HOLIDAY SOUNDS: If it’s time for the...

HOLIDAY SOUNDS: If it’s time for the big Christmas movies, then you can bet it’s also time for a chaotic burst of . . . Sound Track Fever. Each year the industry’s leading record companies do battle on the charts with big-budget sound-track entries, each tied to a major film release. What’s particularly intriguing about this year’s duel is the choice of weapon--each sound track’s leading single is a duet. The title song from the “Twins” sound track (due out next week from WTG Records) features Little Richard and Philip Bailey. The upcoming single from “Tequila Sunrise” (due out in December from Capitol) is a duet between Ann Wilson and Robin Zander on “Surrender to Me.” And “Scrooged” (just out from A&M;) has been launched with an Annie Lennox-Al Green remake of “Put a Little Love in Your Heart.”(The latter is a duet only in the broadest term--due to pregnancy and illness, Lennox and Green were never even in the same room when they cut the song!)

Why so many duets? “In our case, we had a movie where the outcome hinged on two key characters getting together in the end,” said Gary LeMel, the Warner Bros. film executive in charge of soundtrack music who handled “Tequila Sunrise.” “Since we’re rooting for their relationship, we wanted a duet at the end of the film which could draw on the emotions from both characters.” LeMel had Ann Wilson--also a Capitol artist--on board from the start, but landing Zander (the lead singer of Cheap Trick) was a long shot, since his band is signed to CBS Records, a company notoriously finicky about loaning artists out for rival sound tracks. LeMel said he lucked out: “CBS was very cooperative, apparently because they wanted a Capitol artist for one of their upcoming sound tracks.”

The key drawback with most sound-track albums is that they rarely make much thematic sense. Designed as marketing tools, sound tracks are geared toward providing something for everyone. “Twins,” for example, aims its peppy title duet at Top 40 listeners, a pair of Jeff Beck tracks (including a lackluster remake of “Train Kept A’Rolling”) at rock fans, a rap remake of “Yakety Yak” at teens and several MOR ballads at oldsters. The “Tequila Sunrise” sound track is structured in much the same way--in fact, to show the diversity of the album, on Dec. 20 Capitol will release (count ‘em) five singles simultaneously.

The “Surrender to Me” duet goes to Top 40 radio, Andy Taylor’s “Dead on the Money” goes to album-rock radio, the Church’s “Unsubstantiated” goes to college radio, Bobby Darin’s “Beyond the Sea” goes to oldies and adult-contemporary radio while Dave Grusin’s “Tequila Dreams” theme is being serviced to jazz and New Age stations. Actually, Capitol is shipping a sixth single before the end of December--a remake of “Don’t Worry Baby” by the Everly Brothers and the Beach Boys (though Capitol probably won’t work the song until it launches “Surrender to Me” at Top 40 radio). By giving radio so many programming choices, Capitol has an opportunity to boost the album’s exposure with widely divergent audiences. Just how happy Warner Bros. Films will be about this plan is still unclear. A hit sound-track single is a great marketing tool because it builds awareness and excitement before the film’s release. But while “Tequila Sunrise” opens in 1,000 theaters on Friday, Capitol’s flurry of singles won’t be out until nearly three weeks later--long after the movie’s pivotal opening weekend.