Winnetou and his friend Old Firehand (aka: Thunder at the Border, Winnetou and Old Firehand) was the 1966 finale of the Karl May adaptations by Horst Wendlandt’s Rialto Film. Alfred Vohrer (Perrak, Das gelbe Haus am Pinnasberg), described as a genius by cult director Quentin Tarantino, directed the film – moving away from the contemplative German towards the far more violent Spaghetti Western. This triggered an ambivalent response from critics and fans, with judgements ranging from “explosive” to “the low point of the series”.
A new path was also taken with the film music: Peter Thomas replaced Martin Böttcher as “Winnetou composer”. It was to remain the only Karl May film with Peter Thomas’ music; not surprising, since he was in his productive heyday. Between Edgar Wallace thrillers and Jerry Cotton action thrillers, he was more than well occupied. It was not until 1980 that Thomas returned to the subject with the music for the TV series “My Friend Winnetou”.
The result was a soundtrack that can be heard as a link between Böttcher’s Karl May string melodies and the clearly more experimental Italo-Western film music of, for example, an Ennio Morricone.
This album is the premiere of this score on vinyl. Of course, all 42(!) tracks have been remastered for it. The CD version also features three previously unreleased tracks found in Peter Thomas’ estate, as well as a bonus track with the composer himself at the piano, presenting the first theme suggestions to the film producer along with his spoken notes (recorded in 1966 at Bavaria Tonstudios, Munich).
Universal has started at the end of 2021 to release all previous releases of the Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra P.T.S.O. (formerly Polydor, Philips etc.). With these re-releases, all of Peter Thomas’ albums previously released by Polydor & Co. will be available on all digital platforms such as Spotify, Deezer, iTunes etc. by the end of September 2022.
Peter rocks the Rolling Stones… Impossible? Not at all! Listen to his 1968 cult album “Organic”, remastered and now available on all digital platforms. Featuring “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”, other pop hits of the time and some delicious Peter Thomas originals.
Universal Music has released “Peter Thomas Orchestra – In Discoland” digitally. The LP was first released on vinyl by Polydor in 1977 and has not been available since. So let’s get boogie down! In 1977, when the disco craze was at its peak, the Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra felt the need to deliver some catchy tunes to the party crowd. On the album “PTO in Discoland” he covered disco standards like “Sunny” and “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” and adapted classical works like “In A Persian Market” and “Swan Lake”. Most interesting, however, are his own tracks like the super-cool “King Kong Dance” with monkey grunts and clever chord changes.
Now remastered on all digital platforms!
In the beginning was “Space Patrol”, then came “Memories of the Future” (“Chariots of the Gods?”): Peter Thomas’ second foray into space was again a great success. Based on Erich von Däniken’s bestseller, the documentary explored the question of whether humanity could have been visited by extraterrestrials in early history. One may or may not follow this idea, but Peter’s music is an exciting mixture of stirring melodies and deep grooves. The LP became a bestseller in the USA!
The new year has begun with a special Peter Thomas film series. The film series at Munich’s Werkstattkino offered some of the master’s lesser-known films and a guest feature with the composer’s son. You had the opportunity to see 13 films in 7 days. All details and information can be found under this link.
The organisers of the event (from left to right): Ulrich Mannes, Bernd Brehmer with guest Philip Thomas.
Completely on DVD for the first time! All eight Jerry Cotton agent film classics with Golden
Golden Globe winner George Nader as G-Man Jerry Cotton!
Available at www.fernsehjuwelen.de
Bonus material is the soundtrack CD “FBI’s Top Man” (Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra)! Have a listen for yourself….
Welcome to the crazy and wacky world of the bizarre!
Join your musical Peter Thomas as he takes you on a trip that will titillate your senses. Don’t be afraid to step in!
A special treat is the title “Bluesy Basement”. It serves as Roberto De Niro’s musical introduction for the final sex scene in his last film “Dirty Grandpa”.
This album is a unique collection of Peter Thomas Sound Orchester recordings from the 1960s. Taped during and after sessions for film scores, most of these gems have never been released before. After countless hours of digging through the composer’s huge reel-to-reel archive, music supervisors from Warner Chappell Production Music handpicked these tracks for a library music release within their CPM Archive Series and carefully remastered them from the original master tapes.
