Trumpeter and keyboard player Mike Figgis composed a number one jazz album with his score to the film Leaving Las Vegas, most of which consisted of low-key, moody jazz pieces, along with five vocal numbers, three standards ("Angel Eyes," "My One and Only Love," and "It's a Lonesome Old Town") sung by
Sting with just a piano and acoustic bass accompaniment, one ("Come Rain or Come Shine") by
Don Henley, and a song by the neo-rockabilly band the Palladinos. Oddly, the score was interspersed by excerpts from the film's dialogue. Since
Nicholas Cage won an Academy Award for his acting and Elizabeth Shue was nominated, it could be argued that these portions contained at least aural representations of good acting, but the use of spoken word passages was odd for a soundtrack album (though it has become increasingly common on cast albums). ~ William Ruhlmann