Arrangements and Orchestrations Billy Byers Song Co-ordinator Bruce Rowland

Original Music Score Chris Neal Original Songs Peter Best

Musical Director Ray Cook

Music Research David Mitchell

Following songs performed and sung by Debbie Byrne

"Uncle Sam" Lyrics and Music by Peter Best

"We'll Live The Rest of Our Lives Tonight" Lyrics and Music by Peter Best

"Air-Raid" Lyrics and Music by Peter Best

"Don't Sweetheart Me' Lyrics and Music by Charles Tobias/Cliff Friend Song included by kind permission of Chappell & Co. (Aust.) Pty. Ltd.

"Lest I Forget" Music by Ray Cook Lyrics by David Mitchell and Melvyn Morrow

"Please Don't Ask Me" Lyrics and Music by Graham Goble Song included by kind permission of Ragtime Music Pty. Ltd.

"Lethal As Love" Lyrics and Music by Peter Best

"Victory Street" Lyrics and Music by Peter Best

"Heroes" Lyrics and Music by Peter Best

"Heroes" dedicated to the memory of Jo Hardie. Additional Songs" "Emu Dance" Performed by: Galapagos Duck and Kim Deacon Written by: Tom Hare, John Conley and Greg Foster. Appeared by kind permission of Castle Music.

"Rumble Rumble Rumble" Performed by John O'May Lyrics and Music by Frank Loesser Song included by kind permission of Chappell & Co. (Aust.) Pty. Ltd.

"Blues Point Blues" Performed by Nicky Crayson. Music by Ray Cook

"Is He An Aussie?" Lyrics and Music by B. C. Hilliam Song included by kind permission of A.T.V. Northern.

"When A Boy From Alabama Meets A Girl From Gundagi" Sung by Bartholomew John Lyrics and Music by Jack O'Hagan Song included by kind permission of Allans Music Australia Pty. Ltd.

Backup Vocals: Shauna Jensen & Kim Deacon

Band Source Music

Kirribilli Kapers Dixon Street Joplinesque Cat House Grumble G. I. Jitters Enter the Mariachis Conga Australis Bridge Street G. I.'s Bopping I'm Taking a Boat All Clear Spiked Jones

Band music and additional underscore composed, arranged and orchestrated by Ray Cook

Closing Credits Music, Studio Production and Scatvocal by Bruce Rowland

Music Recording and Mixing Facilities Studio 301

Music and Balance Engineer Jim Taig

Assistant Engineer Greg Henderson

For Ray Cook For Chris Neal

Music Supervisor and Pianist on set Conductor Michael Tyack Michael Hope

Underscore Producer Orchestrator Greg Flood Eric Cook

Music Fixer Music Fixer Billy Weston Phillip Hartl

Music Copyist David Jones

The Soundtrack Album of Rebel released through EMI - logo

The Soundtrack:

Debra Byrne is too well known to detail here - she has a reasonably detailed wiki here. For the musical director Ray Cook, musical arranger Billy Byers, and the two composers - Peter Best, whose songs dominate the soundtrack and the LP, and Chris Neal, who did the underscore - see below the details of the record releases.

Composer Bruce Rowland is best known for his other work and it seems his main duty on this movie was to compose the end titles track. For more details of Rowland, see Ozmovies' pdf of music credits at The Man from Snowy River, Rowland's break- through feature film score.

The soundtrack album doesn't yet seem to have made it to CD, but the LP also had a 45 spun off from it. The song "Heroes" had a respectable amount of airplay - some databases have it peaking at #33 on the charts - while the B side came from Byrne's album The Persuader, all a part of her return to the public eye after her career stalled through 1980-85 because of her heroin addiction and her recovery therefrom:

LP EMI EMX-240439 1985 Original Songs Peter Best Songs Arranged and Orchestrated by Bill Byers Additional Arrangements and Orchestrations by Ray Cook Vocals Produced by Bruce Rowland Orchestra Conducted by Ray Cook Studio Engineer: Jim Taig Assistant Engineer: Greg Henderson Album Recorded at Studio 301, Sydney All tracks sung by Debbie Byrne except * Galapagos Duck Back-up vocalists: Kim Deacon and Shauna Jenson

SIDE 1: 1. Uncle Sam (3'38") (P. Best) (AMCOS) 2. Weʼll Live The Rest Of Our Lives Tonight (2'10") (P. Best) (AMCOS) 3. Air-Raid (3'42") (P. Best) (AMCOS) 4. Please Donʼt Ask Me (3'48") (G. Goble) (Ragtime Music) 5. Donʼt Sweetheart Me (2'46") (C. Friend - C. Tobias) (Chappell)

SIDE 2: 1. Emu Dance * (4'24") (T. Hare - J. Conley - G. Foster) (Castle) 2. Lest I Forget (4'16") (R. Cook - D. Mitchell - M. Morrow) (Control) 3. Victory Street (3'08") (P. Best) (AMCOS) 4. Lethal As Love (3'47") (P. Best) (AMCOS) 5. Heroes (4'47") (P. Best) (AMCOS)

The 45 release, with "Heroes" the A side, and the B side "Memory", which came from Byrne's album The Persuader:

A trad. jazz-inflected number by "Man from Snowy River" composer Bruce Rowland runs over the end credits.

