The Rocky Horror Picture Show turned 50 this year. Time to reissue the soundtrack and correct past audio crimes.

When the official soundtrack to the Rocky Horror Picture Show was released in 1975, it was…disappointing. Not the music itself, mind you, but the audio quality of the vinyl. It stunk.

This was the era of recycled vinyl, a situation caused by the OPEC oil embargo that caused the price of petrochemical byproducts like polyvinyl chloride to skyrocket. To cut costs, labels began melting down old records to make new ones. This recycled material contained all sorts of impurities that made for terrible surface noise, clicks and pops, and was so thin that you could scratch it just by looking at it wrong.

Then there was the mix itself. Put it on a decent turntable and everything came across as tinny with poor bass response. Compression was through the roof. It wasn’t as bad as listening to music on AM radio, but it was close. When the CD appeared, little was done to correct these audio shortcomings.

That’s why I have high hopes for the new 50th anniversary reissue on deluxe vinyl.

Released yesterday (October 10) on Ode Records, we finally have the soundtrack on 180-gram vinyl with a red-and-gold motif, a nice and heavy gold foil jacket, and a much better inner sleeve with new photos, a production diary, and more.

This will go nicely with the film’s return to theatres in an upscaled 4K version beginning next week. If you want the 4K Blu-ray (which comes in a limited-edition “SteelBook,” it will be Dolby Vision with Atmos audio. That should be a trip. Definitely not boring. Let’s have a toast! Where are my rubber gloves and toilet paper?

(If you don’t get the references, then maybe this record isn’t for you.)