Song:James Bond Theme
Album:Best of Bond...James Bond: 50th Anniversary Collection
The theme from the James Bond films is one of the most iconic movie themes in history. Variations of the theme are still used in today's Bond films. It started out over the opening credits of the 1962 film Dr. No, the first James Bond film. John Barry arranged and conducted the song and went on to compose the scores of several Bond films. But the theme and the score for Dr. No was written by Monty Norman. And he has proven that in court twice. Norman was born Monty Noserovitch Apr. 4, 1928 in London. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Latvia. After serving in the RAF in WWII, he sang with bands like Cyril Stapleton, Stanley Black and performed in variety shows. By the late 50s, He got into composing musicals. One of those shows, Expresso Bongo, was turned into a film starring Cliff Richard in 1960. Dr. No producer Cubby Broccoli liked Norman's 1961 musical Belle and hired him to write the music for Dr. No. A lot of the film was filmed in Jamaica and included appearances by Byron Lee & The Dragonaires and others. So Norman wrote and arranged the score for Dr. No. But Broccoli didn't like his arrangement of the opening theme. So John Barry was brought in to arrange and conduct the theme. The guitar is played by The John Barry Seven guitarist Vic Flick. The problem was later on Barry took credit for writing the James Bond theme. Norman sued him and won. This was a big deal for Norman as he still gets royalties. The theme from Dr. No charted and then it was used in all the films. It wasn't until Goldfinger by Shirley Bassey that singers were hired to sing the opening theme. You can get the Dr. No theme on this budget CD. Monty Norman is still around but nothing he has done has been as famous as this one song. Here's the James Bond Theme by John Barry Orchestra as it appeared in the opening credits of the 1962 film Dr. No.
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