John Debney scores Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 2, 2010 by Dan Goldwasser

Just before the New Year, composer John Debney was at the Sony Scoring Stage to record his score for the new romantic comedy film, Valentine’s Day. The movie, directed by Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman, The Princess Diaries), focuses on different couples in Los Angeles during Valentine’s Day, and stars a rather impressive ensemble cast including Julia Roberts, Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Topher Grace, Anne Hathaway, Ashton Kutcher, Queen Latifa, Taylor Lautner and Taylor Swift.

Debney conducted the large ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony, and the music was a contemporary combination of romantic and comedic music cues. A strong main theme leads the way, and is also featured in a new song, "Every Time You Smiled", written for the film by Debney with award-winning lyricist Glen Ballard, and performed by Carina Round.

In the booth, director Garry Marshall was very enthusiastic with his positive feedback, while scoring mixer Shawn Murphy worked hard to make sure everything sounded spot-on. Orchestrator Brad Dechter was also giving notes to Debney on the stage, and rounding out the team was music editor Jeff Carson, pre-record playback engineer Mike Stern, ProTools recordist Erik Swanson, and score coordinator Lola Debney.

Valentine’s Day will be released by Warner Brothers in theaters on Friday, February 12, 2010.

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