James Bond Soundtracks 1962 to 1969

A great deal has already been said about the Bond soundtracks elsewhere so suffice it to say that musically, the Bond scores of the 60's were perfection. The Bond factory was at its best and we'll probably never see or hear anything like it again. The first film was Dr. No (1962). It hit the screens with a score by Monty Norman and while he gets the legal credit for writing the James Bond theme we know who it really was. John Barry's James Bond theme is one of the most recognizable pieces of music in the world. He took over the scoring duties for "From Russia With Love" (1963), "Goldfinger" (1964), "Thunderball" (1965) , "You Only Live Twice" (1967), and "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969).

  • New re-mastered soundtracks are available and they are exquisite! Goldfinger is the same as the American release with a few tracks added from the British release. Thunderball includes the original score plus the version of Mister Kiss Kiss Bang Bang from the mono LP and a slew of unreleased bonus tracks. There are nearly complete scores from You Only Live Twice and On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but don't throw away your old CDs just yet! While these two contain the original album cuts, they are the unedited original album cuts which means they are not necessarily the same! Add to this all the bonus tracks and it's almost more than one spy can stand!

    • Fanatic record collectors will want to note that the "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" cuts on "Thunderball" are different on the mono and stereo LP releases. The mono version has the basic instrumental while the stereo version adds a cool little intro.

    • The British and American LP releases of "You Only Live Twice" have different final tracks. The British release has an instrumental titled "Twice Is The Only Way To Live" while the American release has "You Only Live Twice- End Title" with the Nancy Sinatra vocal. (Both are included on the re-mastered CD)

    • There are single versions of "Goldfinger" and "YOLT" that are different than the soundtrack versions and can be found on compilation CDs by Shirley Bassey and Nancy Sinatra.

    • In the German film release of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", the song "Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown" is sung in German by Katja Ebstein. This is on a hard to find 45.

    Although not released until the 90's, The two CD "30th Anniversary Limited Edition" set contained one disc of the film themes and another with great unreleased material from "Goldfinger" and "Thunderball". Most of the Goldfinger music had appeared on an earlier British soundtrack and is now on the remastered "Goldfinger" CD, but here we get to hear an unreleased version of the theme recorded by Anthony Newly a few months before the Shirley Bassey version. The big news however was over 20 minutes of unreleased music from "Thunderball"!!! Not to mention two versions of "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" sung by Dionne Warwick and Shirley Bassey (originally intended as the title theme) and a completely different version of "You Only Live Twice" recorded in 1966 by Julie Rogers.

    Nineteen sixty seven was was a good year for Bond fans. Not only did we get "You Only Live Twice", but "Casino Royale" (1967) hit the theaters with a score by Burt Bacharach and a theme played by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass . Still sought after by record collectors, it's on CD for the rest of us.