In some ways, the low-key personality of the music for Stagecoach causes it to be an interesting interlude to the bombast and whip-cracking sound effects of Goldsmith's other Westerns of the early to mid-60's. For many listeners, however, the score will lack the excitement necessary to float the pastoral sways and funky honky-tonk rhythms that would be put to far more expansive use elsewhere. The main theme of Stagecoach serves as a weak preview of the pretty and memorable identity for Wild Rovers; it wasn't uncommon for Goldsmith to pull inspiration from one Western score to another at the time, and the solemn trumpet performances of the title theme here are definitely precursors to the better developed and more memorable Wild Rovers. The "Main Title" and "Get Out of Town" cues feature the most notable performances of this theme, with some subtle fragmented usage in between. Even at its heights, it doesn't rollick as much as its peers, but it rather rolls along with pleasant and unassuming friendliness. A notable secondary theme on trumpet (over snare and ambitious strings) in "First Born" is more unique to Stagecoach, previewing, oddly enough, some of John Barry's forthcoming work in the genre. Otherwise, the score is largely uneventful, especially in "The Aftermath" and other cues defined by barely audible suspense atmosphere. The jaw harp, guitar, harmonica, and banjo lead the middle sections of the score through several capitulations of the main theme during scenes of dialogue, and these mundane cues have little to offer the experienced Goldsmith collector. The composer's standard honky-tonk source music is put to work a few times as well. With only 23 minutes of non-source material spread throughout Stagecoach, and with so few passages of Goldsmith's exciting traveling styles for the West (a cue such as "The Stage is Coming" is horrifyingly short), it's difficult to recommend the score on album. Equally subdued is the film's primary and disappointingly brief song, "Stagecoach to Cheyenne," performed not by the movie's star, Ann-Margret, but rather by Las Vegas regular Wayne Newton. While failing to incorporate Goldsmith's thematic material for the score (and resembling the progressions of Dimitri Tiomkin songs for his Westerns of the era), the song does ultimately leave a greater impression upon the listener because of its rather defiant personality.

In its long history on album, Stagecoach has been released four times on CD, not considering the pseudo-bootlegging Tsunami label's 1995 product. In 1991, the majority of the score was released by Mainstream Records on the same CD with Goldsmith's concurrent The Trouble With Angels. Seven years later, the score became the first entry in Film Score Monthly's "Silver Age Classics" series, along with a couple of Goldsmith mini-scores for the television series "The Loner" on the same product. In 2012, La-La Land Records revisited the FSM item and presented the same contents (plus additional incidental/alternate music) from Stagecoach and "The Loner" rearranged and in improved sound based upon better master access. Intrada Records rearranged the tracks and improved the sound again in 2015 on an album with Malcolm Arnold's comparatively muffled The Heroes of Telemark. Unless you're a die-hard Goldsmith collector, however, none of these releases will probably be worth your time; in subsequent years, several offerings of Rio Conchos and Take a Hard Ride proved superior experiences by significant measures. But if you're in the market for Stagecoach, then there are pluses and minuses to each of the offerings. The Mainstream album lacks some source music cues but includes the film's second featured vocal performance. The FSM album presents the score in proper order but suffers from a less vibrant mix. More importantly, the Mainstream album features extra banjos in its mix; in the process of providing an intimate mix of the score, FSM sucked the life out of the recording. The additional scores included on the albums also favor The Trouble With Angels, which features a preview of the snazzy style of Goldsmith's much later Gremlins rhythms. It has the lovable attitude of The Flim-Flam Man and a few funny source cues for vocalists and marching band. While "The Loner"'s episodic scores do feature some of the same techniques used in Rio Conchos, the lack of a string section for those recordings (typical for cost-conscious television scores of the era) leaves you wanting more. Its only true highlight is its enjoyable opening titles with narration. When La-La Land presented a better overall mix of Stagecoach on a limited album similar to FSM's in 2012, the contents were again rearranged, and the same circumstances arose again with Intrada in 2015. The additional cues are not particularly noteworthy, though improved sound quality on the later products is an attraction. In the end, however, Stagecoach is too mundane a Goldsmith score to merit so much attention.   @Amazon.com: CD or Download