by William Ruhlmann Repeating the formula of his 1967 album The Academy Award Winner and Other Great Movie Themes, Percy Faith anchored Windmills of Your Mind with his arrangements of 1968's five Academy Award nominees for best song, naming the LP after the victor. Elsewhere, he included other movie music of 1967-1968, though that statement comes with caveats. "How Are Things in Glocca Morra?" and "As Long as He Needs Me" may have been featured in 1968 movies, but both originated in stage musicals, Finian's Rainbow and Oliver!, respectively. (The Oscar nominee "Funny Girl," on the other hand, really was newly written for the film adaptation of the show of the same name.) And "Elvira's Theme," which Faith brazenly credited to himself as songwriter, was actually an arrangement of Mozart's Piano Concerto in C-Major, K. 467, which had been used prominently in the 1967 film Elvira Madigan (and which, oddly enough, didn't feature much piano in this version). The track was repeated from Faith's 1968 album, Angel of the Morning (Hit Themes for Young Lovers. These ringers excepted, Faith managed to cover much of the Oscar-worthy material from 1968, including, in addition to the other song nominees ("Star!," "For Love of Ivy," and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang"), excerpts from two nominated scores, The Fox and the Academy Award-winning The Lion in Winter. It made for a variety of material, but Faith's arrangements smoothed over the differences, emphasizing melody and always keeping things light. His take on "The Windmills of Your Mind" actually made the song seem better because it focused on composer Michel Legrand's circular theme and left out the straining-to-be-hip lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman.