It has been named after the British multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield, creator of the famed Tubular Bells albums.
For The Exorcist, William Friedkin rejected a score by Lalo Schiffrin and used the temp track featuring assorted pieces of music including part of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells.
Following the release of the first consumer 4-channel hi-fi systems, a number of popular albums were released in one of the competing four-channel formats; among the best known are Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells and Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon.
Tracey Ullman's 1983 cover of Kirsty MacColl's "They Don't Know" features tubular bells in a celebratory manner, reminiscent of wedding bells.
Jingle Bells | Tubular Bells | Broken Bells | bells | The Bells of St. Mary's | The Bells of Rhymney | I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day | Tubular Bells II | School of Seven Bells | Operation Ivy Bells | When Eight Bells Toll (1971 film) | When Eight Bells Toll | Tubular Bells III | Tubular Bells 2003 | The Miracle of the Bells | Silver Bells | Rock the Bells | Bells Beach | The Sea and the Bells | The Bells of St. Mary's (song) | The Bells of Nagasaki | The Bells Line | Sweet Bells | Renal tubular acidosis | Morris: A Life with Bells On | Maroon Bells–Snowmass Wilderness | Knitting Needles and Bicycle Bells | I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day | Hell's Bells: The Dangers of Rock 'N' Roll | Hell's Bells |
The making of Bald on the Inside was very much a solo affair with Tim taking on the writing, playing, recording and producing of the entire album at Acer Studios, his self built recording facility in much the same way as Mike Oldfield's – Tubular Bells and Jean Michel Jarre's - Oxygène.
The single featured two of Oldfield's previous singles, "Portsmouth" and "In Dulci Jubilo", along with the finale from Tubular Bells, "The Sailor's Hornpipe", and a new track, "Wrekorder Wrondo" that may be based on the song "Cum decore" by Tielman Susato.
This box set includes Tubular Bells 2003 (a re-recording of the original Tubular Bells), Tubular Bells II and Tubular Bells III.
"Jupiter" from Holst's The Planets was also used, as well as "Tubular Bells" and other mixed material.
The Orchestral Tubular Bells was not the only Mike Oldfield album that was orchestrated at the time, David Bedford also wrote the score for Oldfield's second album, Hergest Ridge.
The Tubular Bells II 20th Anniversary Tour 1992/93 was a concert tour by the British multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield.
Following this tour Oldfield did not perform until the premiere of his next Tubular Bells album, Tubular Bells III.