Many fans of the film "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" have been under the assumption for many years that a soundtrack album was once released, but is now "out of print."  Though the soundtrack to John Hughes' film is considered by many to be a bonafide '80s classic, Hughes refused to ever release an official soundtrack album.  He felt that the selection of songs used in the movie was simply too eclectic and varied to make for a cohesive album.  The closest thing to be released was a promotional 7" single with "Beat City" by The Flowerpot Men on the a-side and "I'm Afraid" by Blue Room on the b-side.  This was given out at certain screenings of the film in 1986.

In recent years, a number of online fans began compiling their own "unofficial soundtrack" for the film, featuring all the songs used in the film - some from very rare vinyl - as well as some memorable dialogue.  We at Crapple were fortunate enough to hear a copy of this soundtrack, but ultimately felt pretty dissatisfied with the end result.  Most of the tracks - including dialogue - sounded as if they came from low quality mp3s, and had surface noise and a warble in them.  Certain pieces of dialogue were presented in vastly truncated form, such as Ferris' "they bought it" rant (which ended after he says "how could I possibly be expected to handle school on a day like this?").  Moreover, certain major characters - such as Rooney and Jeanie - had no dialogue whatsoever.  Certain semi-musical segments that could have been included were also passed over, such as the "Shana/Jeanie" doo-wop song and Ferris' synth version of the "Blue Danube Waltz."  And a few of the track choices were questionable, such as the glaring omission of the film versions of two very important segments: the "Star Wars" theme that plays while the parking garage attendants are driving the Ferrari, and "Twist And Shout" with the marching band and parade noises.  It was a bit baffling to hear the full length studio versions of those songs in the middle of the disc, particularly "Star Wars."

So needless to say, we at Crapple set about creating our very own version of the soundtrack.

Two of the songs - "Beat City" and "I'm Afraid" - are still culled from rare vinyl (with one or two pops audibly edited out by an unknown source) and thus are still of questionable quality.  But due to the sheer rarity of these two tracks, it's a miracle they even exist at all.  Nearly every other track was culled from first generation sources, or very high quality mp3s.  Additionally, everything is presented in chronological order.

It has been 15 years since "Ferris" appeared on movie screens and thrilled an entire generation of young Americans.  It's about time the soundtrack was done justice.  While our version isn't perfect, it's probably as good as it will ever get.

UPDATE: MAY 13TH, 2007

By an insane stroke of luck, we now OWN a copy of the ultra-rare 7" single, containing "Beat City" and "I'm Afraid"! We made an offhand post on the Steve Hoffman Music Forum a few months back about "musical holy grails" and were contacted a few weeks later by DJ Ron "Boogiemonster" Gerber from KFAI in Minneapolis. He informed us he had a copy of the single that he played on his radio show and that he'd be glad to make a fresh needledrop for us. After hearing how excited we were, he decided to SELL us the single...for a very decent price, I might add. We did needledrops of both sides and then passed the wavs on to Noodlemaps from the Steve Bartek Forum, who did some clean-up work. It's probably safe to say that these vinyl-only tracks are now the best they will EVER sound. They are leagues better than the old mp3s that were circulating (especially "I'm Afraid"). Needless to say, the soundtrack has now been updated accordingly! Innumerable thanks to Ron Gerber and Noodlemaps!

We took this opportunity to also update a few of the other tracks on the soundtrack. You can find details about that below.

Tracks