Shield wrote countless short stock themes for the comedies of the Hal Roach Studios in the early and mid-thirties. Anyone who grew up watching The Little Rascals on television knows his work, even if they have never heard the name "LeRoy Shield" before. The Little Rascals (Our Gang) theme song, "Good Old Days", is the most famous of Shield's compositions, and many more can be heard in the Our Gang comedies, Laurel and Hardy films, and more. Shield was a master of short, peppy dance tunes that remained unobtrusive enough not to distract from the screen action but could also be savored in isolation as melodious slices of Americana.
The Beau Hunks have been exploring Shield's music for most of the decade, reconstructing these long lost melodies and arrangements through careful dissection and editing of the themes from various film soundtracks as well as through the timely discovery of surviving sheet music. After recording several volumes of his music, they have spent several years trying to fund and record a reconstruction of the original score Shield wrote for the Laurel and Hardy feature OUR RELATIONS (1936). During the post-production of the film, much of Shield's original music was edited or simply shelved, but now, at long last, The Beau Hunks, with the Metropole Orchestra, have recorded the score as Shield originally wrote it.
Despite being written as background music for the film, The OUR RELATIONS score can be enjoyed as one long continuous suite. Like most film music composers, Shield reuses and revisits various main themes throughout, but there are major setpieces, such as "We're a Happy Family" (which can be heard over the films opening titles), "Alf's Hornpipe" (a jaunty piece based on "The Sailor's Hornpipe") and various dance pieces such as "Let's Face It", "Just a Little Rhythm" and "On a Sunny Afternoon". In between these are transitional compositions, originally intended to underscore scenes and lead from one plot point to another. These transitions are usually variations on themes already stated in the score, and so they work to keep the entire score flowing, from one highlight to the next. The music constantly brings me memories of the film and of Laurel and Hardy, but also evokes other pleasantries - Beethoven's Sixth Symphony, circuses, Charlie Chaplin, ancient dance halls - this music sends my wandering on all sorts of paths. Of course, "Ku-Ku", the Laurel and Hardy theme song, appears a few times, though it must be noted that that piece of music was written not by Shield but by T. Marvin Hatley, another Hal Roach composer.
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