Music Album Review: ‘Casablanca – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack’

Casablanca – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Labels: Turner Classic Movies Music/Rhino (1997);Sony Music (Reissue)

Year of Release: 1997 (Original), 2010 (Sony Music reissue)

Genre: Film Score/Standards/Spoken Word

🎶 Casablanca Soundtrack: Memory, Melody, and the Music of Longing

Of all the soundtrack albums I’ve collected over the years, none is quite as haunting—or as structurally unusual—as this one. It’s not just a compilation of Max Steiner’s sweeping score or the vocal standards that drift through Rick’s Café Americain. It’s a living document, a sonic scrapbook that folds music, memory, and dialogue into one evocative package. And yes, it includes Herman Hupfeld’s immortal “As Time Goes By,” not just once, but in several incarnations that echo through the film’s emotional architecture.

What sets this release apart isn’t just its musical content—it’s the format. While other soundtracks have flirted with including snippets of dialogue, this one embraces it fully. The voices of Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, and others are woven between the tracks, turning the album into a kind of audio play. It’s not just a score—it’s a remembrance.

🎼 Steiner’s Score: Desert Winds and Inner Turmoil

Max Steiner’s music for Casablanca carries the same emotional weight and regional color as his earlier work for Algiers. His orchestration evokes the arid tension of French North Africa, blending exotic rhythms with the melancholy of exile. The score interpolates “La Marseillaise” and, with some reluctance on Steiner’s part, Herman Hupfeld’s “As Time Goes By”—a tune he initially resisted but ultimately had to incorporate due to the film’s production constraints. The result is a layered soundscape that mirrors both the global conflict and Rick Blaine’s internal war.

Steiner also threads in fragments of Germany’s national anthem, underscoring the political stakes and emotional fractures of the story. His music doesn’t just accompany the film—it deepens it, giving voice to what the characters cannot say.

🎹 The Café Sound: Dooley Wilson and the Real Sam

Adding warmth and immediacy to Steiner’s orchestral sweep are the performances of Dooley Wilson, whose voice became synonymous with Casablanca’s emotional core. Though Wilson didn’t play the piano himself, the ivories were tickled by Elliot Carpenter, whose subtle phrasing gave “Sam” his musical soul.

The soundtrack features several standards performed in Rick’s Café, each one a thread in the tapestry of longing and nostalgia:

📀 Track Listing

1. Medley: Main Title/Prologue
2. Medley (It Had to Be You/Shine) – Dooley Wilson
3. Knock on Wood – Dooley Wilson
4. Rick and Renault (The Very Thought of You)
5. Arrival of Ilsa and Victor at Rick’s (Love for Sale)
6. Play It Sam… Play “As Time Goes By” (Avalon/As Time Goes By)
7. Of All the Gin Joints in All the Towns in All the World…
8. Medley: Paris Montage
9. Medley: At La Belle Aurore
10. Ilsa Returns to Rick’s
11. Medley (Die Wacht am Rhein/La Marseillaise)
12. Ilsa Demands the Letters
13. Rick Confronts Ilsa and Laszlo
14. Airport Finale/Here’s Looking at You, Kid
15. Medley (Shine/It Had to Be You) (Alternate Orchestral Version)
16. Dat’s What Noah Done – Dooley Wilson
17. Knock on Wood – Dooley Wilson
18. Medley (Ilsa Returns/As Time Goes By)
19. Medley (Laszlo/As Time Goes By)
20. As Time Goes By – Dooley Wilson (written by Herman Hupfeld)

💬 Dialogue as Memory

The inclusion of spoken lines transforms the album into something more than a soundtrack—it becomes a vessel of memory. Hearing Bogart murmur “Here’s looking at you, kid” or Rains quip “Round up the usual suspects” evokes not just the scenes, but the emotional weight behind them. And yes, it settles one of cinema’s most persistent myths: no one ever says “Play it again, Sam.” What Ilsa actually says is, “Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By.’”

🕰️ A Soundtrack That Remembers

This album doesn’t just preserve the music of Casablanca—it preserves its soul. It’s a rare example of a soundtrack that understands its own emotional gravity, treating each cue and quote as part of a larger story about memory, regret, and the possibility of redemption. Herman Hupfeld’s “As Time Goes By” may be the centerpiece, but it’s Steiner’s score and the voices of the cast that make this recording a true artifact of cinematic longing.