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The R-rated comedy, directed by Seth MacFarlane, includes a rendition by star Mark Wahlberg of “All Time High,” the title song from Octopussy, the 13th 007 film produced by Eon Productions. As a result, Barry and lyricist Tim Rice get a credit in the long scroll of end titles. John Williams also gets a few credits for compositions he did for the Star Wars series and for Raiders of the Lost Ark.
If Barry, who passed away last year, been around to see Ted, he might have gritted his teeth a bit during Wahlberg’s performance.
Thomas Newman, the composer for Skyfall, told journalist Jon Burlingame that he’s “just brainstorming right now” what the score will be like. That implies (but doesn’t actually state) that music in the teaser trailer that came out this week won’t be part of Skyfall.
Burlingame, who writes for Variety and has done a book about James Bond music coming out, got Newman for a quick interview at the recent 2012 BMI Film & TV Awards. Here’s the interview:
Newman was selected by director Sam Mendes to score Skyfall because the two had worked together on previous films. That bumped David Arnold, who had scored five consecutive 007 films. John Barry and Arnold are the only composers to work on more than one film in the series produced by Eon Productions.
Variety has a package of stories about the 50th anniversary of James Bond films. You can CLICK HERE to see all the stories. Among them:
Variety examines 50 years of James Bond
–A profile of Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, the co-bosses of Eon Productions. (It mistakenly says they are step-siblings; they’re actually half-siblings, each having the same mother).
It is early 1966. The fourth 007 screen adventure, Thunderball, recently released, is a monstrous hit. “James Bond mania” is at its peak. You happen to be Brian Wilson, leader of the Beach Boys — “America’s Band” — and in a personal neck-and-neck competition with the Beatles to conquer new sonic frontiers in pop music. So what do you do? You decide to compose a theme song for the next James Bond movie.
It’s a little-known fact that Brian Wilson harbored such an intent, much less actually went and did it. Working in the studio with the cream of Los Angeles-based studio musicians (while his bandmates were on tour in Japan), Wilson composed and recorded an instrumental track titled Run James, Run. Stacked with swinging brass, bongos, and (the de rigueur) twangy guitars, it’s a quintessential piece of 60s-style spy music. Unfortunately, Wilson wasn’t the most self-confident person in the world to begin with, and his fragile psyche was further compromised by nervous breakdowns, heavy drug use, and (later diagnosed) bipolar syndrome. End result: he lost his nerve and never submitted the music to Eon Productions, producers of the Bond films. Happy ending: he renamed the piece Pet Sounds and made it the title track to one of the greatest albums of the rock era.
It’s an interesting thought that the natural, intuitive, pairing of James Bond and pop music would have been his countrymen — and fellow British invaders — the Beatles1. But it was their American counterpart who actually made the first move, abortive as it was. At any rate, here is an imagining of the title sequence for You Only Live Twice, marrying Maurice Binder’s visuals with Brian Wilson’s music:
1 Who knows? Maybe they were still smarting over the “earmuffs” crack in Goldfinger. Maybe John Lennon would’ve had political issues with the amorality of the screen 007. Maybe Paul was setting things up for Live and Let Die. Maybe Ringo was setting things up for Barbara Bach…
Composer David Arnold, who has composed the score for five James Bond movies, said on Twitter on Oct. 9 that he doesn’t know yet if he’ll do an encore for Bond 23.
Arnold, the composer for 1997′s Tomorrow Never Dies through 2008′s Quantum of Solace, was asked on Twitter if he’ll do the same on next year’s James Bond film. To view the exchange, CLICK HERE. There’s not much to read. It goes like this:
If Arnold doesn’t return, who might get the job? Thomas Newman, part of a Hollywood dynasty of composers (his father Alfred Newman composed the “20th Century Fox Fanfare” that precedes every Fox movie), has worked with Bond 23 director Sam Mendes on a number of movies. Anyway, it’s too early to tell. Still, it’s possible Bond fans may be exposed to a new musical voice.
