Soundtrack Albums Provide a Big Boost for New Labels

How is it possible that Color Me Badd, a heretofore unknown new group, has sold 2 million copies of its debut single--and it’s still a month before its first album is released?

Easy--the group’s single, “I Wanna Sex You Up,” got a fuel-injected boost from being part of “New Jack City,” the year’s hottest soundtrack album.

Soundtracks are the music industry’s ultimate roll of the dice. Record labels often spend $400,000--and sometimes up to nearly $1 million--assembling an album full of rock hot rods. If your movie bombs, most of that money goes down the drain. But if you latch onto a hit, like “New Jack City” or last year’s smash, “Pretty Woman,” the sky can be the sales limit.

In a competitive marketplace where older, more established record companies have far more clout than an unproven new label, a hot soundtrack can put a fledgling record company on the map. That’s why new labels like Giant, Morgan Creek and Interscope Records are in the soundtrack business this summer.

Giant has “New Jack City,” which has already gone platinum, selling well over a million albums. Morgan Creek Records is handling “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.” And Interscope is preparing an ambitious campaign for the release of its soundtrack to “Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey,” a sequel to the 1989 box-office hit, which the label hopes will give it an invaluable dose of credibility with radio programmers and record stores, not to mention managers who might have a young act looking for a hot record label.

For “Bill & Ted,” Interscope A&R; chief Tom Whalley put together an album with budding superstars (Faith No More, Megadeth and Slaughter), a brand-name act (KISS) and surrounded them with four new Interscope groups, including the label’s hottest young band, Primus. Of course, budding superstars don’t come cheap. Interscope will spend at least $550,000 (some sources say even more) for the soundtrack, largely because the label had to pay Faith No More, KISS and Slaughter at least $100,000 each to record a new song for the soundtrack.

“A successful soundtrack creates credibility,” says Whalley. “The big-name artists help you sell records and when you start selling records, suddenly you get noticed by radio stations and retailers. Instead of people going ‘Who’s Interscope?’ they say, ‘Oh yeah, Interscope--they had the “Bill & Ted” soundtrack.’ ”

Nobody has exploited soundtracks better than Irving Azoff, who gave MCA Records a big boost in the mid-’80s by releasing high-profile soundtracks like “Beverly Hills Cop,” “Back to the Future” and “Miami Vice.” He’s similarly jump-started his new Giant Records label with “New Jack City,” which has provided Giant with its first hit album.

“It definitely helped establish us,” says Azoff, who worked closely on the project with Giant’s Cassandra Mills and Warners exec Benny Medina. “I wouldn’t put out a soundtrack if I didn’t think it could launch one of our artists.”

Interscope hopes to duplicate that success this summer with “Bill & Ted.” The label’s ambitious marketing campaign kicks off July 1 with the simultaneous release of three songs from the album, each geared toward a different radio format. Later in July, the label will release a fourth song, Steve Vai’s “The Reaper,” followed in early August by KISS’ “God Gave Rock and Roll to You.”

“God Gave Rock” is a classic example of soundtrack ingenuity. Originally recorded by Argent, the song has an anthem-style chorus that neatly captures the spirit of the film. Whalley eventually brought the song to KISS, who rewrote its dated lyrics and rearranged the song as a guitar-driven rocker. “The song worked so well that it’ll play over the final credits in the film,” Whalley says. “And we’re using the title in all our advertising.”

If “Bill & Ted” does well at the box office this summer, Interscope knows there will be millions of youthful moviegoers--most of them active record buyers--who may be eager to buy its soundtrack as well. “That’s the key--the most successful soundtracks have music that has an emotional connection to the film,” says Whalley. “The core concept of ‘Bill & Ted’ is that you have two kids with a real rock ‘n’ roll spirit--and if we’ve captured that with the soundtrack, we think we can reach an awful lot of rock fans.”