Who is a fan of James Bond soundtracks? (1 Viewer)

[Steve Tannehill]

I started collecting them on vinyl, then when my vinyl was all ruined, i started to collect them on CD. I have all the soundtracks now, complete with bonus tracks. I also have the 30th anniversary collection of main title songs.

My favorite Bond soundtrack is John Barry's Diamonds are Forever. It is the actual soundtrack recording, not a re-recording of the score.

Second most favorite is Live and Let Die, also a soundtrack recording as opposed to a re-rerecording of the score.

 

[Neil Middlemiss]

Oh absolutely. John Barry is the king though I have genuine appreciation for the work of David Arnold, particularly Tomorrow Never Dies and Casino Royale. I think Barry was a master and his Goldfinger is brilliant. I have all but one on CD now.

 

[JohnMor]

Love the Barry scores particularly. Have all the cd's up through Live and Let Die, plus Moonraker, the 30th Anniversary Collection and a later theme collection that goes up through "The World is Not Enough" by Garbage. Hate the themes after that (so far).

 

[Brian McP]

I'm wondering -- with all the James Bond theme songs, dating from 1962 through 2012, could one put together what is known as a jukebox musical, from these songs alone and possibly selections from the scores by John Barry?

Perhaps an 'origin' musical, detailing Bond's parents and his early life, set say in the late 50s, up to the point where he is finally 'licensed to kill"?

What would you call the musical? "Nobody Does It Better?" "Everything or Nothing"? Would the visual look of the production be inspired by the work of Maurice Binder or Ken Adam -- or both?

Also -- a parallel storyline on the early days of "Q" but only as portrayed by Desmond Llewelyn, working his way out of Naval Intelligence in the period after World War II, if only for some kind of comic relief (as in the movies) -- forever lost in gadgets, and sadly a loser in any kind of joy in life.

The mood of the musical -- not a totally feel good musical, one that comes to mind that has great songs but is full of sadness and death -- Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Carousel" -- don't know if this would be some kind of inspiration in takling such a project, but it's one that might help.

 

[Osato]

I'm a huge fan of the John Barry 007 scores. I think Diamonds Are Forever, OHMSS and Octopussy are my favorites.

There are so many great ones. I have all of them on vinyl (except Skyfall) and all of them on cd.

Hopefully La La Land Records and MGM can expand and reissue TMWTGG, Spy, Octopussy and A View To A Kill in the near future.

I have an ipod playlist that I usually change up every now and then. Right now I have OHMSS, Diamonds, Spy and a few others. I also include as many of the radio spots for the films that I can find too. Fun stuff.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

My favorite Bond score is "You Only Live Twice".

Be sure to check out Jon Burlingame's book, "The Music of James Bond".

 

[atfree]

I had them all (thru Octopussy) on vinyl when I was growing up. I lost track of them during moves in the late '80s but now have every soundtrack album on digital. My favorites are OHMSS (Barry's best IMO) and The Spy Who Loved Me soundtrack. Only one I'd say isn't great is Eric Serra's score for GoldenEye. Next one from the bottom is Michael Kamen's score for License to Kill. Diamonds Are Forever is superb.

 

[Osato]

I am always listening to the 007 scores. Thunderball and Skyfall are 2 that I have been listening to the past few days.

It would be nice to see an expanded reissued of The Man With The Golden Gun during its 40th anniversary year.
The tapes are readily available for this score as well.

 

[mercyflight]

I would love an expanded edition of Golden Gun. BTW, there's a talented guy who has been putting his electronic orchestrations of unreleased Golden Gun cues on YOuTube. In many instances, he is spot on with his versions!I like much of Thomas Newman's work, but I'm disappointed with his "Skyfall" for the most part.

 

[brioni]

They’re pretty good considering he doesn’t have a full orchestra at his disposal. He’s also done some Moonraker and Octopussy cues.

My favorite Bond score is "You Only Live Twice".

Be sure to check out Jon Burlingame's book, "The Music of James Bond".

Just finished reading Mr Burlingame’s book and I did enjoy it a lot. I see you got an acknowledgment in there Neil! It is a very comprehensive historical account and also includes the 2 non-EON Bonds which is welcome. I would have liked to have read more in depth analysis of the scores and was also secretly hoping every cue would have been broken down with the original cue sheets (that he had access to) being reproduced as well. The “score highlights” though are still very interesting.

