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“I Never Planned Anything in My Life”: The Music of Cool Hand Luke

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2017

JAMES M. DOERING
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Abstract

Cool Hand Luke has a distinct soundtrack that features original music by composer Lalo Schifrin and an intriguing collection of traditional American music selected by director Stuart Rosenberg. The music emerged over an intense nine-month span in 1966–67, during which ideas flowed freely and original plans were often jettisoned. Rosenberg and Schifrin were the film's primary musical architects, but others contributed along the way, including screenwriters, actors, producers, folk music experts, and a trio of banjo players. Based on a wide range of primary sources, including documents in the Warner Bros. Archives at the University of Southern California, interviews with individuals involved in the production, the voluminous popular press about the film, and the film itself, this article is a rare glimpse inside the creative process that produced an unmistakably American soundtrack.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Society for American Music , Volume 11 , Issue 3 , August 2017 , pp. 257 - 283
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Music 2017 

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References

References

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Cool Hand Luke Music Department File. Warner Bros. Archives. University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. Los Angeles. [Cool Hand Luke file].Google Scholar
Pierson, Frank, Dresner, Hal, and Pearce, Donn. Shooting script for Cool Hand Luke. Jalem Productions and Warner Bros. Pictures, 29 September 1966. Claire T. Carney Library. University of Massachusetts–Dartmouth.Google Scholar
Arnold, Edwin T. “What the Movies Told Us.” Southern Quarterly 34, no. 3 (1996): 57–66.Google Scholar
Barron, Frank. “Film as Art and Psychology: Cool Hand Luke as Exemplar.” Creativity Research Journal 10 (1997): 99–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buhler, James, Neumeyer, David, and Deemer, Rob. Hearing the Movies: Music and Sound in Film History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Cohen, Ronald D. Woody Guthrie: Writing America's Songs. New York: Routledge, 2012.Google Scholar
Cooke, Mervyn. A History of Film Music. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Filene, Benjamin. Romancing the Folk: Public Memory and American Roots Music. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Fisher-Giorlando, Marianne. “Prison Culture: Using Music as Data.” Ph.D. diss., Ohio State University, 1987.Google Scholar
Haltam, William. “Laws of God, Laws of Man: Power Authority and Influence in Cool Hand Luke .” The Legal Studies Forum 22, nos. 1–3 (1998): 233–56.Google Scholar
Hubbert, Julie. Celluloid Symphonies: Texts and Contexts in Film Music History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Jackson, Bruce. Wake Up Dead Man: Hard Labor and Southern Blues. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Jensen, Joli. Nashville Sound: Authenticity, Commercialization, and Country Music. Nashville, TN: The Country Music Foundation Press & Vanderbilt University Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Kalinak, Kathryn, ed. Music in the Western: Notes from the Frontier. New York: Routledge, 2012.Google Scholar
Karlin, Fred. Listening to Movies. New York: Schirmer Books, 1994.Google Scholar
Lomax, John Avery, Lomax, Alan, and Thompson, Harold William. American Ballads and Folk Songs. New York: Macmillan, 1934.Google Scholar
Lomax, John Avery, Thompson, Harold William, Lomax, Alan, and Seeger, Ruth Crawford. Our Singing Country: A Second Volume of American Ballads and Folk Songs. New York: Macmillan, 1941.Google Scholar
McNulty, Edward N. Films and Faith: Forty Discussion Guides. Topeka, KS: Viaticum Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Monush, Barry. Everybody's Talkin’: The Top Films of 1965–1969. Milwaukee, WI: Applause Theatre and Cinema Books, 2009.Google Scholar
