Hammer Presents Dracula – with Christopher Lee is an LP vinyl album released in 1974 by EMI. It is the only released production of Hammer City Records.
The LP consists of two distinct parts. Side One features an original Dracula story (simply titled ‘Dracula’, written by Don Houghton (and based loosely on the story of Dracula Prince of Darkness). The story is preceded with an atmospheric introduction from Bill Mitchell, before leading into the story proper, which is narrated by Lee. The accompanying music is composed by Hammer regular James Bernard.
Side Two consists of Four Faces of Evil – musical suites from Fear in the Night, She, The Vampire Lovers and Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde. The music is arranged and conducted by Philip Martell.
The album sleeve (featuring a still from Dracula AD 1972) contains sleeve notes on the history of vampire in popular culture and superstition by author Basil Copper. The original UK release had a gatefold sleeve, but this was reduced to a standard sleeve for the US edition.
The album was reissued on CD, but both this and the vinyl editions are now rare and collectible.
Hammer City Records were scheduled to follow this with Hammer Presents Frankenstein, featuring a story read by Peter Cushing. However, it failed to appear, and according to Little Shoppe of Horrors issue 4, the man in charge of Hammer’s record division allegedly disappeared with both the master tapes and all the profits from both this and the Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires soundtrack LP.
Entry by David Flint
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