Producer/songwriter/musician Greg Wells had never worked on a soundtrack before when director Michael Gracey asked him to pull together the music for The Greatest Showman.

The songs, by Warner/Chappell's awards-magnet duo of Pasek and Paul (La-La Land, Dear Evan Hansen), required integration with the imagery; uniting the unorthodox story with the music was, he says, a “herculean” task, but the results speak for themselves.

Indeed, Gracey told him that the movie looked different when paired with the powerful finished tracks. Soundtracks remain one of the few power alleys for retail and have demonstrated real staying power in the marketplace, in part because the power of the storytelling fuels each subsequent listen. It was an intense and at times overwhelming enterprise, says the highly respected and versatile Wells, a BMG-affiliated writer. But now he’s preparing to write, produce and play on a fully original new ST, about which more later.