Meanwhile, to give you an idea how long the Newman music clan has been around Hollywood, here’s Alfred Newman’s FINAL composing credit, which occurred 41 years ago It’s a 1970 movie where the first actor to play James Bond (Barry Nelson) was part of the cast:
Lyricist Hal David, who turned 90 earlier this year, will be the subject of a musical tribute Oct. 17 in Los Angeles. David enjoyed a prolific career and had an impact on the musical side of James Bond movies.
When it comes to Bond songs, John Barry’s music and lyrics from the likes of Don Black, Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley understandably dominate the conversation because of classics such as Goldfinger, Thunderball, Diamonds Are Forever and You Only Live Twice.
But David actually worked on three 007 movies. Of course, the first of those three was the 1967 spoof Casino Royale. That movie wasn’t part of the film series from Eon Productions. It has a lot of flaws, is extremely uneven thanks to multiple directors and a gaggle of screenwriters. However, the Burt Bacharach score and songs by Bacharach and David were among the movie’s pluses.
David then worked on two films of the Eon series: 1969′s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and 1979′s Moonraker, both with John Barry as composer. David’s collaboration with Barry on We Have All the Time in the World produced one of the most memorable songs in the series, even if it wasn’t a commercial hit.
What follows are two segments from a 2006 television special about Bond songs that include David’s contributions to the musical world of 007. (For more information about the October event honoring David, JUST CLICK HERE.)
This first segment covers Casino Royale (in particular the song The Look of Love performed by Dusty Springfield) and Moonraker, the third of three Bond titles songs performed by Shirley Bassey:
This later segment describes how the song We Have All the Time in the World, performed by Louis Armstrong, came together.
George Lazenby, the one-time James Bond, and Vic Flick, the talented guitarist who helped bring The James Bond Theme to life, will be on the Aug. 16 edition of Dave White Presents, the Internet radio show.
The show is celebrating its third anniversary. Here’s an excerpt from a press release about the event:
Back in Aug. 2008, our very first guest was 007 guitarist Vic Flick. Yep, the guy who played the original James Bond theme and performed on hit records for everyone from Peter and Gordon to Petula Clark to the soundtrack of A HARD DAY’S NIGHT. A few months later, DWP’s most popular guest to date talked with Wes Britton about his starring role in ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICEJames Bond himself, George Lazenby.
On Aug. 16, 2011, Vic Flick and George Lazenby will appear together for the first time anywhere on our anniversary show. It’s quite a ride! In fact, the conversation quickly becomes the Vic Flick interviews George Lazenby feature with these two gents swapping memories, anecdotes, stories and jokes. No Bond fan should miss this one!
The show is scheduled to be available at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time at http://www.KSAV.org, which you can also find by CLICKING HERE. It will be run again at 7:30 p.m. Pacific Time.
The Royal College of Music in London has scheduled a memorial concert for the late John Barry in June. For details, YOU CAN CLICK HERE.
Barry worked on 12 007 films, composing the scores for 11 of them. He also orchestrated The James Bond Theme played in the first film, 1962′s Dr. No. The composer, who won five Oscars for non-Bond work, died in January at age 77.
Guests at the June 20 concert at Royal Albert Hall include Dame Shriley Bassey, who performed three Bond title songs, the most famous of which was Goldfinger; David Arnold, composer of the last five films of the Eon Productions 007 film series; George Martin, producer for the Beatles who also composed the score for Live And Let Die; and actor Michael Caine.
Conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra will be Nicholas Dodd, who has performed that duty on the Arnold-scored 007 films. Tickets go on sale on April 8.
Veteran HMSS contributor Jim Paul came across this little-seen video from 1985. Then a studio director at MTV, Jim assisted in writing the questions for Roger Moore who had come to the MTV studios to promote AVTAK. Jim jests, “If Nina (Blackwood) seems like she is “challenging” Roger, that’s my fault.”
It’s interesting that Mr. Moore knew the origin of the term “From A View To A Kill.” Also, was he really thinking he would do another Bond film after AVTAK? Really?!