Subdivided into the sections Offbeat Oddballs, Elixir Of Hallucination, Secret Detective Agency and Undertaking The Midnight Shift, the album evolves like a trip through a night – starting with easy swinging beat and big band grooves, giving its way to psychedelic and spy-fi themes, ending in a grande finale of hilarious crime jazz and deeply sympathetic horror cues. The album is now publicly available for the first time ever. Enjoy!
WODKA FÜR DIE KÖNIGIN (Vodka for the Queen) with Zarah Leander and Peter Thomas: a “high-proof” song that goes straight into the bloodstream, and a musical rediscovery at its best!
Who would have thought that cult composer Peter Thomas (“Raumpatrouille Orion”, “Edgar Wallace”) came up with such a party anthem for the legendary screen star in the 1960s, when one could still shamelessly smoke, drink and sing about it?
WODKA FÜR DIE KÖNIGIN was the title song from the musical of the same name, which brought the Hamburg Operettenhaus on the Reeperbahn to a boil in 1968. “Vodka! Vodka! Vodka!”, Zarah sang from her chest while Peter Thomas made the trumpets swing.
While the musical fell into oblivion, it seems the title song cannot be kept down. Singers like Tim Fischer have brought it to life again and again in the past, an electro-pop version of actor, singer and reality star Julian F.M. Stoeckel made people sit up and take notice last year.
Now the time is ripe for the original, which can easily compete with the cover versions in terms of power. In addition, popular DJ Mike Candys has received the official order to bring WODKA FÜR DIE KÖNIGIN up to date in terms of sound for today’s club scene, and makes the vodka sound even fresher in new glasses, utilizing Zarah’s original vocals. Cheers!
As of the end of June 2021, we are working on clearing Peter’s flat in Lugano Castagnola. Immersing ourselves in the Maestro’s world has been emotional to say the least, with thousands of old BASF tapes, a dusty REVOX, sheet music and scores waiting to be dug out and rediscovered. In the process, we’ve discovered countless stories of his beginnings and social escapades that are craving to be told. After a long break, a 20 year old dusty Revox and a 60 year old BASF tape have been brought back to life. And it sounds wonderful – listen to it:
Look out for more soon on the Peter Thomas YouTube channel:
Last but not at least: to mark the occasion of the 93rd Academy Awards, respected US DJ Questlove used the soundtrack to the Bruce Lee classic The Big Boss as a turntable bumper. See the excerpt below from an interview with Questlove in Variety magazine:
I want to give acknowledgement to a lot of the iconic film music that has gone under radar — a lot of the great Hollywood musical composers who basically haven’t gotten their flowers. Everyone knows John Williams because he did “Indiana Jones” and “Star Wars” and all that stuff, but there’s a whole slew of people like Peter Thomas [Edgar Wallace films], Lalo Schifrin [“Mission Impossible,” “Dirty Harry”], Bill Conti [“Rocky,” “The Right Stuff”], Keith Mansfield [“Loot,” “Taste of Excitement”], Piero Piccioni [“Swept Away”] — names that most people don’t necessarily know, but people who stay for the credits do, like I did when I was kid. I want to make sure they’re included too.
Als jüngerer Sohn der Familie von Philip Thomas und Anja Lindner ist 1993 Thibaud Thomas geboren. Sein Grossvater Peter Thomas war es, der ihm die Musik im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes, in die Wiege gelegt hatte: «Ich selber kann mich nicht mehr daran erinnern, aber meine Mutter hat mir mal erzählt, dass Opa oft an unserem Klavier sass, wenn er zu Besuch kam. Jedes Mal, wenn er zu spielen begann, sei ich augenblicklich ruhig gewesen und hätte nichts anderes gemacht, als zugehört.»
Schon damals zeigte sich, dass Thibaud ein Interesse an der Musik hat und daher überraschte es niemanden, als er sich im Sommer 2016 dazu entschied, an der Hochschule in Luzern Jazz-Schlagzeug zu studieren. Die einzige Person, die etwas dagegen hatte, war überraschenderweise sein Grossvater.
Music should simply be lived”; “Why do you want to study drums? If anything, piano!”; “Making a living as a music teacher? Bullshit!” To begin with, Peter was not terribly enthusiastic about his grandson Thibaud’s plans for the future. For Thibaud, this reaction was unexpected – yet it only motivated him more: “I wanted to prove to my grandfather that this was the right path for me.
