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, Dr. No (1962), hit the screens with a score by Monty Norman who gets legal credit for writing the James Bond theme, but it was arranged by John Barry who probably made it one of the most recognizable pieces of music in the world. Barry 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).

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 LP collectors, it's on CD for the rest of us.

A two CD "30th Anniversary Limited Edition" released in the 90's contained one disc of film themes and another with great unreleased material from "Goldfinger" and "Thunderball". Most of it is on the remastered CDs now, but we get an unreleased version of "Goldfinger" recorded by Anthony Newly a few months before the Shirley Bassey version and some "Thunderball" music NOT on the re-mastered CD. Not to mention two versions of "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" 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.

A few notes...

  • The re-mastered soundtracks are exquisite! Goldfinger includes all the tracks from the American and British releases. Thunderball includes the original score plus the 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 and LPs just yet! While they contain the original album tracks, they are the unedited original album tracks and are not necessarily the same! Add to this all the bonus tracks and it's almost more than a spy geek 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. Both are on the re-mastered CD.

    • 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 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.