The music of Twin Peaks was my gateway to David Lynch and Mark Frost’s wonderful and strange show. In the early 1990s, there were only a handful of releases available – two albums by Julee Cruise – “Floating Into The Night” and “The Voice of Love” – and two soundtrack albums with one from the television show and the other from Lynch’s 1992 film. In 1993, I desperately wanted to find every track I could so I ordered a compact disc via the Twin Peaks Guy Bruce Phillip’s mail order catalog. Titled “Peaks Mania EP,” the CD was released in Japan during the height of Twin Peaks mania in 1992.
TWIN PEAKS IN JAPAN CIRCA 1992
It’s difficult to describe the excitement for Twin Peaks in Japan circa 1992. The fascination with Lynch and Frost’s show began in March 1991 when the Japanese pay television satellite channel Wowow began airing the first and second season. Between 1991 through summer 1992, Wowow showed the entire series seven times with another 28-hour marathon of all episodes held in late July 1992.
According to an article by Andrew Pollack for The New York Times, a survey conducted by Wowow in 1992 found that “30-percent of its then 900,000 subscribers signed up for their service just to watch the show.”
Home video sales were also booming with 15,000 sets containing 14 VHS Twin Peaks cassettes being sold at $440 each and another 7,000 Laserdiscs making their way into Japanese home theatres.
Then on May 16, 1992, the film also opened in Japanese theatres on the same day Lynch’s feature film about the last seven days of Laura Palmer debuted at the Cannes Film Festival. The film was rushed into theatres by Nippon Herald Films hoping to capitalize on the mania surrounding the show. The company even staged mock funerals for Laura Palmer at several train stations throughout the country to generate publicity.
According to a Los Angeles Times article from June 1992, ticket sales were incredibly strong for Lynch’s film:
“Since its premiere in Japan on May 16, ticket sales for the movie have reached 450,000; it is expected to run through the summer … ‘We’re booked into more than 100 theaters around Japan,’ says Taku Ushiyama of Nippon Herald Films Inc., the movie’s Japanese distributor. ‘That’s the equivalent of a 2,000-theater release in the U.S.”
By August 2, 1992, the film had grossed $2.9 million at the box office according to reports from Variety.
JULEE CRUISE – ANGELO BADALAMENTI – PEAKS MANIA EP – CD TRAY
In the early days of Twin Peaks fandom, there were really only two places to find collectibles and merchandise from the show. The first was the now closed Alpine Blossom and Gift Shoppe in North Bend, Washington. The second was from mail order catalogs created by Michigan resident Bruce Phillips (you can read an interview with Bruce on Twin Peaks Blog).
Bruce had an extensive collection of Twin Peaks items from around the world.
“As the series aired world-wide, each country had their own merchandise, promotional items, and point-of-purchase incentives,” explained Bruce. “These are specific promotional items retailers, like myself at the time, would receive based on the quantity of videos purchased. I would start chasing things down as soon as I learned about them. Remember, there was no eBay or online store presence at that time.”
Bruce’s “Twin Peaks Collectables” paper catalogs were the stuff dreams were made of. They were filled with endless treasures I only dreamed of owning as a young Twin Peaks fan.
When I saw the “Peaks Mania EP” CD in the catalog, I had to have it. I believe I paid $40.00 at the time, which was a lot for a high school student.
According to Discogs.com, the CD was supposedly released on May 25, 1992 by Warner Music Japan. The catalog number is WPCP-4848. The price including tax was ¥2,000 while the price excluding tax was ¥1,942.
I’ve been unable to find a cross referenced release date for this CD, so I am assuming the May 25 date is correct. Granted, it makes sense that it would be in market just nine days after Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me was released in Japanese theatres. As previously mentioned, it was an exciting time to be a fan living in Japan.
The outside of the CD tray contained an “obi strip” which is piece of paper wrapped around the spine of Japanese CDs, DVDs, movies, or books. This object is sometimes referred to as a “spine card.” The obi strip contained details about the tracks included on the CD as well as handling instructions.
Here is the back of the CD case with the obi strip still attached to the CD.
This is CD tray liner without the case and obi strip. One side for the spine was in English while the other was printed in Japanese.
When the CD case was opened, there was a repeated image of Julee Cruise on the inside booklet and a green and silver CD.
I love this color green which seems similar to the outline of the lettering for the “Peaks Mania” logo on the album cover.