"Heroes" is the climactic song sung just before the end credits roll. The song purports to be a World War 11 anthem, but sounds resolutely 1980s. Lyrics, as they are heard in the film, sung by Kathy (Debbie Byrne) are:

You are my heroes And I love you You'll be sailing Across the sea I am always Thinking of you You are heroes To Me

You are my heroes (chorus joins in) And I'll miss you Broken-hearted I will be While we're parted It will grieve me You are heroes To Me

You are my heroes You are fighting You must be what You have to be We must find out What we believe in You are heroes To Me

(As Matt Dillon's character enters the back of the room, the chorus gives way to the personal)

You are my hero And I love you You'll be sailing Across the sea I will always Be thinking of you You're a hero To Me

You are my hero (chorus returns) You are fighting You must be what You have to be We must find out What we believe in You're a hero To Me

You are my hero You are fighting You must be what You have to be We must find out What we believe in You're a hero To Meeeee ...

(Chorus): You are heroes

Kathy: You're a hero You're a hero To Meeee …

(Dillon's character salutes Byrne's character and is led away by Bill Hunter's character, as Byrne mouths "I love you" and the music begins to fade, then builds again over a final montage of Dillon and Byrne and end credits roll).

Arranger Billy Byers:

There was enough money in the budget for the music department to afford the services of Billy Byers as arranger.

Byers has a brief wiki here, and also had an obituary published in The New York Times on 4th May, 1996, here, which in part read:

Mr. Byers once attributed his success to the fact that like many other top arrangers he played the trombone. "Trombonists sit in the center of the orchestra," he said. "They develop an empathy for more instruments that way." If so, Mr. Byers came to his central career by accident. A musical prodigy who took up the piano at 6 and was playing professionally at 8, Mr. Byers, a Los Angeles native who eventually performed with the Hollywood Canteen Kids, was stricken with arthritis when he was 14 and had to give up the piano. To further his musical career, he had to overcome another obstacle. His father, a prominent surgeon, insisted that he go to college to prepare for law school, but Mr. Byers outfoxed him. He went to Harvard, well outside the range of his father's supervision, and proceeded to major in New York City, spending so much time there he was soon sitting in as a regular at Manhattan jazz clubs. It took World War II to bring his academic career to an end, and after serving in the Army Air Forces he toured with Benny Goodman, began his television career at the age of 23 with Sid Caesar's "Show of Shows" and discovered Paris, where he wrote for radio orchestras, played in jazz clubs and taught Paul Newman to play the trombone for the 1961 movie "Paris Blues." In the following years, he bounced back and forth between New York and Paris, performing with Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Quincy Jones and other jazz musicians and providing arrangements. Along the way, Mr. Byers, who once learned to play the vibraphone in three weeks so a friend could take a vacation, developed such a reputation for versatility that he would play in a Broadway pit one night and join a classical symphony orchestra the next. Working in a field that Richard Rodgers once dismissed as "a difficult technical task," Mr. Byers, whose arrangements were credited with putting the swing in the musical "City of Angels," received a somewhat higher accolade from the show's composer, Cy Coleman. After receiving a 1990 Tony Award for his score, Mr. Coleman hailed Mr. Byers as an artist. "He puts into his orchestrations everything I put into my music," he said. Mr. Byers is survived by his wife, Yuriko; two sons, Kimiko, of Malibu, and Bryant, of Culver City, Calif.; a daughter, Michiko, of Santa Monica, Calif.; his mother, Mary, of Los Angeles, and a sister, May Byers of Long Beach, Calif. (Below: Billy Byers) Composer Peter Best

Peter Best cut his feature film teeth as a composer by working with feature film producer Phillip Adams on the low budget experimental 1970 drama Jack and Jill: a postscript.

Best went on score the two Barry McKenzie films, produced by Adams.

Best would become one of the major contributors to the revival of screen music in Australia, with scores for films such as Muriel's Wedding, the first two Crocodile Dundees and Bliss. He has also had a successful career in the advertising game.

He did several scores for Tim Burstall's films, starting with the score for Burstall's The Child episode of the four part portmanteau feature Libido, followed by Petersen and then End Play.

Best had taken a break from composing for the screen after doing the SAFC telemovie The Sound of Love in 1978, but after doing We of the Never Never in 1982, he followed with Goodbye Paradise, the Alex Stitt animation Abra Cadabra, Rebel, The More Things Change, Bliss, and then in 1986, Crocodile Dundee.

