AKIRA IFUKUBE DIES

Born in 1914, Akira Ifukube composed over 300 pieces of music, much of it for movies, and won Japan's highest cultural honor in 2003, but fans around the world know him best as the composer of the theme music from GODZILLA. He passed away on Wednesday at the age of 91. Let's face it, Godzilla has survived multiple directors, King Kong, ugly designs, a lousy American remake, and some of the worst scripts ever to hit the big screen and he's survived them all because of those guys in his suit who play him so well and because of Ifukube's stately, funereal scores.

An expanded version of the original 1954 GODZILLA soundtrack was released in 2004, and there's also a Toho-approved CD of many of Ifukube's tracks for the film series.