Neumeyer, David, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Film Music Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Pearce, Donn. Cool Hand Luke. New York: Scribner, 1965. Repr., Thunder's Mouth Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Peterson, Richard A. Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Neil V. Bluegrass, A History. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Siders, Harvey. “Keeping Score on Schifrin: Lalo Schifrin and the Arts of Film Music.” Downbeat, 6 March 1969: 16–17, and 35. Reprinted in Celluloid Symphonies: Texts and Contexts in Film Music History, ed. Hubbert, Julie (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011), 337–43.Google Scholar
Smith, Jeff. The Sounds of Commerce: Marketing Popular Film Music. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Allen, John. “Paul Newman's New Film.” Christian Science Monitor, 18 November 1967, 8.Google Scholar
Callahan, John P. “A Picket Rejoices at His First Novel.” New York Times, 8 August 1965, 74. “Collection Overview of the John Edwards Memorial Foundation Records, 1960–1988.” http://www.lib.unc/mss/inv/j/John_Edwards_Memorial_Foundation.html.Google Scholar
“Egg-Eating Competition is G. I. Fad in Vietnam.” New York Times, 10 November 1968, 12.Google Scholar
Feather, Leonard. “Schifrin Conducts Bowl Fare.” Los Angeles Times, 13 August 1966, B9.Google Scholar
Goran, Lester. “A Cage of Jailbirds.” Chicago Tribune, 22 August 1965, M6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Juarez, Victoria. “George Kennedy (a.k.a. Dragline) dishes on Paul Newman in ‘Cool Hand Luke.’” Entertainment Weekly, 30 September 2008. http://www.ew.com/article/2008/09/30/george-kennedy.Google Scholar
Kasindorf, Martin. “Instant Georgia.” Los Angeles Times, 22 August 1971, L24.Google Scholar
Kehr, Dave. “Stuart Rosenberg, Director of TV and Film, Dies at 79.” New York Times, 19 March 2007, B6.Google Scholar
“Luke Has Cool Hand; Beats Phils.” Chicago Tribune, 9 April 1971, C6.Google Scholar
“Luke Title Role, to Newman.” Los Angeles Times, 14 May 1966, 22.Google Scholar
Lyndon, Michael. “Cool Hand Rosenberg.” New York Times, 7 January 1968, D8.Google Scholar
Martin, Betty. “Movie Call Sheet.” Los Angeles Times, 25 August 1965, D15.Google Scholar
Myers, Marc. “Sounds of Suspense: Cultural Conversation with Lalo Schifrin.” Wall Street Journal, 12 November 2012. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970203347104578102952956343468.Google Scholar
“Nick Saban Referenced ‘Cool Hand Luke,’ Sent Thousands of Millennials to Google.” The Big Lead, 6 December 2014. http://thebiglead.com/2014/12/06/nick-saban-referenced-cool-hand-luke-sent-thousands-of-millennials-to-google/.Google Scholar
Oney, Steve. “A Character Actor Reaches Cult Status.” New York Times Magazine, 16 November 1986.Google Scholar
“Tommy Tedesco, 67, A Studio Guitarist.” New York Times, 12 November 1997. http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/12/arts/tommy-tedesco-67-a-studio-guitarist.html.Google Scholar
Voice, Steve. “Obituary: Howard Roberts.” The Independent, 2 July 1992. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-howard-roberts-1530653.html.Google Scholar
Cool Hand Luke . Directed by Stuart Rosenberg. 1967. Burbank, CA, Warner Home Video, 2008. DVD.Google Scholar
Country Music and Bluegrass at Newport . Vanguard 79146, 1963. LP.Google Scholar
Gold Coast Singers, The. Here They Are! World Pacific Records WP-1806, 1962. LP.Google Scholar
Hammond, John. So Many Roads. Vanguard 79178, 1965. LP.Google Scholar
Lightfoot, Gordon. Songbook. Rhino B00000J63I, 1999. CD.Google Scholar
Schifrin, Lalo. Cool Hand Luke Original Soundtrack Recording. Aleph 022, 2001. CD.Google Scholar
Watson, Doc. Doc Watson. Vanguard 79152, 1964. LP.Google Scholar
Weissberg, Eric, Brickman, Marshall, Paley, Tom, and Rosenbaum, Art. New Dimensions in Banjo and Bluegrass. Elektra 7238, 1963. LP.Google Scholar
Rosenbaum, Art. Telephone interview by author. 25 January 2008.Google Scholar
Schifrin, Lalo. Telephone interview by author. 7 June 2002.Google Scholar
Sear, Dave. Telephone interview by author. 10 June 2008.Google Scholar
Weissberg, Eric. Telephone interview by author. 16 January 2008.Google Scholar