The 3000 unit limited collectors edition of the first ever release of the original soundtrack recording composed and conducted by Miklos Rozsa (Ben Hur, El Cid, Time After Time) for the 1968 John Wayne film THE GREEN BERETS

This motion picture was a highly personal project by actor and American icon John Wayne. The film was the first major Hollywood production to address the Vietnam War, and its pro-war sentiments are still controversial today. Loosely based on the 1965 book by Robin Moore, the film tells the somewhat fanciful exploits of a squadron of elite American troops who defend an American encampment against Viet Cong guerrillas and then undertake the daring kidnapping of a North Vietnamese general. Wayne co-directed with Fred Kellogg (and, uncredited, Mervyn LeRoy), and led a cast of familiar faces including Jim Hutton, Aldo Ray, David Janssen and George Takei.

When Miklos Rozsa was asked to score The Green Berets, he said, "I don't do westerns!" He was told, "It's not a western, it's an eastern!" and signed on to provide a traditional, stirring symphonic score. In the face of conflicting genres -- war, western, and exotic adventure -- Rozsa relied more than anything on his own inimitible style of full-bodied action and characterize the conflict. The result has thrilled his fans for over 30 years.

The unlikely pop hit by Barry Sadler, "Ballad of the Green Berets," is used in the film's main and end titles (arranged by Ken Darby), but not in any of the interior score.

Rozsa instead provides a flavorful concoction of stirring anthems, noirish tension, a jaunty march for Jim Hutton's comic relief character, and several pieces of Asian-styled source music (including authentic instrumentation). His pulsating theme for the Viet Cong is only shades removed from a Native American war chant -- but this is a film, after all, where the sun sets in the East.

Rozsa's score to The Green Berets is presented here for the very first time in complete in spectacular stereo sound.

1. Main Title (Ballad of the Green Berets) 2:19
2. Petersen Caught/Sergeant Petersen
3. South Vietnam
4. Danang
5. Departure
6. Dodge City
7. Hamchunk Appears
8. Requisition
9. Casualties
10. All the Way
11. Bedfellows
12. Killing Zone/The Spy
13. Brutality/The Children
14. The Amulet/Confidence
15. Devastation
16. After the Raid/Alarm
17. The River Siene
18. La Java de Saigon
19. Starlight, Starbright/Ready to Fire
20. Crash Landing
21. Hamchunk's Dog/Hamchunk's Tragedy
22. Temporary Victory/Aftermath
23. Provo's Death
24. Street Cafe
25. Paratroopers/Frustration 5:08
26. Chateau Costeau
27. Seduction/Abduction
28. The Bridge/Escape
29. Operation Skyhawk
30. Forgiveness/Petersen's End
31. The End/Ballad of the Green Berets