Goldfinger (soundtrack) and James Bond tracks

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Goldfinger is the soundtrack for the third James Bond film of the same name.

This is the first of three James Bond films with a theme song sung by Shirley Bassey, whose forceful, dramatic style became a series trademark (she would go on to sing Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker). "Goldfinger" was composed by John Barry, with lyrics by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse, and is widely acknowledged as a classic of its genre. Famously, co-producer Harry Saltzman hated the song and only agreed to use it when persuaded by Albert Broccoli.

Originally, Newley recorded a version of the theme song, but it was later re-recorded with Bassey's voice for the film and soundtrack album. In 1992, Newley's version was released for the 30th Anniversary of James Bond on film, in the compilation collectors edition The Best of Bond...James Bond.

The score was composed by Barry, making this his second, credited Bond score. The score makes regular use of instrumental arrangements of the title theme, as well as the Bond theme from Dr. No used in the gun barrel sequence . The score makes heavy use of brass. The distinctive music for Goldfinger's henchman, Oddjob, makes use of repeated strokes on a metallic anvil. Metallic chimes are also heard in many scenes associated with Oddjob or gold, notably that in which the dead golden girl is discovered. The very effective use of music and various sound effects in the film won it an Academy Award for Best Sound Editing. The album reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and spent 70 total weeks on the chart, but for reasons that remain unclear, received no RIAA certification.

Much of the music from the film's final reel was unreleased on the original soundtrack. In 2003, a remastered Goldfinger soundtrack album was released which contained four tracks that had previously been available on only the British soundtrack album. The US soundtrack album did not have these tracks but featured a Barry guitar cover version of the main theme that did not appear in the film. Barry also used the theme on his 1965 John Barry Plays Goldfinger album that featured Robert Brownjohn artwork.

The harp melody at the beginning of the song "6 Underground" is sampled from the track "Golden Girl" from the Goldfinger soundtrack (specifically the scene where Bond discovers Jill Masterson covered in gold paint).

Track listing

Side One
"Main Title – Into Miami- Goldfinger (3:31)" – Shirley Bassey
"Alpine Drive – Auric's Factory (4:22)"
"Oddjob's Pressing Engagement (3:06)"
"Bond Back in Action Again (2:31)"[A]
"Teasing the Korean (2:11)"
"Gassing the Gangsters (1:04)"

Side Two
"Goldfinger (Instrumental Version)(2:59)"
"Dawn Raid on Fort Knox (4:57)"
"The Arrival of the Bomb and Count Down (2:23)"
"The Death of Goldfinger – End Titles (2:31)"

Bonus tracks only on the 2003 remastered Goldfinger Soundtrack CD
"Golden Girl"
"Death of Tilly"
"The Laser Beam"
"Pussy Galore's Flying Circus"

Jump up ^ contains the James Bond Theme, originally composed for the Dr. No soundtrack.

James Bond music:

The James Bond film series from Eon Productions has had numerous signature tracks over the years, many of which are now considered classic pieces of film music. The best known of these pieces of music is the ubiquitous "James Bond Theme." Other instrumental pieces, such as the "007 Theme" or "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", and various songs, such as Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger", Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die" or Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better" have also become identified with the series.

"James Bond Is Back"

The briefest of "James Bond themes", this composition started off the "Opening Titles" music of From Russia with Love. It was heard in the On Her Majesty's Secret Service film trailer. WLS (AM) used the theme in the mid-1960s for their secret agent radio serial "The Wild Adventures of Peter Fugitive" that appeared on "The Art Roberts Show".
"007 Theme"

"007 Theme", not to be confused with the "James Bond Theme", is an adventure theme composed by John Barry in 1963 for the Bond film, From Russia with Love. "The John Barry Seven" had pop chart hit with a cover version of Elmer Bernstein's theme to The Magnificent Seven that featured seven beats repeated throughout the theme. Barry used seven beats throughout the "007 Theme".

It became a secondary theme for the Bond films, being used throughout the series, primarily during action scenes. Here are its most notable appearances:
From Russia with Love — Played during the gypsy camp gunfight and also during Bond's theft of the Lektor decoder from the Russian embassy in Istanbul.

Thunderball — Featured briefly in climactic underwater fight and featuring on the film soundtrack album; a similar but different theme of seven beats is played when Bond runs from SPECTRE during a parade and during the climax.

