Track Listing

1. Tubular Bells

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4157 in Music
• Released on: 2000-05-29
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Running time: 49 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The opening bars of this classic album by Mike Oldfield were heard by audiences that packed theatres to witness one of the scariest films of all time--The Exorcist. And it wasn't long before this debut release, not only from Oldfield but also from Richard Branson's new record label, Virgin, found itself in the upper echelons of pop charts around the world. Primarily an instrumental album, with performances on almost every instrument credited to Oldfield, it takes the listener into widely varying musical territories, ending as Viv Stanshall formally announces each instrument as it joins the mix. --Paul Clark

CD Description
Debut album from instrumental wonderkid Mike Oldfield, the first million seller for both Oldfield and his label boss Richard Branson. The eerie music was used to great effect in the film 'The Exorcist' and remains synonymous with it still.Apart from Vivian Stanshall, who announces the instruments as they appear, every note was played by Oldfield himself.

Customer Reviews

Not just for technophiles and geeks
I'm a longstanding Oldfield fan, and I know this album intimately. I used to think that remastered releases were just a way for fleecing the record buying public. But I took a chance on this, and I was flabbergasted. The remastering makes all the difference, the sound quality is crystal clear and I can hear flutes and pedal basses that I didn't know existed. It's like hearing this album for the first time all over again!

Great music with fantastic sound quality.

This release was groundbreaking for many reasons and I'm sure Virgin Records owe their success to this album. There's an innocent charm to the compositions, although excessive exposure spoiled my enjoyment for many years, having used it as a "demo" disc many times over the seventies and early eighties.

I was saddened that the original CD sounded so muffled, as I remember - CD promised so much in the early days and didn't always deliver for various reasons. Those days are thankfully long behind us and THIS release realises, for me, how good the original recording could be in its stereo version.

There's a clarity here that really helps you to delve into the mix and discover elements that were all but inaudible in the original LP and CD versions. The early "Quad" mixes on the boxed set were good too, but sufficiently different that they were almost different pieces of music to me... My CD player is good, but quite conventional - no HDCD or the dreaded sacharin sweet SACD here... and the sound is perfectly good without all the latest commercial "tricks".... It seems one of the original production team did the remastering for this release, so hopefully, what we're hearing now is about as good as the original mix gets.

I must admit I'm getting really confused with the large number of *versions* of this album available as of 2006... I think that it's now time for both Mr Oldfield and the record companies to leave alone and move on - PLEASE!

RECOMMENDED as the definitive mastering of the original mix! If it's not in your collection, at this price you can't go wrong.

A rock classic
This massive rock symphony was a great idea and Oldfield pulls it off very well.
The distict , haunting piano opening followed by all sorts of instruments providing a whole 50 minutes worth of tunes may sound daunting and possibly boring, but this work keeps you gripped. theres humour with the Piltdown man, and theres something wierd about the bagpipe passage.

A change of mood for the second half- a more relaxed guitar orientated movement.

Its a touch of genius to end with the sailors hornpipe.
Fantastic revolutiuonary music that hasn't been betterd in its field.