963)

Most film albums feature a variety of themes from different films and title their album with the key theme, such as "Theme from the VIPS and other Film Hits".... but this album struck me as unique because Ferrante and Teicher decided to focus strictly on the music of Cleopatra (1963). Or so one would think with the title "Love Themes from Cleopatra" but if you read the back liner notes you will find that there are really just two songs from the 1963 Elizabeth Taylor epic ("Caesar and Cleopatra Theme" and "Anthony and Cleopatra Theme") with the remaining songs being "an assortment of romantic melodies steeped in an exotic orientation." What a lovely way to phrase this! The dueling pianists Ferrante and Teicher had a major hit with their version of the love theme "Anthony and Cleopatra," so it is no surprise that it headlined an album of its own. What is a surprise is that Ferrante and Teicher's names appear as composers on two songs in this album - "Sirocco" and "Sands of Time". Very…