Midnight Rumble (Vocal Version) aka "Roadracers Street Theme"

Re: the Russian fans of the ’94 Robert Rodriguez film “Roadracers” which I did music for - one of the questions they asked me in an interview I did with them over summer was about a song I’d written for the film which on the net was known as “Street Theme” (since it appeared five times in the film in street / driving scenes). I’d seen and heard - and enjoyed - many cover versions of the song on YouTube over the years but had never really thought of uploading the full instrumental track (in the film only 15-45 second versions are heard). But, upon their urging I was happy to oblige them, which I did in September. (see my FB post Sept 17).

But I also informed my Russian friends that there is a vocal version of the song as well, lyrics written and sung by Johnny Reno who did the soundtrack with me. Nobody, outside a very small group of people who worked on the film, has ever heard this version and it doesn’t appear in the film.

A few notes

- It’s a different mix even notwithstanding the addition of a vocal. It’s more pumped up in the midrange but with a quieter kick drum mix.

- Unlike the instrumental version which I have on the Showtime studio version sent to me in ’96, the best source version I have of the vocal version was an mp3. I did some EQ, compression and limiting on this to try and improve the sound.

- We actually played this version at a movie festival in ’07 when we did a release party for the Blu-Ray / Hi-Def / DVD rerelease of the film. That’s the only time this song has ever been played live by the two guys who wrote it, me and Johnny! That was a super fun night with Robert joining us on guitar.

Credits -

Photo: Me, Johnny, Tommy Nix (drums) and unnamed actor (bass) - opening scene “Roadracers.”
Vocal / Lyrics: Johnny Reno
Music: Paul Boll
Guitar: Paul Boll
Drum / Bass / MIDI Programming: Paul Boll
Recorded at Johnny’s home studio and Eagle Audio, Fort Worth, TX late winter ’94.
Engineers: Paul Boll, Johnny Reno, Jeff Ward