KEEP ME COVERED
The 60's spy craze produced not only great cover versions of spy music, but great album cover art. The cover art was often better than the music, but that's part of the fun. The cheesier the better. I can't possibly cover everything here, but see if any of these ar your cup of T.N.T.
Probably the all time best covers in both categories are "The James Bond Thrillers" series by The Roland Shaw Orchestra. Not just the songs everyone knew, but even the incidental background music! They probably had the only recordings of "Pussy Galore's Flying Circus" and "Let The Love Come Through" at the time and often had unique arrangements of tunes like "Twisting With James" and "Chateau Fight" that made them even more amazing.
In 1971 a two album set, "The Return Of James Bond" was released that included all the Bond themes, two versions of "Diamonds Are Forever", "The Avengers", "I Spy", "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.", "The Saint", "Our Man Flint", and more PLUS a genuine photocopy of Sean Connery's picture and autograph!!!!! Was life good or what? Selections from the two album set were also released on Phase 4's "Themes For Secret Agents"
A recent CD, "The World Of James Bond Adventure" has just about all the best cuts from the series.
As Mr. Bond tended to get most of the attention, United Artists put out these three albums, "Music To Read James Bond By", "Music To Read James Bond By Vol. Two", and "The Incredible World Of James Bond", with a mixture of soundtrack cuts, covers by Leroy Holmes, Ferrante and Teicher, Perez Prado, Al Caiola, and Count Basie as well as some loungy music in the style of Bond.
For some unique takes on the Bond tunes, check out Ray Barretto's "Señor 007", Count Basie's "Basie meets Bond" and check the used bins for Franck Pourcell's "James Bond's Greatest Hits". (all on CD)
Now these are interesting. Both "The James Bond Songbook"(released previously on LP as "James Bond and his Sextet", but now on CD) and "Confidential Sounds For A Secret Agent" by the David Lloyd Orchestra have different arrangements of the same tunes. Although the twelve titles are named after the Ian Fleming novels, there were only four Bond films at the time. (Dr. No, FRWL, Goldfinger, and Thunderball). So titles after Thunderball are all original tunes and they're pretty good! James Bond (no relation) is a jazz bassist and wrote the YOLT and Golden Gun tracks.
Apparently David Lloyd teamed up with Johnny Pearson for a spy album that I've never found, but Johnny Pearson and the Sounds Orchestral put out a nice collection of Bond music, "Impressions Of James Bond" which can also be found on CD.
Ray Martin's "Musiche Dai Film Di James Bond" probably has one of the strangest versions of "The James Bond Theme". A bunch of ladies singing, "Ba didy ya Da da da da". A ripping version of "Thunderball", and a couple of original pieces not to mention the lurid cover make it almost worthwile.
As collections go, they don't get much better than Billy Strange's "Secret Agent File". All the best spy tunes and fantastic twangy arrangements.
Crescendo put it on CD dropping the "9th Man Theme" (and I swear a couple of seconds from the middle of "Get Smart" are missing) and adding "You Only Live Twice" (also performed by Strange), "Reilley: Ace Of Spies" (from the orig. soundtrack), "Moonraker", "Octopussy", and "The Prisoner" (performed by Neil Norman), and for some reason... The Rockford Files??? (also performed by Strange). Now I know Billy Strange recorded Peter Gunn. Why not that if they needed a detective? No one ever asks me before they do these things!
A few more on the reccommended list would be Al Caiola's "Sounds For Spies And Private Eyes", Elliot Fisher's "Bang! Bang! Bang! ", Hugo Montenegro's ""Come Spy With Me" (on CD) as well as "Intrigue With Soul by Perry And The Harmonics, "Super Spy Themes" by the Clee-Shays (on CD) and "Soul Bond" (on CD as Hammond Bond by Ingfried Hoffman).
From here on you're on your own. Some of these are just plain awful, but sometimes what makes them awful results in one fantastic cut. I'll add to this cover art gallery as new items turn up. Please get in touch if you know of something that should be here. Happy hunting!
- Just a note that UNDERWORLD by the Red Guest Syndicate (blue album on the right) is slated for a CD release later this year.
Click Here to see covers sent in from readers from around the world!