Bond with Music

Sarthak Shankar

The Music of James Bond,  Jon Burlingame, Oxford University Press, Pp 293 (HB), £20.00

James Bond movies have a distinct music. Its opening tune is one of the most recognised tunes and has been used in any thriller situations. Who composed the scores and what went behind the screen were issues that got lost in the hype over the actors and actresses. The Music of James Bond by Jon Burlingame offers a complete story, narrating the personal accounts of composers, lyricists, and the artists who gave life to that music.

“The Bond “sound” was an accident, really: Monty Norman had a tune in mind that John Barry arranged into something that would suit a dangerous spy and also work as a pop instrumental record with both rock and jazz elements (highly unusual in 1962). Editor Peter Hunt liked it so much he kept repeating the piece throughout that first film. The success of the “James Bond Theme,” both dramatically and commercially, led to future Bond movie assignments for Barry—11 in all.”

It was a mix of all kinds of music—jazz, classics pop— and it was a hit.

Burlingame has gone on from film to film discussing the music. Each venture had a distinct story, an interesting one. Starting with ‘Dr No,’ there are twenty-four films (‘Casino Royale’ two versions). Even as heroes changed, the distinctness of the music continued. In ‘Dr No’ the shooting was in Jamaica. Norman worked with the local talent, the jazz bands. The experiences with other movies were varied. “From Russia with Love” was a great song title,” Barry remembered, “and it was a very lyrical song. The movie lent to that. But Goldfinger was the name of the villain—a guy that painted nude bodies in gold to suffocate them—so it’s kind of weird thing to have to write a song about. So I sat down and wrote this rather strange, angular thing, which, for me, was right. It couldn’t be a free-wheeling, open melody. It had to have angles.”

The beautiful number in ‘Diamonds are Forever’ possibly lost the Academy Award nomination because of its second verse, which went like this: “hold one up and then caress it/touch it, stroke it and undress it.” The words were considered too modest to be considered for the award.

The book is full of anecdotes and tit-bits about the Bond movies, which are all as much fun as the movies themselves. Come to think of it, one never thought about the music in the Bond moves. They so much blended. Get to know the writers, composers and score setters of the Bond movies. You would love them all. Just like our ‘Total Recall’ series.

Jon Burlingame is a leading writer in America on music for film and television and contributes to several newspapers.

(Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP)