The music was written by Max Steiner, who wrote scores for King Kong and Gone with the Wind. The song "As Time Goes By" by Herman Hupfeld had been part of the story from the original play; Steiner wanted to write his own composition to replace it, but Bergman had already cut her hair short for her next role (María in For Whom the Bell Tolls) and could not reshoot the scenes that incorporated the song,[a] so Steiner based the entire score on it and "La Marseillaise", the French national anthem, transforming them as leitmotifs to reflect changing moods.[76] Even though Steiner disliked "As Time Goes By", he admitted in a 1943 interview that it "must have had something to attract so much attention".[77] Dooley Wilson, who played Sam, was a drummer but not a pianist, so his piano playing was performed by Jean Plummer.[78]
Particularly memorable is the "duel of the anthems" between Strasser and Laszlo at Rick's café.[19] In the soundtrack, "La Marseillaise" is played by a full orchestra. Originally, the opposing piece for this iconic sequence was to be the "Horst-Wessel-Lied", a Nazi anthem but this was still under international copyright in non-Allied countries. Instead "Die Wacht am Rhein" was used.[79] The "Deutschlandlied", the national anthem of Germany, is used several times in minor mode as a leitmotif for the German threat, e.g. in the scene in Paris as it is announced that the German army will reach Paris the next day. It is featured in the final scene, giving way to "La Marseillaise" after Strasser is shot.[80][19]
Other songs include:
- "It Had to Be You", music by Isham Jones, lyrics by Gus Kahn
- "Shine", music by Ford Dabney, lyrics by Cecil Mack and Lew Brown
- "Avalon", music and lyrics by Al Jolson, Buddy DeSylva and Vincent Rose
- "Perfidia", by Alberto Domínguez
- "The Very Thought of You", by Ray Noble
- "Knock on Wood", music by M. K. Jerome, lyrics by Jack Scholl, the only original song
- "I'm Just Wild About Harry", by Eubie Blake
- "Heaven Can Wait", by Jimmy Van Heusen
- "Parlez-moi d'amour", by Jean Lenoir
- "Love for Sale", by Cole Porter
Very few films in the early 1940s had portions of the soundtrack released on 78 rpm records, and Casablanca was no exception. In 1997, almost 55 years after the film's premiere, Turner Entertainment in collaboration with Rhino Records issued the film's first original soundtrack album for release on compact disc, including original songs and music, spoken dialogue, and alternate takes.[81]
The piano featured in the Paris flashback sequences was sold in New York City on December 14, 2012, at Sotheby's for more than $600,000 to an anonymous bidder.[82] The piano Sam "plays" in Rick's Café Américain, put up for auction with other film memorabilia by Turner Classic Movies at Bonhams in New York on November 24, 2014, sold for $3.4 million.[83][84]
