61*

In the Billy Crystal directed cable movie 61*, the 1961 home run race between Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris is played out for our entertainment.� As expected, the soundtrack for the film would bounce between Marc Shaiman's dramatic score, and songs from the time period.� This particular album contains only the songs from the film, with a few organ cues arranged and performed by Shaiman.

"Put on a Happy Face" and "Heart (U Gotta Have)" are the two Shaiman cues.� They're basically source cues heard during the baseball games.� They're short and nothing spectacular - but they certainly do set the mood.� "Dedicated to the One I Love" by The Shirelles, "I Count The Tears" by The Drifters, "Talk To Me Lonesome Heart" by George Jones, and "Hello Mary Lou (Goodbye Heart)" by Ricky Nelson comprise a nice selection of oldies that fit well into the film, and do a fine job placing the film smack dab in 1961.

Also included on the album are a few baseball themed tunes.� "I Love Mickey" by Teresa Brewer is a great little nostalgic number all about Mickey Mantle; "Cooperstown" and "Talkin' Baseball (Willie, Mickey & "The Duke")", both sung by Terry Cashman, are wonderful examples of baseball songs - they really don't write them like this anymore, unless you consider "I Wanna Be Like Mike"�. Nah.� As one would expect, the album ends with a rendition of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" - but this time in pure Latin big-band style, as performed by Arturo Sandoval.� It's a nice way to cap of a rather upbeat and well compiled album.

But this album has one glaring fault, which knocked its rating down to 2-stars from 3-stars.� It's only 22-minutes long. For at full-price, you're not getting much of a deal by buying this album - it's a little under $1/minute!!� The companion score album runs a little over 30-minutes - so why didn't they just merge the two albums into one and save everyone the hassle of getting two soundtracks for one film?� It's a question that puzzles me, and leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.� If it weren't for the incredibly short running time, I would have said that getting this album would be a good call.� But now, it looks like you might have struck out.