differing accounts among Cimino, Deeley, and Spikings as to how the previews panned out. Director Cimino claims he bribed the projectionist to interrupt the shorter version, in order to obtain better reviews of the longer one. According to producer Spikings, Wasserman let EMI's CEO Bernard Delfont decide between the two and chose Cimino's longer cut. Deeley claims that the two-and-a-half-hour version tested had a better response. Soundtrack The soundtrack to The Deer Hunter was released on audio CD on October 25, 1990. Selected tracks Stanley Myers's "Cavatina" (also known as "He Was Beautiful"), performed by classical guitarist John Williams, is commonly known as "The Theme from The Deer Hunter". According to producer Deeley, he discovered that the piece was originally written for a film called The Walking Stick (1970) and, as a result, had to pay the original purchaser an undisclosed sum. "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", a 1967 hit song, sung by Frankie Valli. It is played in John's bar when all of the friends sing along and at the wedding reception. According to Cimino, the actors sang along to a recording of the song as it was played instead of singing to a beat track, a standard filmmaking practice. Cimino felt that would make the sing-along seem more real. During the wedding ceremonies and party, the Eastern Orthodox Church songs such as "Slava", and Russian folk songs such as "Korobushka" and "Katyusha", are played. The final passage from Kamarinskaya by Mikhail Glinka is heard briefly when the men are driving through the mountains. Also, a part of the opening section of the same work is heard during the second hunt when Michael is about to shoot the stag. Eastern Orthodox funeral music is also employed during Nick's funeral scene, mainly "Vechnaya Pamyat", which means "eternal memory". Release The Deer Hunter debuted at one theater each in New York and Los Angeles for a week on December 8, 1978.Bach, p. 166 The release strategy was to qualify the film for Oscar consideration and close after a week to build interest. After the Oscar nominations, Universal widened the distribution to include major cities, building up to a full-scale release on February 23, 1979, just following the Oscars. This film was important for helping release patterns for so-called prestige pictures that screen only at the end of the year to qualify for Academy Award recognition. The film eventually grossed $48.9