JULEE CRUISE – ANGELO BADALAMENTI – PEAKS MANIA EP – BOOKLET
This is the front an back cover of the booklet. The cover contains a similar “Welcome to Twin Peaks” road sign shot from the official soundtrack release, except “Twin Peaks” was replaced with “Peaks Mania EP.”
The back cover contains a publicity shot of Julee Cruise that was taken by David Lynch for Cruise’s debut album “Floating into the Night.”
Julee’s headshot is placed over an establishing shot of Mount Si in North Bend, Washington as seen briefly in Twin Peaks episode 1.002.
JULEE CRUISE – ANGELO BADALAMENTI – PEAKS MANIA EP – LYRIC SHEET
The booklet contained a folded white square piece of paper with the track listing and lyrics to several songs written in both English and Japanese.
JULEE CRUISE – ANGELO BADALAMENTI – PEAKS MANIA EP – TRACK LISTING
With music composed by Angelo Badalamenti and lyrics by David Lynch, this release is a snapshot of Julee Cruise’s most popular songs heard in Twin Peaks
- Twin Peaks Theme – 5:07
- Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart (Tibetan 12″ Mix) – 5:47
- Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart (Bonus Beat) – 2:36
- Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart (A Capella) – 5:10
- Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart (Tibetan Dub) – 5:48
- The World Spins – 6:39
- Into The Night – 4:46
- Falling – 5:23
- Laura Palmer’s Theme – 4:51
“Rockin’ Back Inside My Heart” was the first single from Cruise’s “Floating Into The Night” album released in September 1989.
A review in The Indianapolis Star on September 27, 1989 described the track as a “compellingly eerie fireside country song sung by ghostly Cruise – a banshee signing lullabies, if you can imagine.”
The remixes of the track first appeared on a 12-inch Maxi-Single, 33 ⅓ RPM vinyl album released by Warner Bros. Records in 1991. The catalog number on inner label is 0-40027 while the catalog number on spine is 9 40027-0.
There were four individuals responsible for the remixed tracks
- Engineer [Remix Additional Engineering] – Sylvia Massy
- Engineer [Remix Engineered By], Mixed By [Remix Mixed By] – Peter Arata
- Executive-Producer – Kevin Laffey
- Producer [Additional Production By], Remix [Remix By] – Greg Royal
According to her bio, Sylvia Massey worked at Larrabee Sound Studios in Los Angeles, California around 1988. Her big break came by producing Green Jello’s debut album featuring the radio hit “Three Little Pigs”. This led to her recording the first two Tool records for Zoo/BMG Records. In the 1990s, Sylvia worked mostly out of her room in Sound City Studios, on the Neve 8038 recording console that became an important ingredient to her signature sound.
She would provide additional engineering on the remixed tracks for the “Peaks Mania EP.”
Peter Arata also worked Larrabee Sound Studios at the time. He would providing engineering and mixing support. He has credits for numerous albums in the late 1980s and 1990s. I found his photo above at 4 Max Post’s website.
Kevin Laffey served as executive producer for Julee’s album. According to his bio, he worked in the music business for 30 years, fourteen of those years in A&R at Warner Bros. Records. During that time, he produced numerous soundtrack albums for Krush Groove, Twin Peaks, and Twister. He also contributed songs for cues in Wayne’s World, Cool World, Until The End of The World … “basically, any film with the word ‘World’ in it (and more)!”
During his time at A&R, he also signed David Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti who introduced him to Julee Cruise. Laffey also provided the score’s metal motif for David Lynch’s Wild At Heart as performed by Powermad.
If you are curious about the music of Twin Peaks, I invite you to pre-order fellow Bookhouse Boy Scott Ryan’s new book arriving in May 2025, “Always Music in the Air: The Sounds of Twin Peaks.” Scott spoke with Kevin about his work on the Twin Peaks soundtrack
The final engineer on the remixed tracks was Greg “Gregski” Royal, who was an electronic and hip-hop producer, mixer and recording engineer from Long Beach, California. Royal worked on a number of R&B albums in the late 1980s and early 1990s including Bobby Brown, Paula Abdul, Pebbles, Luther Vandross and so many more.
While this album a greatest hits of “Julee Cruise” with a few Twin Peaks tracks added, it’s a perfect slice of early 1990s goodness. It would be years before Twin Peaks fans would see more music from the show released on CD and even longer before all of the music cues were made available. Back then, this was the one of the only gateways into the musical world of David Lynch and Mark Frost’s masterpiece.
Download high-resolution images from “Peaks Mania EP” on my Flickr account: https://www.flickr.com/photos/aloha75/albums/72177720321261470.
