Tina Turner dies at 83

Tina Turner in the music video to GoldenEye’s title song

Tina Turner, the soul singer whose career lasted decades, has died at 83, according to various obituaries, including one published by The New York Times.

Turner’s performances featured “rasping vocals, sexual magnetism and explosive energy” in the words of the Times’ obit. She died today at her home in Switzerland, according to a statement from her publicist.

Tina Turner became part of the James Bond film series by performing the title song to 1995’s GoldenEye. A lot was riding on the movie. No Bond film had come out since 1989’s Licence to Kill. Every aspect of the movie got a lot of attention, including a new leading man (Pierce Brosnan) to concerns about whether Bond could come back. Naturally, the song generated interest.

Turner’s song was written by U2’s Bono and the Edge. “The song offered a cool, sneaky Bond-like vibe and subtly incorporated the classic Bond bass line,” Jon Burlingame wrote in his 2012 book The Music of James Bond. Accompanying the song was Daniel Kleinman’s first main titles for the Bond film series. However, the film’s score, by Eric Serra, was a major departure for Bond.

Tina Turner’s career began in the late 1950s. She performed with Ike Turner. The latter’s group became known as the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, according to the Times. The two married but divorced. “Mr. Turner was abusive,” The Times said in its obit. Tina Turner established a solo career with songs like What’s Love Got to Do With It.

For more about Tina Turner’s career, you can check out several items by CNN and obits by Deadline: Hollywood, and ABC News.

Here is the music video to GoldenEye:

Reminder: Eon said Bond films wouldn’t come out as often

Eon Productions logo

Consider this an epilogue to the recent buzz about Bond 26 and the lack of news. Go back into events of the past decade (and longer) and you’ll see that Eon Productions signaled James Bond films wouldn’t be out as often.

Eon boss Barbara Broccoli said the following in a November 2012 interview with the Los Angeles Times:

“Sometimes there are external pressures from a studio who want you to make it in a certain time frame or for their own benefit, and sometimes we’ve given into that,” Broccoli said. “But following what we hope will be a tremendous success with ‘Skyfall,’ we have to try to keep the deadlines within our own time limits and not cave in to external pressures.”

Context: While 2006’s Casino Royale was wrapping up, Sony Pictures (which released Bond films at the time) announced that Bond 22 (the eventual Quantum of Solace) would be released on May 2, 2008. That would be less than two years after the release of Casino Royale. (Sony used to have the release online but it has been yanked from the company’s website.)

Eventually, Quantum of Solace would be pushed back to the fall of 2008. Even so, there was a lot of tension to meet the fall 2008 date, including a Writer’s Guild strike.

To be sure, in the 2012 LA Times interview, Broccoli didn’t provide details about giving into studio pressure. But given what happened between 2006 and 2012, it’s not a big leap to conclude the Quantum of Solace experience was an influence.

Undoubtedly, in the 2020s, there are more considerations in play with Bond 26. But it’s always useful to review the record of past events.

Burt Bacharach dies at 94

Poster for Charles K. Feldman’s 1967 version of Casino Royale, featuring a Burt Bacharach score and songs by Bacharach and Hal David

Songwriter Burt Bacharach, with a long list of pop hits over the decades, has died at 94, the BBC reported, citing the musician’s publicist.

Bacharach scored the 1967 Casino Royale spoof produced by Charles K. Feldman. Bacharach and lyricist Hal David wrote the song The Look of Love for the movie. That was a hit for Dusty Springfield, with Bacharach and David getting a Best Song Oscar nomination.

The music and the songs were a major plus for an uneven comedy helmed by multiple directors. The story (such as it was) centered around multiple James Bonds, led by Sir James Bond (David Niven).

An excerpt from the BBC’s obituary about Bacharach’s career:

Over his career, he scored 73 Top 40 hits in the US and 52 in the UK, working with artists including Dionne Warwick, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, Barbara Streisand, Tom Jones, Aretha Franklin and Elvis Costello.

His music touched multiple genres, from cool jazz and rhythm and blues, to bossa nova and traditional pop – but they shared one thing in common: you could recognise them within a couple of notes.

In 1974, Bacharach and Ann-Margaret presented the Oscar for Best Song. Live And Let Die had been nominated, but The Way We Were won. Bacharach won Oscars of his own, for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Arthur.

Mendes, Arnold to participate in 007 music programs

Sam Mendes

This month, Royal Albert Hall in London will be the site of music programs for Casino Royale, Skyfall and SPECTRE. Composer David Arnold and director Sam Mendes are scheduled to participate.

Here are the descriptions

Casino Royale in Concert

Thu 17 Nov

Daniel Craig makes his debut as the one and only 007. Featuring an in-person introduction from Casino Royale composer David Arnold.

For more information: CLICK HERE.

Skyfall in Concert

Fri 18 Nov

Bond looks back to his family roots in this roaring espionage adventure. Featuring an in-person introduction from director Sam Mendes.

For more information, CLICK HERE.

SPECTRE in Concert

Sat 19 – Sun 20 Nov

Watch Bond infiltrate a mysterious criminal organization known as Spectre. Saturday’s evening performance will feature an in-person introduction by director Sam Mendes. For more information, CLICK HERE.

The programs feature the Hall Philharmonic Orchestra. The score for Casino Royale was composed by Arnold. Thomas Newman, Mendes’ choice for composer, worked on the scores for Skyfall and SPECTRE.

Just one more thing, as Lt. Columbo used to say, Daniel Craig was “the one and only 007”? I realize the hall needs to sell tickets, but really?

The celebration of the Daniel Craig era of Bond continues.

UPDATE: A reader suggests the Casino Royale event referring to “the one and only 007” means Bond the character rather than Craig the actor. Perhaps so. But Eon Productions, which makes the Bond films, has made clear Craig is the best film Bond.

Bond music documentary: Some recycled material

John Barry (1933-2011)

I am watching the new James Bond music documentary on Amazon Prime. It’s very entertaining. But it also recycles a lot of interviews originally done in the 1990s for DVD extras for the Bond films.

Some of the videos of John Barry (1933-2011) for those extras are obvious to anyone who watched them originally. Also, some of the Barry interview footage was shown for a 2006 special about Bond footage on the BBC.

Some interviews with Monty Norman also were originally shown on those DVD extras.

That’s not to say it’s all recycled. There are some more recent interviews. It appears Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson of Eon Productions made recent comments. Ditto for David Arnold, who scored five Bond films for Eon.

In the documentary, Barbara Broccoli says the title song for No Time to Die was from the female point of view.

Bond concert scheduled for Oct. 4 in London

Logo for James Bond concert

A charity concert featuring songs from the James Bond film series has been scheduled for Oct. 4 at Royal Albert Hall in London, according to the venue’s website.

Here are the details.

Celebrate 60 years of the James Bond film franchise with a charity concert that will showcase the iconic music of Bond, headlined by the legendary Dame Shirley Bassey.

Curated by five-time Bond composer David Arnold and produced by EON Productions, the concert will feature Bond soundtrack artists including Garbage, as well as special guests including Celeste, putting their own interpretation on classic theme songs, backed by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, conducted by Nicholas Dodd.

The date marks the anniversary of the world premiere of the first 007 film, Dr. No held on 5 October 1962.

More special guests to be announced

Bassey’s Twitter account helped announce the news.

To celebrate 60 years of Bond, I will be joining some other wonderful artistes to perform, for one night only, at the Royal Albert Hall!

The Sound of 007 In Concert is taking place on Tuesday, October 4th.https://t.co/yjbHBDWpaO

— Dame Shirley Bassey (@shirleybassey) July 28, 2022

Shirley Bassey performed the title songs for Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker. All had music by John Barry with Leslie Bricusse, Anthony Newley, Don Black and and Hal David doing the lyrics.

