![]() The big band arrangements are toe-tappingly catchy in a way that you don’t hear in many films these days, and owe a great debt to classic arrangers like Billy May and Nelson Riddle, with their brushed snares, high hat cymbals, and groovy plucked basses. The first half of the score is made up almost exclusively of suave jazz instrumentals, capturing the carefree buddy relationship between John and Ted. ![]() However, despite all this, any disco/parody preconceptions one may have had about the score to Ted should be dispelled immediately – Murphy’s score, like all good comedy scores, plays it absolutely straight, accompanying the hilarious on-screen antics with a warm, big-hearted orchestral score that is charming, catchy, emotional and, at times, surprisingly exciting. In fact, Murphy’s most recent theatrically film released prior to Ted was the comedy-drama Changing Hearts in 2002, so you can see how non-prolific he has been. He has largely been absent from the cinema world since then, working instead on television series such as The Commish and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, before connecting with MacFarlane in 2006. So where does the music from Ted fit into all this? Well, the score is by the third member of MacFarlane’s stable, Walter Murphy, who some may remember for his novelty disco hit “A Fifth of Beethoven” which appeared on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in 1976, and was an unexpected chart hit in its own right that same year. ![]() MacFarlane also has a long-standing love of big band jazz, swing and “crooned” standards the likes of Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra popularized, as shown by his 2010 serious solo album Music is Better than Words, which was arranged by Jones and conducted by McNeely. His shows often feature film-music related gags (like the ‘Star Wars being scored by Danny Elfman’ throwaway in his parody Blue Harvest), and the trio of composers that score his shows – Joel McNeely, Ron Jones and Walter Murphy – have often shown a love and affection for the genre, and a stylistic excellence that far exceeds the usual television fare. Seth MacFarlane has always been a very musically literate man, and has gone on record to say that, had he not become a writer and animator, he would have loved to be a film composer. It sounds ridiculous but, truthfully, Ted is one of the funniest films I have seen in a LONG time, filled with a wonderful combination of gross-out humor, verbal sparring and absurd physical violence, but counterbalanced with a genuinely heartwarming story of love, friendship and forgiveness. Mark Wahlberg stars as John Bennett, the poor schmuck whose life is constantly being ruined by his furry friend, Mila Kunis supports as his beautiful long-suffering girlfriend Lori, and MacFarlane himself voices the eponymous bear. This is the premise of Ted, the live-action cinematic debut of the television-animation icon Seth MacFarlane, whose comic creations on the small screen include Family Guy, American Dad and The Cleveland Show. Amazingly, through the magical power of a young boy’s dreams, the bear does come to life, and everyone lived happily ever after… except that, 25 years later, the bear is still with you, smokes pot out of a bong in your living room, brings hookers home to party, and is a constant irritation to your friends and family. You suddenly have a new best friend – and, that night, you make a wish on a shooting star that your bear would come to life. You’re a ten year old boy, and not very popular, but on Christmas morning your parents give you the most adorable, cuddly teddy bear imaginable. ![]() ![]() Picture the scene: it’s the mid 1980s in suburban America. ![]()
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