Best has a short (at time of writing) wiki here, and he should not be confused with the original drummer for The Beatles.

(Below: Peter Best) (Below: Best as he appears in the DVD 'making of' for We of the Never Never) Composer Chris Neal:

This was a relatively early outing for Chris Neal, and no doubt a happier one after his first feature film, the ill-fated Crosstalk, which was an early example of Australian feature film electronica. Neal had followed with the equally little seen The City's Edge and John Dingwall's Buddies before getting the gig on Rebel. It is however notable that Bruce "Man from Snowy River" Rowland was given the job of writing the end titles music, and that Peter Best's songs dominate much of the musical proceedings.

That said, Neal would go on to a long career as a composer of scores for film and television. At time of writing, Neal had a brief wiki here.

He also had his own website here.

The site contained this biography:

Early years studying classical piano and music theory were followed by an intensive period of progressive jazz study and practise, inspired by the recordings of such great artists as Bill Evans, Bobby Timmons, Oscar Peterson et al. By the time of the new excitement delivered by the likes of Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly, it became obvious that eclecticism was the only way forward. The 1960's were alive with music. There were gigs around Sydney with my jazz piano trio (usually Tony (Toot) Simon on drums and John Butterworth on Bass)as well as the absolute joy of playing keys and guitars for many gigs with such well established rock bands as The Showmen and The Powerhouse, while the love of songwriting and composing grew..... In 1968, the opportunity arose to assist legendary composer Peter Sculthorpe create the score for the Anglo/Australian movie The Age Of Consent, starring first-timer Helen Mirren. What a journey. What a gift. A bizarre, life-changing accident led to a few months in Vietnam entertaining US troops. The time spent "hanging out" in Saigon set up the next extraordinary chapter of this strangely fortunate life.... Then followed the creation of the hippie, flower-power rock musical, Manchild, which toured Australian capital cities during 1971/72, creating several box-office records along the way. A focal point of the early '70s was the creation of the solo prog rock album Winds Of Isis. This epic instrumental outing developed a small, but committed following and remains in demand to this day. Another high point of the '70s was the development of an electronic score for Fritz Lang's silent classic, Metropolis. Live concerts featuring the soundtrack played live on the first commercially available microprocessor-based digital sequencer (The Roland MC-8)were presented around Sydney, while a film company sourced a high quality print to synchronise the music to. When the project was well into development, the word got out that Hollywood was working on a similar idea and the release did not go ahead . However, most of the music still exists in demo form. The commercial scene in Sydney was thriving in the '70s. Movies, TV, TVCs and records - it was all happening. Ads for clients such as : Sunbeam, Goldenia Tea, Levis, Gilbey's Gin, 2UE, 2GB and Home Journal filled in the weekly slots not used up by record production work for The Marshall Brothers Band, Bob Hudson, Maureen Elkner, The Radiators, to name a few....and there was even an extraordinary situation in which I found myself engineering for the great, sublime Stephane Grapelli..... By the time the '80s arrived, a career in film scoring was well underway, with many features, TV series, documentaries and kids dramas making up the slate. This remains the main focus today..... In 1980, The Living Room suite of recording studios was setup at Chatswood on Sydney's North Shore. This became home to the creation of many scores and soundtracks for feature films and television dramas for the next twenty years. In 2001, we moved to Avalon on the Northern Beaches and set up Springboard Studios, which is still home... (Below: Chris Neal) The site also provided this TV and filmography up to 2010: (* Co-composed with Braedy Neal)