David Arnold composed the scores for Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.

Monty Norman dies at 94

Monty Norman (1928-2022)

Monty Norman, the composer of The James Bond Theme, has died, the BBC reported.

Norman was hired to score Dr. No, the first Bond film produced by Eon Productions. There were disputes how much Norman contributed versus John Barry, who orchestrated the Bond theme for the movie.

Norman said he based the theme off something he wrote for a play titled A House For Mr. Biswas. Norman won a 2001 court case after suing The Sunday Times “over an article which said he did not write the James Bond theme,” the BBC reported at the time.

The composer only worked for Eon one other time — 1963’s Call Me Bwana, a comedy starring Bob Hope.

Starting with From Russia With Love, Barry composed six straight Bond films (From Russia With Love through Diamonds Are Forever). Barry ended up composing 11 Eon Bond movies overall.

Nevertheless, Norman’s Bond theme credit was included throughout the Eon series.

In 2013, Norman described how the Bond theme came together.

Clapton submitted track for Licence to Kill genuine, MI6 says

A music track of a collaboration between Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen submitted for the 1989 film LIcence to Kill is genuine, the MI6 James Bond website said.

The lengthy article was written by Matthew Field and Ajay Chowdhury, authors of the book Some Kind of Hero: The Remarkable Story of the James Bond Films.

“(W)e can confirm that the recording is indeed genuine,” Field and Chowdhury wrote. “We first heard it in September 2020, the culmination of a fascinating journey unearthing the Holy Grail of lost Bond treasures which begun as COVID shut the world down.”

The track has circulated on the internet and “has left fans split over its authenticity,” the duo wrote.

Kamen composed the score for Licence to Kill but was not involved with the film’s title song. performed by Gladys Knight.

For more about the track’s history (including the participation of guitarist Vic Flick), CLICK HERE. To hear it, CLICK HERE for a YouTube video by Bond Blog that incorporates it. But be warned, you don’t know when YouTube might yank it.

Dan Romer talks (briefly) about NTTD

Dan Romer talked very, very briefly about his involvement on No Time to Die on season 4, episode 9 of Score the Podcast.

The composer got into few specifics. He was retained for a time to compose the score for the 25th James Bond film. He was replaced by Hans Zimmer and his fellow composers.

Among the few comments about the Bond film by Romer were these:

“That film was essentially me and my old friend (NTTD diector) Cary Fukunanga. Cary and I will continue to work together. That situation was really amicable at the end. Everybody is trying to do the right thing.”

Romer seemed to indicate the Bond experience was not a bad one.

“You can’t let that kind of stuff stop you from being creative,” he said. “At the end of the day, you’re an artist and you’re making art.

“I don’t announce a job generally until right before it’s coming out,” he added. “The Bond thing leaked….You never know how things are going to go.”

You can listen to the entire episode by CLICKING HERE. Go about one hour, 40 minutes and you’ll get to the brief exchange about No Time to Die.

h/t to reader Patrick Donahue

Work on official NTTD podcast resumes

Hans Zimmer

Work on an official No Time to Die podcast to promote the 25th James Bond film has resumed. The podcast had produced three episodes in fall 2020 before release date delays.

James King, who had hosted the podcast, said June 29 on Twitter, that he had just interviewed lead NTTD composer Hans Zimmer. In response to a later question, he said the interview is for the podcast. “Yes. Launches soon,” he wrote.

No Time to Die’s release has been delayed five times, with three of those related to COVID-19. The movie is scheduled to come out Sept. 30 in the U.K.

Here are the tweets:

Just interviewed Hans Zimmer re: Bond.

Phenomenal. #NoTimeToDie

— James King (@jameskingmovies) June 29, 2021

Yes. Launches soon.

— James King (@jameskingmovies) June 30, 2021