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Alf Clausen: The concept of the album
"Some of the songs had stuck in everybody’s minds, and I really wanted
to make sure I included as many of those for the fans as possible.”
-- "Simpsons" composer Alf Clausen, in 1997 interview.
It was three years
in the making
Alf Clausen is the person most responsible for creating music for "The Simpsons."
He also was instrumental -- no pun intended -- in deciding which tracks from
the show would go on "Songs in the Key of Springfield," the album from Rhino
Records. (For more details on the album, read an official
Rhino news release or check out our list of all
51 album cuts.)
In February 1997 Alf was interviewed by telephone for a feature story in
the Syracuse (N.Y.) Newspapers.
Q: Who came up with the idea of putting together this album?
Alf: I did.
Q: How did that work?
Alf: I'm trying to remember, because it's been so long. I actually
started this around April of '94. It's been in the works that long.
Originally, the idea was to do a straight score album, and I took it to a
number of record companies. And one thing led to another. And basically there
were a number of companies that weren't interested, which is always amazing
to me.
My agent and I finally took it to Rhino. ... And when we took it to Rhino,
I had some discussions with Gary Stewart, who is the head of A&R at Rhino.
And he and I kind of brain-stormed this thing.
Gary made the suggestion, rather than making it a straight score album, that
perhaps we could make it more of a concept album, with songs, score included,
some ... dialogue bits, stuff like that. And I loved the idea, so he turned
me loose with that one, and I went back and redid my original concept and
came back with this one.
Q: In deciding what went on this (album) -- or what would not go on
this -- what was going through your mind?
Alf: First and foremost, I think my decisions were made ... by the
popularity of the various songs. Some of the songs had stuck in everybody's
minds, and I really wanted to make sure I included as many of those for the
fans as possible.
Secondly, the consideration was: Did I have material of enough length to
really keep the listener's interest. As you know, we do a lot of short bits
on the show, and I felt some of the songs -- even though they were memorable
in the context of an individual episode -- were perhaps a little too short
to keep somebody's interest on a CD format.
Q: Were there any songs you wanted to include that you couldn't? Or
did everything you want get put on there?
Alf: No, there were a couple of things we had to let go for various
reasons. Some of the reasons involved licensing problems. Some of the reasons
involved the artist's record company affiliations, and some of the reasons
involved budget.
Q: Can you give me an example of something you wanted that you didn't
put on the album?
Alf: Let me think about that for a moment. The clip with Bette Midler
singing to Krusty.
Q: Which is not on the album ...
Alf: Which is not on the album -- not on Volume One, anyway. (Laughs)
How's that for optimism?
Q: That had to do with getting clearance from her record company?
Alf: Right.
NEXT: Other Simpsons albums.
Copyright 1997, William LaRue.
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