From Russia With Love Soundtrack

Subject: From Russia With Love Soundtrack Fri Oct 16, 2009 9:21 pm

Following the decision of the producers not to use Monty Norman, though keeping his The James Bond Theme, Harry Saltzman decided on using the then popular Lionel Bart of Oliver! fame. Bart was unable to read or write music, but he offered to compose the music and lyrics for a title song to the film.

The producers chose John Barry to score the film. Barry had not only arranged and conducted The James Bond Theme from the previous film, but had already scored some motion pictures such as Beat Girl and Never Let Go. Barry's group also charted as #1 in the November 1962 UK charts with a different arrangement of the Bond theme than was heard in the film.[1]

The title song was sung by Matt Monro. Monro's vocal version is played during the film (as source music on a radio) and properly over the film's end titles. The title credit music is a lively instrumental version of the tune preceded by a brief Barry composed James Bond is Back then segueing into the "James Bond Theme". On the original film soundtrack Alan Haven played a jazzy organ over the theme but this version was not released on the soundtrack album. The tune also appears in a soft string arrangement as a theme for Tania.

Originally planning to use local Turkish music as Monty Norman had used Jamaican music on Dr No, Barry accompanied the film crew to Istanbul, however he found nothing suitable for the film.[2] There are different tracks of Turkish type music in the film that do not appear on the soundtrack, and a Leila Dances theme on the album is not heard in the film.

In this film, Barry introduced the percussive "007" theme that came to be considered the 'secondary James Bond Theme'. Barry's instrumental group The John Barry Seven had had a UK chart hit with a cover version of Elmer Bernstein's The Magnificent Seven; both that tune and 007 featured seven beats. It is used in various of the Bond films of Sean Connery, and also Roger Moore's Moonraker. The arrangement appears twice on this soundtrack album; the second version, entitled "007 Takes the Lektor", is the one used during the gunfight at the gypsy camp and also during Bond's theft of the Lektor decoding machine. The soundtrack album version is not heard in the film.

The completed film features a holdover from the Monty Norman-supervised Dr. No music – the post-rocket-launch music from No (after Bond disrupts No's attempts to jam the takeoff) appears in Russia at the conclusion of the helicopter attack, and also at the attempt of SPECTRE to intercept Bond's speedboat. This cue, incidentally lifted by Arnold for Tomorrow Never Dies, is naturally absent from the Russia soundtrack album. The original Barry arrangement of The James Bond Theme for Dr. No was inserted by the producers in the film when Bond searches his room in Istanbul for microphones. Barry did a new arrangement of the theme used when Bond leaves London and flies into Istanbul titled James Bond with Bongos that Billy Strange did a cover version of for the US charts.

Barry noted that Bart's lyrics used the title of the film, but had nothing to do with the story of the film, a matter he would rectify when he was assigned the next Bond film. Barry noted, 1964's Goldfinger would be the first Bond film in which he had total creative control over the soundtrack, including the music of the theme song (Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley would contribute the theme's lyrics).

Barry's "Stalking" - the haunting track from the pre-credit sequence between Bond and Grant - is echoed on the 1977 film version of The Spy Who Loved Me. It's in the scene which Bond (Roger Moore) and Anya 'Agent XXX' Amasova (Barbara Bach) try to hunt down Jaws (Richard Kiel) at an Egyptian restoration site. Ironically, the Spy soundtrack was not composed by Barry but by Marvin Hamlisch.

Album and cover versions

The original recordings of the soundtrack are thought to be lost and did not appear when the soundtracks were issued in remastered form on CD. The album is different from the film with the album's recording of the main titles not featuring an organ that sounds slower. Several tracks on the album do not appear in the completed film. The album was the last of the Bond soundtrack albums to feature more than the usual six tracks per record side.

The soundtrack album reached number #28 on the Variety charts in March 1964 with the title song becoming Unart Music's most recorded song.[3] Other cover versions of The James Bond Theme were also released to coincide with the film. Barry also released different cover versions of the title song and 007 on his Ember records for the pop charts. The Roland Shaw Orchestra performed cover versions of most of the music of Barry's soundtrack on several albums.

Track listing

1. "Opening Titles: James Bond Is Back/From Russia with Love/James Bond Theme" (different arrangement than heard in the film)
2. "Tania Meets Klebb"
3. "Meeting in St. Sophia"
4. "The Golden Horn" *
5. "Girl Trouble"
6. "Bond Meets Tania"
7. "007" *
8. "Gypsy Camp"
9. "Death of Grant"
10. "From Russia with Love" – Matt Monro
11. "Spectre Island"
12. "Guitar Lament" *
13. "Man Overboard/SMERSH in Action"
14. "James Bond with Bongos"
15. "Stalking"
16. "Leila Dances" *
17. "Death of Kerim"
18. "007 Takes the Lektor"

From Wikipedia