The music from David Lynch’s 1992 masterpiece Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is one of my favorite motion picture soundtracks. From the slow jazz to the hauntingly beautiful Julee Cruise signing “Questions in a World of Blue,” I wore this soundtrack out in the early days of my fandom more than three decades ago. I recently acquired a reasonably priced copy of the 1992 Japanese compact disc soundtrack, which contains different artwork and details not found in the United States version. Like all things in Japan related to Twin Peaks, this CD is a gem and a time capsule from when Twin Peaks mania washed over the Asian country.
TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME SOUNDTRACK ANNOUNCED
The radio industry trade magazine “Radio and Records” (R&R) first announced on July 24, 1992 that David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me soundtrack would hit stores on August 11.
In July 1992, the film was already playing in movie theaters throughout Japan as it had debuted the same day as its Cannes Film Festival premiere on May 16. The article offers a handful of details such as Lynch’s writing credits and musical performances. It also discusses Julee Cruise’s involvement in one of the soundtrack’s most beautiful tracks, “Questions in a World of Blue.”
R&R speculates that Warner Brothers might release “A Real Indication”, “Questions..” or an edited version of the “Twin Peaks Theme” as a lead track. I’ve not found any such release outside of a 7-inch vinyl single of Cruise’s song from Spain.
Based on one key detail found in the Japanese compact disc, I believe this soundtrack, despite “Peaks Mania” sweeping Japan, was released around August 10 as part of a worldwide release. Incidentally, an EP titled “Peaks Mania” was released on May 25, 1992 in the Japanese market. Most likely to capitalize on the frenzy and in lieu of having the official film soundtrack available.
TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME SOUNDTRACK – 1992 JAPANESE COMPACT DISC BOOKLET
The 1992 Japanese compact disc booklet cover contains an image of Laura Palmer, dead and wrapped in plastic. The film’s logo contains an interesting sub header not found in other theatrical releases around the world – Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me | Teresa Banks and the Last Seven Days of Laura Palmer.
The logo and sub header appear to be lifted from the Japanese souvenir program released in May 1992.
In fact, the souvenir program also contains the image of Laura Palmer wrapped in plastic that is found on the booklet cover.
Other Japanese ephemera, such as ticket stubs and flyers, from that time don’t mention “Teresa Banks.” So I’m guessing the compact disc artwork and Japanese program were created around the same time.
The inside of the booklet contains a track listing, film production details and song credits. Sadly, there are no details as to who created the artwork for this set though I assume it was someone from Warner Music Japan, Inc.
The booklet’s back cover contains the familiar “Welcome to Twin Peaks” sign spot image found on the official television show soundtrack cover. The Warner Brothers catalog number of this release is WPCP-4919.
TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME SOUNDTRACK – 1992 JAPANESE COMPACT DISC OBI STRIP
I love Japanese media releases as they contain Obi strips or spine cards with additional details about the particular item. If you look carefully on the back of the Obi strip, you’ll find a date – 92-8-10 (92-8). In the United States, this date would be written as 8/10/1992 which seems to compliment the previously mentioned August 11 date.
Since I am currently not fluent in Japanese, I ran the image of this Obi strip through Google Translate. Wow, Obi Strip, Wow! The program revealed additional details such as retail price – ¥2,400 including tax and ¥2,330 excluding tax. My favorite note is the quote from Japan Herald Film Distribution – “Diane, the real culprit is — it’s right here on this album.” There is an additional implication that “the answer to the mystery may truly be found within this soundtrack.”
TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME SOUNDTRACK – 1992 JAPANESE COMPACT DISC TRAY IMAGE
The tray image contains a close up of Laura Palmer’s image from the booklet cover. All of the song tracks are presented in English, not Japanese like the inside booklet cover. I love the tray includes a mention to “Little Jimmy Scott,” not just “Jimmy Scott.” The back “Twin Peaks” film logo is also something I’ve not scene on other ephemera; it combines the booklet cover lettering into one small black box.
TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME SOUNDTRACK – 1992 JAPANESE COMPACT DISC
The compact disc for this release contains a light green background with blue lettering. On this CD made in Japan, the film’s title and track listing are again printed in English, not Japanese.
Fellow Twin Peaks fan Tim Roman pointed out that Discogs.com has an alternate CD image for the Japanese release. This image is similar to the U.S. version, except the catalog number (WPCP-4919) and “Made in Japan” is printed on this version. Thank you Tim!