Die anfängliche Skepsis legte sich aber rasch, nachdem Thibaud seinen Grossvater in Lugano besucht hatte und dieser positiv überrascht war von dem bereits im Studium gelernten. Von diesem Zeitpunkt an bildete sich zusätzlich zum familiären Bündnis eine musikalische Freundschaft: Per E-Mail und Telefon tauschten sie sich über Neuerscheinungen in der Musikindustrie aus, besprachen Thibaud’s Kompositionen und Peter berichtete über prägende Erlebnisse der vergangenen 80 Jahre. «Einen Satz, den Opa beinahe jedes Mal sagte «Komponiere jeden Tag! Nur so lernst du es und wirst besser». Aber für mich war es schwierig, dies umzusetzen. Für meinen Opa war die Musik alles. Er hat sein Leben mit und um die Musik herum aufgebaut und stets seine Ideen entwickelt und war bis zu seinem Lebensende hin kreativ. Ich habe den Luxus, machen zu können, was ich will. Studiere in meiner sicheren Blase in Luzern und spiele meine Konzerte. Und wenn ich mal einen Tag nicht übe, plagt mich höchstens mein Gewissen. Mein Opa hat jeden Tag Musik gemacht. Er hat sich nicht mal die Frage gestellt, ob er denn heute Musik machen möchte – es gehörte zu seinem Leben.»
Diese verschiedenen Einstellungen seien nicht immer einfach gewesen. Thibaud hatte oft das Gefühl, seinen Grossvater zu enttäuschen und seinen Erwartungen nicht gerecht zu werden. Vor ca. drei Jahren begann Thibaud, nebst dem Schlagzeugunterricht, auch Klavierstunden zu besuchen, was seinen Grossvater extrem erfreute. Er schickte ihm Stücke, die er lernen sollte und gemeinsam in Lugano spielten sie vierhändig Klavier. Sein Grossvater wollte stets genau wissen, woran er gerade arbeite und ermutigte ihn, noch mehr zu machen.
«Lange habe ich von mir behauptet, ich könne nicht wirklich Klavier spielen. Ich hatte Mühe, mich mit dem Instrument identifizieren zu können. Doch die Gespräche und Rückmeldungen meines Opas gaben mir Selbstvertrauen und mittlerweile kann ich hinter meinem Spiel stehen und sagen: Ich kann Klavier spielen», sagt er mit einem Schmunzeln im Gesicht.
Die Raumpatrouille ist die Galionsfigur von den Werken Peter Thomas – wer die Serie kennt, der kennt auch ihn. Kritiker behaupten sogar, dass die Titelmusik der Kult-Serie mit zum Erfolg geführt hat. Als Peter Thomas im Mai verstarb und man über die Abdankung diskutierte, war Thibaud schnell klar, dass er für seinen Grossvater spielen möchte. «Ein letztes Mal für Opa spielen. Ich wusste, dass er mich hören wird.» Mit seinem Vater entschied er sich dann für zwei Stücke: die Raumpatrouille, als Piano-Solo Variante und eine Eigenkomposition, die er mit seinem Grossvater erarbeitet hatte.
When I played Raumpatrouille in church, there was a moment in which I was fully immersed in the music. My hands were the only thing I was aware of, and they played almost as if by themselves. I felt as though Grandpa was the only one watching me, and I played with as much love and feeling as I could. It’s a moment I’ll never forget.
Since the initial release of this legendary film score (CD, Allscore, 2010), four pieces and a somewhat longer version from the film – previously considered lost – have come to light in the Peter Thomas Archive. These now replace the bonus tracks on the old CD, which were originally composed for the film but didn’t end up being used.
The fantastic Adrian Keindorf is responsible for the illustration on the gatefold cover of the LP and the CD digipak.
The LP comes on 180g vinyl in black as standard. 300 copies of a limited edition in transparent red are also available to purchase from Allscore.
We’ll keep you up to date on exciting new projects and upcoming events from Peter Thomas Music.
For licencing or the MuZikBeater label related questions please visit https://muzikbeater.de
© 2021 Peter Thomas – Music