You Only Live Twice — Played during the flight of "Little Nellie" before Bond battles four helicopters that attack him.

Diamonds Are Forever — Played during Bond's destruction of Blofeld's Headquarters.

Moonraker — Played during the Amazon River chase.

The theme has not been featured in its entirety in a Bond film since its use in Moonraker.
This piece of music was also used by Al Primo, the news director at KYW-TV in Philadelphia for its long-time theme to Eyewitness News, and was adopted by other Group W stations in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Boston and San Francisco as well as other non-Group W stations, most notably WLS-TV in Chicago. The theme was also sampled by Big Audio Dynamite for the 1986 song "Sightsee M.C!"

"Suspense" motif

Like John Barry, David Arnold has left his own mark in the music of James Bond. In this case, he has established what can be called the "suspense motif", which is a descending, repetitive four-note motif that can be heard in most of the Bond films he has scored, starting with Tomorrow Never Dies. It is usually an underlying motif playing under the main melody, and is usually orchestrated with piano trills, high strings, horns, blaring trumpets, and an underlying snare drum. This motif can be heard in:

Tomorrow Never Dies — "Station Break", "*-3-Send", "Underwater Discovery"
The World Is Not Enough — "Pipeline", "Submarine"
Die Another Day — "Death of Moon", "Antonov"
Casino Royale — "Miami International", "Dirty Martini", and very briefly in "African Rundown"
Composers (Eon Productions)

The biggest contributions to the Bond films, save for the "James Bond Theme", are works from John Barry. In addition to his uncredited contribution to Dr. No, Barry composed eleven Bond soundtracks and is credited with the creation of "007" (dominated by brass and percussion) and the popular orchestral theme from On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Next to Barry, David Arnold is the series' most regular composer. He has composed the scores for the Bond films since Tomorrow Never Dies, up to and including Quantum of Solace. His Barry-esque orchestrations combined with electronic rhythm elements gave the Brosnan era its musical identity.

Other major composers and record-producers include George Martin, Bill Conti, Michael Kamen, Marvin Hamlisch, Éric Serra and Thomas Newman.

Music from Eon Productions

Title themes
The "James Bond Theme" is the main theme for Dr. No, and has featured in all the Eon Productions Bond films in different versions. The theme has also featured on the gun barrel sequences at the beginning of the films. The original theme is credited to Monty Norman, and was performed by John Barry and his orchestra in 1962. In the opening credits of Dr. No, two other pieces were played: an untitled bongo interlude and a Calypso-flavored rendition of "Three Blind Mice", titled "Kingston Calypso". Due to this, Dr. No is the only film to have more than one opening theme. The "James Bond Theme" reached No. 13 in the UK Singles Chart, and remained in the charts for 13 weeks.

The opening credits of From Russia with Love were accompanied by an instrumental version of the main theme, arranged by John Barry and written by Lionel Bart. A single by The John Barry Orchestra reached No. 39 in the U.K. At the film's end, a vocal version by English singer Matt Monro is heard. This song spent 13 weeks in the U.K. charts, peaking at No. 20.

Goldfinger was the third soundtrack composed by John Barry, and this time with lyrics written by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse. The soundtrack reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and spent 70 weeks on the charts. It also peaked at No. 14 on the UK Albums Chart.

Welsh singer Shirley Bassey has performed the most Bond themes – she recorded the themes to Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, and Moonraker. Bassey also recorded her own versions of "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" for Thunderball and "No Good About Goodbye" for Quantum of Solace (see "Unused songs").

Paul McCartney's performance of "Live and Let Die" was the first Bond theme song to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song; it reached No. 2 as a U.S. single, and No. 7 on the U.K. charts.

Marvin Hamlisch's (music) and Carole Bayer Sager's (lyrics) "Nobody Does It Better" (performed by Carly Simon) received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, as did Bill Conti's "For Your Eyes Only", which was performed by Sheena Easton. Duran Duran and John Barry's "A View To A Kill" topped the singles charts in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 (the only Bond theme to hit No. 1).

