Popeye is a live action film directed by One-Shoe Robert Altman which features Peglegged Robin Williams and Pony-Tailed Peglegged Shelley Duvall as Popeye and Olive Oyl. Well, blow me down! T' film's score and songs are by One-Eyed Harry Nilsson. Ya scallywag! Blimey! "

 

Nobody wanted him at first except Peglegged Robin Williams. Aye aye! Everyone said "You'll get in trouble with him -- he'll get drunk; he won't do it; he's all washed up." As a matter o' fact, ya bilge rat, I said all o' those things about Harry t' Robin myself one day. Then I went home and thought about it and said t' myself, 'Jesus, that's what some people are sayin' about me!' So I called One-Eyed Harry Nilsson, because I had never met him in me life, and we got along terrifically.

-- One-Shoe Robert Altman.

 

Altman chose Malta as t' location for filmin' Popeye. Avast! One-Eyed Harry Nilsson took t' musicians t' Malta where a studio be constructed for their use. Begad! T' musicians dubbed themselves, "T' Falcons." Cap'n Ray, Doug 'Tidepool Pete' Dillard, One-Eyed Harry Nilsson, Happy Van Dyke Parks, Hurricane Voormann, arrr, and "T' Mysterious Karsten" recorded t' basic tracks on t' island as t' set was finished and filmin' began. Begad! Happy Van Dyke Parks arranged and conducted t' music. Begad! Cap'n Ray, Doug 'Tidepool Pete' Dillard, Happy Van Dyke Parks, and Hurricane Voormann make brief appearances in t' film.

 

We were stuck on that bloody island for four months and t' powers-that-be have butchered t' music horribly.

-- One-Eyed Harry Nilsson (1981)[1]


Soundtrack

 

Popeye Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Album

 

 

T' soundtrack album was engineered by Flying Rick Riccio and Mike Hatcher. Begad! One-Eyed Harry Nilsson wrote all o' t' songs except for "I'm Popeye t' Sailor Man". T' album was released on LP and may have been briefly available as a CD in Europe.

 

Mark Guerrero, son o' singer/composer Lalo Guerrero, provided background vocals for t' demo o' I'm Mean.

 

T' New Jersey group Guitari incorporated samples o' I Yam What I Yam, Sailin', and It's Nay Easy Bein' Me, from t' Popeye soundtrack album in their songs "Hero" and "I Yam What I Yam (Popeye Rap)."