Blue Velvet Soundtrack, 40th Anniversary Vinyl

Last updated: 9 October 2026

What the record is

David Lynch's Blue Velvet came out in 1986. This is a new vinyl edition of its soundtrack, issued by Varèse Sarabande to mark forty years, and housed in what the label calls a rainbow foil jacket. The music was composed and conducted by Angelo Badalamenti, and it is the record on which he and Lynch worked out the sound that ran through everything they made afterwards.

Side one is the score: the main title, "Night Streets / Sandy and Jeffrey", "Frank", "Jeffrey's Dark Side", "Frank Returns" and two versions of "Mysteries of Love", one a French horn solo and one instrumental. Side two mixes score with source music, and that is where the famous material sits.

The four songs

Bobby Vinton's "Blue Velvet" opens the film and gives it its title. Roy Orbison's "In Dreams" is the one people carry around afterwards, because of what Dean Stockwell does with it under a work light. Ketty Lester's "Love Letters" is on there too. And "Mysteries of Love" closes the record, written by Badalamenti to Lynch's lyric and sung by Julee Cruise, which is the collaboration that later produced Twin Peaks.

Cruise's vocal is the thing to listen for if you only know the score by reputation. It is the sound Lynch spent the next decade returning to.

One correction, because every shop is repeating it

The label's press copy says that Lynch and Badalamenti "both passed away in 2025", and Sister Ray, Rough Trade and Assai all carry that line word for word, because they all print what the distributor sends.

It is wrong about Badalamenti. Angelo Badalamenti died on 11 December 2022, aged 85. David Lynch died in January 2025. They worked together for more than thirty years, from this film to Mulholland Drive, but they did not die in the same year and Badalamenti had been gone for two years by the time Lynch was.

Which pressing you are buying

Two vinyl versions exist and both come in the rainbow foil sleeve. Rough Trade list a black LP and a silver LP separately, under different catalogue numbers. They also note that "each pressing is unique" and that the colour may vary slightly from the photograph. Sister Ray's LP carries catalogue number 7278113, which is the black one, and that is the copy priced below.

So £2 separates the cheapest LP from the dearest, and the silver pressing is the one to watch if the colour matters to you, because it is the harder of the two to get.

Angelo Badalamenti, in one paragraph

Badalamenti was a Brooklyn-born composer who had written for other people for twenty years before Lynch hired him. He came onto Blue Velvet to coach Isabella Rossellini through the title song, and stayed to write the score. Out of that came a working relationship running through Twin Peaks, Wild at Heart, Lost Highway, The Straight Story and Mulholland Drive.

The signature is on this record already: slow tempi, sustained strings, a jazz-club undertow, and melodies that sound sentimental until you notice what is underneath them. That gap between the surface and the underneath is the film's argument, and Badalamenti scored it rather than illustrated it.

Who this is for

Anybody who owns the film. Anybody who came to Badalamenti through Twin Peaks and has never heard where the sound started. And anybody buying for a Lynch obsessive who already has the films, since the soundtracks are the gap in most collections.

It is a reasonable first record for someone new to soundtracks as a category, because the four songs give the side two an obvious way in. If the recipient has a turntable but nothing on it, our page on the To Pimp a Butterfly anniversary pressing covers another record that works the same way.

Blue Velvet soundtrack FAQs

When was the Blue Velvet 40th anniversary vinyl released?

4 September 2026, on Varèse Sarabande. It is a general release rather than a Record Store Day title, so it is not limited to one day or one set of shops.

How much does it cost in the UK?

£32.99 at Sister Ray, £33.99 at Rough Trade and £34.99 at Assai for the LP, all checked on 6 September 2026. The CD is £13.99.

Are there different coloured pressings?

Yes. Rough Trade list a black LP and a silver LP, both in the rainbow foil sleeve and both at the same price. The silver was on notify-me rather than in stock when we checked. Rough Trade also say each pressing is unique and the finish may vary from the photograph.

Who composed the Blue Velvet soundtrack?

Angelo Badalamenti composed and conducted the score. The record also carries source music by Bobby Vinton, Roy Orbison, Ketty Lester and Bill Doggett, plus "Mysteries of Love", written by Badalamenti to a Lynch lyric and sung by Julee Cruise.

Is "In Dreams" on it?

Yes, Roy Orbison's original, on side two. So is Bobby Vinton's "Blue Velvet", as part of the "Blue Velvet / Blue Star" montage.

Did Lynch and Badalamenti die in the same year?

No, and three UK shops say otherwise because they are all printing the same distributor copy. Angelo Badalamenti died on 11 December 2022, aged 85. David Lynch died in January 2025.

Is this the same as the original 1986 soundtrack album?

It is the same music in a new edition. The tracklist follows the original album, and what is new is the fortieth-anniversary packaging and the pressing.

More from CoolCuration

• To Pimp a Butterfly anniversary vinyl: another anniversary pressing worth owning rather than streaming.
• Gifts for music lovers: the full guide, from records to the things that play them.
• Best budget turntables UK: what to play it on, with the honest figures on each deck.
• Sonos Era 300: for the household that wants the sound without the ritual.
• Gifts for movie buffs: presents for people who own the film and want the rest of it.

Prices and stock change. Everything here was checked on 6 September 2026 against the product pages at Sister Ray, Rough Trade and Assai Records. Badalamenti's dates are as reported at the time of his death in December 2022.

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