Several of the later films have alternative theme songs, often during the closing credits. The Living Daylights featured The Pretenders performing "If There Was a Man," composed by John Barry with Chrissie Hynde. Licence to Kill has "If You Asked Me To" sung by Patti Labelle. Tomorrow Never Dies included k.d. lang's "Surrender" during the closing credits, a song which was originally proposed by composer David Arnold to be the title sequence theme instead of the Sheryl Crow title song. The "Surrender" theme is heard throughout the score while the melody of Sheryl Crow's song is not used again during the film.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service featured an instrumental theme tune, something which remains unique amongst the post-From Russia with Love films, and included a vocal theme in the form of Louis Armstrong's performance of "We Have All the Time in the World", written by John Barry and Hal David.

It was not until the 2013 Oscars that a Bond theme song finally won the Best Song Academy Award, the theme from Skyfall by Adele.

Eon Productions intended to use a song titled "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" by Shirley Bassey as the theme song of Thunderball. It was re-recorded by Dionne Warwick until Albert Broccoli insisted the theme song must include the film's title and also decided that the lyrics should not start before the film's title Thunderball appears. A new song was composed and recorded in the eleventh hour titled "Thunderball", performed by Tom Jones. The melody of "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" remains a major component of the film score.

Neither "All Time High" (Octopussy), "You Know My Name" (Casino Royale), nor "Another Way to Die" (Quantum of Solace) features the title of its film either in the song title or lyrics (although "Another Way to Die" features the word "solace" in the second stanza). While not named after the film, "Nobody Does It Better" does feature the line "the spy who loved me" in its lyrics.

"You Know My Name" is the first main theme to a Bond film that did not appear on the film's official soundtrack album; "Skyfall" is the second.

Unused songs

There are a number of songs which were originally written as potential Bond themes, but not used, which have then been released or otherwise made available elsewhere. These include:

"Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" by Dionne Warwick/Shirley Bassey – The originally intended theme song for Thunderball was titled "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" a reference to a nickname given to Bond by an Italian journalist in 1962. Warwick and Bassey both recorded versions, but halfway through the scoring process, Albert Broccoli decided that the film's title must appear in the lyrics, so "Thunderball" was commissioned. The song still plays a prominent role in the score and both singers' versions have appeared on compilations in the 1990s.
"Thunderball" by Johnny Cash
"You Only Live Twice" by Julie Rogers – Included on the 30th anniversary CD release.
"The Man with the Golden Gun" by Alice Cooper – Appears on their 1973 album Muscle of Love
"For Your Eyes Only" by Blondie – Appears on their 1982 album The Hunter.
"Never Say Never Again" by Phyllis Hyman - Intended for the 1983 film.
"All Time High" by Laura Branigan – The song was originally recorded by Branigan; however, Barbara Broccoli convinced her father, Albert Broccoli, to go with Rita Coolidge instead. To this day, Branigan's version remains unreleased.
"The Living Daylights" by Pet Shop Boys – adapted from a demo theme for The Living Daylights, later completely reworked as "This Must Be the Place I Waited Years to Leave". It appears on their 1990 album Behaviour.
"Tomorrow Never Lies" by Pulp (originally called "Tomorrow Never Dies") – released as a b-side on their 1997 single "Help the Aged", and on the vinyl version of their 1998 album This Is Hardcore
"Tomorrow Never Dies" by Saint Etienne – Appears on their Built on Sand album, with the liner notes revealing that Pierce Brosnan kept the master tape of the song. Other artists who submitted Tomorrow Never Dies themes included Marc Almond, Swan Lee, The Cardigans and Space.
"Forever - I Am All Yours" by Eva Almér - Written by Eva Almér and Christian Wolfe for Quantum of Solace

Cover versions and spin-offs

Bond music has inspired a number of cover albums in a variety of genres, including the 2007 album Mister Bond – A Jazzy Cocktail of Ice Cold Themes (lounge), Shaken and Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project featuring David Arnold collaborating with several contemporary artists. The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra recorded several albums with Bond music and performs in premieres and special events of Bond films. Britain's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra released an album of several Bond songs performances called Best Of James Bond, some of which were used on the "Ultimate Edition" DVD releases menus. Billy Strange released "Secret Agent File" in 1965. Death metal cover band Ten Masked Men has included at least one Bond theme on each of their albums. In 2004, The Cavaliers play a show titled "007" using Bond music, such as "GoldenEye", "For Your Eyes Only", "Live and Let Die", "Hovercraft Chase", "Welcome to Cuba" and "Paris and Bond". Some of them are Italo disco-like rhythms and soundtrack albums promote hits that matches the film's theme.

Goldfinger theme

James Bond 007 - Intro sequence collage from 1962-2006