Charade (Music From the Motion Picture Score)

• Track Listing

Henry Mancini's soundtrack provides an easy listening tour of continental musical history: Parisian cafe songs on "Bistro," Eastern European gypsy music on "Bateau Mouche," Schubert quartets on "Bye Charlie," and some beer barrel polka on "Punch and Judy." Thrown in for variety's sake are dashes of Bond soundtracks, Cossack songs, and Strauss waltzes. Mancini also shows his south of the border touch on "Mambo Parisienne" (picture Perez Prado sporting an accordion), "Latin Snowfall" (transcendentally gorgeous bolero, one of his best), and "Megeve" (bossa nova for the Biarritz set). Also don't overlook one of his biggest hits and finest melodies, "Charade."