I am curious which CD was available on August 10. The green label one may have been a second printing after selling through the initial run of the black label. Since the black label was found on the U.S. version for the Aug. 11 release, Warner Music Japan may have just leveraged the design. Either way, I need to find a black label copy for my collection.
TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME SOUNDTRACK – 1992 JAPANESE COMPACT DISC LINER NOTES
In addition to the Obi strip, Japanese media releases typically contain additional folded items like these liner notes printed Japanese.
I enlisted the help of Google Translate again to decode what was written on this folded square piece of paper. The translation technology continues to improve as I could mostly understand what was written. There are a few misspellings such as “Corey Crews” which is supposed to be “Julee Cruise” or “Poby Briggs” instead of “Bobby Briggs.” But overall the document contains a brief history of David Lynch’s other films, history of Twin Peaks, the feature film production and details about making the soundtrack.
My favorite passage shares a story from summer 1989 when David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti were working on the music to “Northwest Passage” which later became “Twin Peaks”
“It was in the summer of 1989 that David Lynch worked closely with composer Angelo Badalamenti, giving him instructions, to create the music for ‘Twin Peaks.’ They worked in a studio in Badalamenti’s Manhattan apartment. They even ate the exact same meals, showing an almost creepy sense of unity. At that time, the title was still “NORTHWEST PASSAGE,” not “Twin Peaks.”
The liner notes also perfectly describe what happens when I listen to it: “The album is full of songs that will evoke such pleasant emotions that you will fall into a trance. I recommend listening to the soundtrack at a loud volume, as instructed by Lynch.”
The back of the square liner notes contains English song lyrics translated into Japanese by Linda Hennrick who spent three decades writing lyrics for songs, television programs, movie themes, and individual recording artists. She also translated English lyrics to Japanese while living in Japan before relocating to the United States in 2010. According to LinkedIn, she’s been a self-employed copyeditor living in Coachella Valley, California since 2014.
TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME SOUNDTRACK – 1992 JAPANESE COMPACT DISC SURVEY
This CD was in perfect condition and included this extra item that I thought would have been lost to time. I enjoy collecting ephemera from the show as these items are typically difficult to find. People don’t always keep paper products especially the item pictured above. At first, I thought ti was a mail order form for other Twin Peaks, the David Lynch and Julee Cruise Industrial Symphony No. 1 and Cruise’s debut album “Floating into the Night.”
Google Translate saved the day again by helping me discover this card was a survey being conducted by Warner Music Japan Co., Ltd. The card does contain details about several media releases such as the Twin Peaks Visual Soundtrack but it was designed to collecting information about who was purchasing the Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me soundtrack. Those who returned the survey card were entered into a lottery to win a Warner Music Japan telephone card. I’m assuming this may have been a Twin Peaks or Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me-themed card as several phone cards were produced for the Japanese market around the time of the motion picture’s release.
Survey participants could answer a series of questions by placing numbers to their answers in boxes along the bottom part of the card.
In addition to demographic questions (gender, occupation, etc.), there were specific soundtrack questions such as:
- What was your motivation (reason) for purchasing this album?
- Do you own the following products?
- For this one, all the previously shown Twin Peaks / Julee Cruise items were shown along with “Barcelona Gold” (the Summer Olympics were held in Barcelona in 1992) and the soundtrack to Lethal Weapon 3 (which was released on July 25, 1992)
- What is your favorite song on this album (multiple answers)?
- If any Twin Peaks related works are released in the future, will you buy them?
- What is your favorite music genre?
- Where did you find out about this album?
Special thank you to Japanese-based a-star-gazer on eBay for preserving this soundtrack. All said, it’s awesome to have item now a part of this living, breathing archive on Twin Peaks Blog.
DOWNLOAD high-resolution images of this Japanese compact disc from my Flickr account: https://www.flickr.com/photos/aloha75/albums/72177720322804648
not identical to yours, but pretty close:
https://www.discogs.com/release/5395394-Angelo-Badalamenti-Twin-Peaks-Fire-Walk-With-Me
i see copies for sale for less than ten bucks.
@Tim – Thank you for the heads up. I’ve updated the article with credit to you. The Discogs CDs are indeed about $10-$12 yet it’s those darn shipping charges that increase the price. I paid about $56 via eBay with free shipping.