I wish there was a way I could get the complete score for Ghostbusters II, even with sound effects if that’s the only way I can get it.
I love both scores, just like I love both films, but honestly, the score that gets stuck in my head the most is the score from GB2, particularly the “love theme.” There’s just something so sweet and nostalgic about it, I always get so warm and fuzzy…
The theme that plays when Peter visits Dana at The Manhattan Museum of Art? If so, then yeah I really love that tune too. 
Yeah, there are some really good cues in GBII–the other two that get me are the courtroom one, when they’re trying to catch the Scoleri Brothers, and the one where the statue of Liberty breaks through the ceiling.
Those are the two most memorable cues of the film score, imo.
“HE IS VIGO!!! YOU ARE LIKE THE BUZZING OF FLIES TO HIM!!!”
I have made a Bootleg copy of the score using various sources on the internet. lol (I did this a couple of years ago.)
LOL, I just realized that I already mentioned both those cues in this thread already… Cool CD!
The album art came from some website, and the score came from a download on the internet, and I just burned them to 2 cds. (The score has a lot of noticeable sound removal, and some sound effects are still present, it’s not perfect but it’s better than nothing. Also it has the Jackie Wilson version of Higher and Higher, The Ray Parker Jr. Ghostbusters theme, as well as the rest of the GB II Soundtrack on the bootleg album.)
I love the Randy Edelman GBII score. This is what I’ll say about the Bernstein score. The way it’s edited into the movie is perfect. However, I find a lot of the music that was cut-out to be for good reason. The overly-bombastic Stay-Puft music was really not good to me, and that silly theme music that was replaced with Bus Boys.
I really get the impression that Bernstein felt slighted by the RPJ song and the other soundtrack songs. While I totally love about 90% of that score, the movie would just not be the same without “Savin’ the Day”. The Sony/Mondo score was really confounding. Yet again, it’s incomplete, and even worse, it’s out of order. I find that annoying to no end.
Considering the unlikelihood that they’ll ever release every cue from the score, I would accept an isolated music track on the next video release. That would be cool.
Now, what’s the deal with the Ghostbusters II score release? Sony has it, so do the right thing and finally release it. 31 years later.
As I recall the reason behind Sony not releasing the score to Ghostbusters II is due to the master tapes becoming too degraded to use. It is a shame since parts of Randy Edelman’s score were really good, and I have wanted to own a copy for many years.
I don’t know if that’s actually true or not. From what I remember reading, La-La Land Records was going to finally release GB II a few years ago, but were told not to by Randy Edelman. Apparently this request was because Sony was finally going to release it. Guess not!
Here’s the FSM (Film Score Monthly) forum thread about GB II from a few years back.
https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=125739&forumID=1&archive=0
@pizzarat, Thanks for the correction. I hope that at some point down the road, the score for Ghostbusters II finally gets released.
I had been meaning to reply to this thread for a few days but always got caught up with work.
I will agree that it all comes down to taste and each OST composer has their charms. For me, personally, I prefer Bernstein’s composition. It’s true that his composition was a character of it’s own. However it accented the first film very well while still maintaining the vibe that the film, at its core, was still a comedy. When one of Bernstein’s tracks for GB1 randomly comes on, people typically know where it is from and that is a true testament to the work he did. Edelman did a good job with GBII, but for the most part it is not as instantly recognizable. When I think of GBII I honestly think more about the vocal tracks than the OST compositions where GB1 is kind of the opposite.
That said; for the vocal track/various artist soundtracks… I much prefer GBII. GB1 was great, but overall I enjoyed more tracks on GBII’s track list. Honestly the 80s funkalicious vibe is also what I need to get through 4am shifts at work sometimes too. :lol:
Listening to the GBII score on Spotify right now. Makes me appreciate Elmer’s composition so much more. Aside from a few bits and pieces Randy bores me to death. His stuff is just too simplistic for me, not just in GBII but in all of his scores. Not a whole lot of imagination.