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

The tapes are readily available for this score as well.

It's not always that easy. I also didn't realize they were "readily available". What does that mean?

 

[Osato]

It's not always that easy. I also didn't realize they were "readily available". What does that mean?

Lukas Kendall stated that the tapes were available for the 2003 remastered releases. However, there was not enough time and $$ in the project to cover both The Man With The Golden Gun (for which the tapes were unique. I think 16 track or something..) and Live and Let Die. He chose to expand Live and Let Die. I believe the tapes for Live and Let Die were more traditional and easier to work with as well. It was in the Film Score Monthly magazine in 2003 when Kendall was interviewed about the 2003 remastered scores.

He comments on it here as well:
http://www.shatterhand007.com/QuestionRoom/Kendall.html


Anyway, the rest of the scores are "lost" but the real question remains has anyone tried to actually "look" for them.

Someday I hope.

 

[MielR]

I grew up hearing the music of both John Barry and Shirley Bassey, and came to love it as an adult. I love all 3 of Bassey's 'Bond' contributions. "Moonraker" isn't as good as "Goldfinger" or "Diamonds Are Forever", but it's not bad! "You Only Live Twice" was a favorite single of my mom's , and it's also one of my favorite Bond themes."The Spy Who Loved Me" LP also got played on a frequent basis when I was a kid, and I still listen to it from time to time. I've also really grown to love the "Thunderball" soundtrack. "Live And Let Die" is also a favorite, of course!I purchased "The Living Daylights" 12"-single when I was a teenager, mainly because I was a fan of a-ha. I think they wrote that in collaboration with Barry. It's not one of the best Bond themes, but it's not the worst, either (for me, that honor would probably go to "Die Another Day." Yuck.).I've always thought that the Cheap Trick song "Stop This Game" sounded like a Bond theme. :-P The fact that it was produced by George Martin didn't hurt.

 

[Osato]

I just split up the scores on my ipod by decade. Listened to the 60s and 70s scores yesterday. I also have a number of the 007 radio spots and put those on the playlists as well in between each score album.

I'm still needing a few radio spots for Thunderball (I have 1 from the 30th anniversary cd set and some double bill ones) and A View To A Kill on.. I do have 1 or 2 for Daylights and LTK.

Anyway. It would've been nice if they had done a DVD or blu ray of all trailers, radio spots and tv spots. Some of the Bond blu rays and DVDs did not include all of the trailers, tv spots and radio spots...

Anyway.

The 10th anniversary LP album has a decent track list as well.

I would love to have expanded scores for TMWTGG, Spy, Moonraker, Octopussy and AVTAK. Hope it happens in the future.

I've always dug Moonraker and You Only Live Twice. They are low key in comparison to Goldfinger or even Diamonds, but I think they work very well.

 

[FoxyMulder]

My personal favourite Bond score is the one John Barry did for On Her Majesty's Secret Service, i like most of them though.

 

[Osato]

My personal favourite Bond score is the one John Barry did for On Her Majesty's Secret Service, i like most of them though.

That is a great one! I have a hard time choosing my favorite. OHMSS, Diamonds, Thunderball, Moonraker, & Octopussy are up there for sure.

For the later series scores, I really like Tomorrow Never Dies and Quantum of Solace.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

John Barry's score for "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" is easily my favorite of the series. It's really got everything, some kick ass themes, quiter moment, some intense action and suspense music... I love it.

If I was a rock star, I'd want the title theme from that movie to play over the PA as the lights went down before I walked onstage.

 

[Keith Cobby]

My favourite score also has to be OHMSS. Songs I like are: All Time High, We have all the time in the world, A View To A Kill, If there was a man (end credits, The Living Daylights).

 

[Osato]

It would be nice to have A View To A Kill expanded. There's some great cues in that one that are missing from the soundtrack album.
The music when Bond escapes from the horse track and the fight at Stacey's are 2 fantastic John Barry 007 tracks that should've been included on the soundtrack album.

 

[davidHartzog]

I have all the ones from the 60s, my favorite being You Only Live Twice, which is also my favorite Bond film. I also have the anniversary collection issued last year.