After the prologue of Baz Luhrmann's controversial, modern retelling of William Shakespeare's tragedy "Romeo and Juliet," the audience is blasted away by a hoard of harmonious voices chanting a loud, haunting song to the beat of an angry drum. This song, in which a narrator begins "Two households, both alike in dignity...", is called "O Verona," the song which Baz Luhrmann himself calls "an almighty orchestral chord." Its sister song, "O Verona (Reprise)" is uninterrupted by the narrator, and the listener is able to appreciate its musical quality in a fuller fashion. Personally, I couldn't decide whether to recommend "O Verona" or "O Verona (Reprise)" to you. They are both extraordinary recordings on what is, I believe, one of the greatest musical scores to a motion picture ever produced.

This song is really beautiful. It's eight-odd minutes long, but it doesn't really feel like that. It's full of longing and it just makes you want to reach out for something, but you don't know what...

lyric sample: "thunderous sparks from the dark of the stadium, the music and medicine you needed for comforting. so make all your fat fleshy fingers to moving and pluck all your silly strings, bend all your notes for me..."

Ellen Foley is best known for being the foil to Meat Loaf on "Paradise By the Dashboard Light" (and for a season on the TV show "Night Court"). This track which opens her first LP "Nightout" is a thunderous roar that rivals Phil Spector's wall of sound like little else. It starts quietly enough with piano motifs and an organ backing, but really cranks it up in time for the chorus. Ian Hunter and the late Mick Ronson produced. Repeat after me: bombast is good!