ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST^©

[Instrumental]

Page last updated: 14 Feb 2008

Theme for the Italian Western movie Once Upon A Time In The West, composed by Italian composer Ennio Morricone. Directed by Sergio Leone, the film was released in the USA in 1969. It was originally released in Italy in 1968 under the title C'era Una Volta Il West.

Longtime Morricone fan Bruce Springsteen contributed his own instrumental version of ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST for the tribute album We All Love Ennio Morricone, released on 20 Feb 2007. The track features Springsteen  playing electric guitar over Morricone's original score recording. He recorded his part probably in January 2007 at Thrill Hill East, Springsteen's home studio in Colt's Neck, NJ.

In 2008, Springsteen's recording of ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST won him a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. That was the 50th annual award ceremony which took place at Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA, on 10 Feb 2008. Springsteen didn't attend the ceremony.

During The River Tour, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST was sometimes played as part of BADLANDS. In his book Glory Days: Bruce Springsteen In The 1980s, Dave Marsh wrote about the 07 Apr 1981 show at the Congress Center, Hamburg, Germany:

Roy Brittan began the final number with a quietly beautiful piano introduction based on Ennio Morricone's score for Once Upon a Time in the West, the greatest European Western ever made. From within the delicate music, Max Weinberg's drums suddenly erupted in march time and the guitars shot off like cannons and Springsteen leaned into the mike, bearing down hard, shouting the opening lines of "Badlands".

As if on cue, half the crowd exploded from its seats. Onstage, the band looked out at the crowd in amazement, watching as firt one person, then another, finally decided to dare it all and rose, until everyone in the house was standing, fists upraised, shouting and dancing. When the song ended and they'd taken their bows and vowed to return for more, the band stepped backstage with tears in every eye.

Marsh also wrote about the 24 Apr 1981 show at the Palais Des Sport, Lyon, France:

But the finest of that evening came when Roy Bittan hit the Morricone-based introduction of "Badlands." The crowd sang along to that spectral melody, making a beautiful, haunting sound that no one could have predicted, upsetting and enriching the spectacle of the show. (It turned out that the Once Upon a Time in the West theme had been a jukebox in northern Italy, where about a third of the crowd came from.)

Track credits:
Guitar: Bruce Springsteen
Guitar recorded at Thrill Hill Recording Studio
Engineer: Toby Scott
Orchestra Unione Musicisti di Roma
Orchestrated and conducted by Ennio Morricone
Orchestra recorded at RCA Studios, Roma
Engineer: Leandro Leandri
Editing and mixed by Fabio Venturi at the Forum Music Village Studios, Rome
(P) 2007 Sony BMG Music Entertainment