2010 CASTAWAY series Northway Prod 2008 BETWEEN IRAQ AND A HARD PLACE doco PrecisionPics 2006 THE SLEEPOVER CLUB 2 series Southern Star* 2005 MDA – Eps 5–8 series ABC 2004 FOREIGN EXCHANGE series Sth Star/Magma* NOAH & SASKIA series ACTF/BBC* 2003 THE CROP feature Miracle Pics* 2001 THE CRASH ZONE 2 series ACTF/Disney 2000 FARSCAPE 2 series Jim Henson Co* 1999 FARSCAPE series Nine TV/Henson* TIME AND TIDE telemv ABC Prod 1998 THE CRASH ZONE series ACTF/Disney* MUMBO JUMBO telemv Artist Services 13 GANTRY ROW telemv Rob Bruning Prod 1997 PACIFIC DRIVE 2 series Village Roadshow* 1996 PACIFIC DRIVE series Village Roadshow* 1995 CORRELLI series ABC JOHNSON & FRIENDS 6 series Film Australia* 1994 HEARTLAND series Northway Prod* THE DAMNATION OF HARVEY MCHUGH series ABC GP 6 series ABC/Matt Carroll* LIFT OFF 3 series ACTF Prod* JOHNSON & FRIENDS 5 series Film Australia* 1993 LAW OF THE LAND series Roadshow Coote Carroll JACK BE NIMBLE feature Zee Films (NZ) GP 5 series ABC/Matt Carroll LIFT OFF 2 series ACTF Prod JOHNSON & FRIENDS 4 series Film Australia FURTHER ADVENTURES OF BLACK BEAUTY 4 series Pro Films (NZ) 1992 THE NOSTRADAMUS KID feature Simpson leMesurier LIFT OFF 1 series ACTF Prod FURTHER ADVENTURES OF BLACK BEAUTY 3 series Pro Films (NZ) BUTTERFLY ISLAND series Mediacast GP 4 series ABC/Matt Carroll JOHSON & FRIENDS 3 series Film Australia 1991 TURTLE BEACH feature Village Roadshow GP 3 series ABC/Matt Carroll JOHNSON & FRIENDS 2 series Film Australia FURTHER ADVENTURES OF BLACK BEAUTY 2 series Pro Films (NZ) 1990 JOHNSON & FRIENDS series Film Australia FURTHER ADVENTURES OF BLACK BEAUTY series Pro Films (NZ) THE PAPER MAN series Roadshow Coote Carroll TROUBLE IN PARADISE feature Regency Pictures 1989 SHADOW OF THE COBRA series View Films CELIA feature Seon Films THE BIG WISH telemv ACTF Prod 1988 EMERALD CITY feature Limelight Prod GRIEVOUS BODILY HARM feature Smiley Films MARY McKILLOP telemv Film Australia SOLDIER SETTLER telemv Film Australia PETER & POMPEY telemv ACTF Prod PRINCESS KATE telemv ACTF Prod BARRACUDA telemv Amalgamated Portman 1987 GROUND ZERO feature GZ Productions THE SHIRALEE series SA Film Corp 1986 BULLSEYE feature PBL Prod THE PLACE AT THE COAST feature Daedalus Films ARMY WIVES series Village Roadshow 1985 NIEL LYNNE feature David Baker Films SHORT CHANGED feature Ross Matthews Prod AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 WAYS feature Palm Beach Pictures 5 TIMES DIZZY series Samson Films THE LONG WAY HOME telemv ABC DOUBLE SCULLS telemv Smiley Films ARCHER telemv Village Roadshow NATURAL CAUSES telemv ABC 1984 BUDDIES feature JD Prod REBEL feature P Emmanuel Prod BODYLINE series Kennedy Miller PALACE OF DREAMS series ABC CRIME OF THE DECADE telemv ABC TOP KID telemv ACTF Prod TARFLOWERS telemv ACTF Prod QUEST BEYOND TIME telemv ACTF Prod 1983 THE CITY'S EDGE feature CB Films 1981 CROSSTALK feature Walltowall Films

Musical Director Ray Cook:

Cook's best work in Australian films was scoring Careful He Might Hear You, which had been scripted by Rebel's director Michael Jenkins.

A site dedicated to film scores, here, provided these notes on the composer/music director:

For Careful, He Might Hear You, Carl Schultz engaged the services of another Australian composer, Ray Cook (seemingly the only Australian composer of the time not to share a name with a rock star), who had extensive musical experience working abroad as a music director in the West End of London during the creative explosion there beginning in the 1960s. With only one film credit to his name, the Australian TV movie Silent Reach, Careful, He Might Hear You was Cookʼs first major solo score… Sadly, Careful, He Might Hear You was Ray Cookʼs first and last major film score. While he contributed to the 1985 Australian film Rebel alongside Best and Chris Neal (of TVʼs Farscape), Cook would pass away in 1989 before he had the chance to compose another solo score to build on his impressive debut. Around the time of the filmʼs American release, Varèse Sarabande released Cookʼs score on LP as part of their ongoing championing of emerging, lesser-known, and international film scoring talent. The label later put the LPʼs contents on a limited edition CD as part of their CD Club in 2006 (after teasing with a cue on the now-rare Varèse Sarabande 25th Anniversary Vol. 2 set) with a strict limit of 1000 copies.

Cook was a musician with a variety of skills - for example, he was conductor on the original London cast recording of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music.

Cook shouldn't be confused with another Ray Cook, who was a choreographer, composer, musical director and arranger, who is listed at AusStage, here.

The Cook of Careful died in 1990, and was the subject of a gala celebrity concert at Shaftesbury Theatre London Sunday, 18th March 1990. The details of the musical numbers and cast are available, here, as is this affectionate tribute by Sheridan Morley.

Other period press reports illuminate Cook's peripatetic career. This in The Sydney Morning Herald on 18th June 1977:

This in The Sydney Morning Herald on 3rd April 1966: This in The Age on 7th June 1977: Cook's soundtrack for Careful has been released on LP in a variety of editions, and these can still be found in the second hand market: