Customer Reviews
Listening music 
2007-03-28
Just as the Godfather films are great so is the music. The music is enjoyable as well as relaxing. If you like just listening music I highly recommend this cd and the others to Godfather 2 and 3 films.
Speak Softly Love ..... 2006-10-10
The soundtrack to Coppola's 1972 Godfather can bring you back to the period piece that made Brando, Pacino, and De Niro bona fide stars whose longevity is unquestionable. It's the Sicilian inspired love theme (written By Andy Williams) whose cords still provoke the film stills of Michael Corleone's wedding to his first wife Apollonia that takes your breath away. Whether instrumental or sung .... it's haunting strains are a vivid connection to the movie for anyone who has seen it. It is especially haunting because the music was played as a wedding song for Michael and Apollonia in Italy but NOT for Michael and Kay back in New York, which is telling given how Apollonia's memory seemed to cast a shadow long after her tragic death.
I would highly recommend purchasing this soundtrack along with that for 1988's Cinema Paradiso which has a Sicilian-inspired sound to it too. Both play upon the theme of love lost forever and leaving the country of its happenings as the only way to forget, as Toto was just as haunted by Elena as Michael with Apollonia.
Speak softly, love and hold me warm against your heart
I feel your words, the tender trembling moments start
We're in a world, our very own
Sharing a love that only few have ever known
Wine-colored days warmed by the sun
Deep velvet nights when we are one
Speak softly, love so no one hears us but the sky
The vows of love we make will live until we die
My life is yours and all because
You came into my world with love so softly love
Wine-colored days warmed by the sun
Deep velvet nights when we are one
Speak softly, love so no one hears us but the sky
The vows of love we make will live until we die
My life is yours and all becau-au-se
You came into my world with love so softly love
OUTSTANDING!! 2006-07-07
If you like the movies, you'll love this soundtrack! All of your favorite melodies just hit the spot!!
Relive the film 2005-10-06
To appreciate this soundtrack fully it is essential to have seen and enjoyed the film although the music is haunting in its own right. Yes, the CD is only just over an half hour in length but quantity is compensated for by quality. The music perfectly captures the moodiness of the film and its period. Buy this CD and you will not be disappointed. It is a low price to pay for owning a 'cut' of movie history - it will be timeless for you.
Classic film score brings me back to ancestral roots 2005-08-09
Last night my wife & I happened to watch The Godfather on Bravo and the music was the element that really captivated me. When I first saw this movie, I was 9 years old in 1972, on a family vacation, and my very conservative 2nd generation Italian-American parents, completely unaware of the subject matter of the film, thought this an excellent film for the family to watch... Yet, looking back, and feeling the loss of grandparents, great aunts and uncles, the diaspora across America of my first and second cousins, lost in the melting pot, the score for the Godfather reminds me of a time of my own innocence, of a time when large family gatherings were the norm, when every Sunday evening meant hour long haircuts by my 85 year old grandfather and delicious Italian meals cooked by my 70 year old great aunt. It took a long time to accept the loss of family as one by one that generation died off in the 1970's, to realize that life was not going to be a cocoon of large, warm, loving family relations. Yet, way back in 1972, this magnificent, mournful music presaged that tragic realization that life in America was no longer going to be so cozy for those who choose complete assimilation into the melting pot. The fictional Corleone family were Sicilian; my own were Neapolitan & Barese, but for anyone of southern Italian heritage, whether on the mainland or Sicily there is a chill of genetic resonance and recognition when you hear Rota's haunting mix of Neapolitan & Sicilian sounds and rhythms. It's the motherland calling, the soul yearning, ignorant of the original grievances that caused the rift that sent whole communities and solo immigrants to the shore of a new world that was often no warmer a welcome mat than the hidebound, superstitious and vendetta-plagued hilltop farming communities they sought to escape from. Tears of what...joy? or tears of sorrow demand to be exuded from my being when I hear this film score, crying for a warm, fuzzy fantasy of youth, yes, but one that did indeed contain the seeds of my being, and the cocoon of loving family that sheltered me in my growing years. Let me call these tears of joy and appreciation for Francis Ford Coppola and Nino Rota for awakening in me the dormant love of an ancient homeland with many faults, but big enough to give birth to those who gave life to me.
Short but sweet 
2005-06-28
When director Francis Ford Coppola turned novelist Mario Puzo's pulpy
The Godfather into one of the greatest accomplishments of modern American cinema in 1972, one of his shrewdest decisions was to hand the scoring assignment to the great Italian film composer Nino Rota. Rota, who had built his reputation alongside Fellini (though he'd already scored some three dozen films in the previous 20 years), brought Neopolitan jazz stylings and a Sicilian melodic sensibilty (characterized perfectly by the main title's mournful solo trumpet, which has since become a cinematic icon) to a story of corruption and betrayal as American as, well, gnocchi. Listening to this masterful score one can't help but wonder what Rota, who died in 1979) might have accomplished had he begun working with Hollywood's resources a decade earlier.
--Jerry McCulley
Five-star music...on a one-star CD release 
2004-10-08
Before anyone sends me hate mail for giving this only one star, let me just say that I'd give five stars to the film score for THE GODFATHER (not to mention PARTS II and III) just as soon as I'd give five stars for STAR WARS or THE SOUND OF MUSIC.
The bad rating is not for the film score but for this CD, which (as of my typing this) is the only available soundtrack of THE GODFATHER. I used to own this CD, but I sold it, because the sound is horrible and it only contains less than half of the music from the film. One would think that in this age of digitally remastered soundtracks with expanded tracks, etc., there would be one for one of the greatest films of all time. In fact, here is only a very small list of film soundtracks which have been remastered and re-released with the majority (if not all) of the music from their respective films:
STAR WARS / JAWS / THE SOUND OF MUSIC / 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY / RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
My advice to the many people who love this film score so much (as I do) is simply to be patient and hope that there will soon be a quality soundtrack release, one which does not insult the ears or the intelligence of the listeners.
Fundamental issue! 2004-08-03
It sounds more than logic to assume that if The Godfather is a masterpiece of the cinema and this music was another distingued actor ; you should have this CD . Superb sound and the music still retains that fascinating charm.
Watch the movie. 
2004-07-03
This soundtrack to the awesome film just doesn't feel right. Watch the movie and enjoy Nino Rota's score in all its glory.
Great Score, Bad Album 
2001-11-29
There is a very broad chasm between what I WANT to say about this film score and what I HAVE to say about this film score. What I WANT to say is that you MUST buy it; it is a perfect album for a perfect score; no film score collection is complete without it. Instead, what I HAVE to say is that the music in the film IS perfect, but the music on the album is so ignorantly assembled that it makes the purchase nearly worthless. So, there you have it. Anyone who has seen the film has undoubtedly fallen in love with Nino Rota's amazing score, thematically beautiful and with more than a hint of his Italian roots. Every praise that one can distribute to such an achievement is well deserved; however, it is nearly impossible to determine this based on the album offered to the consuming public.
So what is the problem? Just this: The Godfather CD has a healthy number of tracks, however not a one is longer than three minutes, not only making for a short album, but also for disjointed excerpts that are far too brief to ever give a sufficient amount of the feeling displayed in the film and never allowing the themes to develop. Moreover, what is offered on the CD is so incredibly redundant that you can justify NOT purchasing this album by acquiring a mere suite from some compilation disc. This CD, however, offers only glimpses of what the REAL film music was, sometimes even fading out with no cause and no transition!--surely no film score should ever result to such a despicable convention.
But, as much as I hate the CD, one cannot deny that the music is a simply phenomenal creation. Melodies that you'll be humming for days after, a concluding choral track that excels beyond every other excerpt, and even a risky--though intriguing--organ track all effectively reveal the magic that was to be experienced in the theatre. Unfortunately with this album, it was BETTER experienced in the theatre. Because the music held so much promise and because the film is such a pivotal addition to cinema and because the entire Godfather series is a phenomenon of itself, one would have hoped that the producers of this album could have successfully translated an inspiring score onto a CD. Unfortunately, they have not; and so the consumer suffers by having to make a choice that no person should be forced to make: purchase a bad CD or neglect one of cinema's greatest musical achievements. The choice is yours...
