[2][3] Argento had originally contacted jazz pianist and composer Giorgio Gaslini to score the film, but he was unhappy with his output, deeming it "awful".

After failing to get Pink Floyd to write music for the film,[4] Argento turned back to Italy and found Goblin.

Allmusic describes the score of Profondo Rosso as "an ambitious affair that blends jazz, prog rock, and heavy metal into an effective and totally distinctive style"[1] and "Deep Shadows" as "a frenetic slice of King Crimson-style jazz-rock".

The original album version of "Mad Puppet", which was also a montage, is not included on the CD, which however features the uncut, longer recording of the piece.

In the liner notes of the CD release, Claudio Simonetti states that the original album includes heavily edited versions of the pieces as originally recorded, because of time constraints (at the time, fully instrumental soundtrack albums issued by smaller labels could have a maximum duration of 25/30 minutes); therefore the album does not represent his or the band's intentions for the presentation of the soundtrack, while the CD does.