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Music for the Jet Set from The Departure Lounge…
The 24th official film in the James Bond series, Spectre, is unleashed to a totally suspecting world on October 26th, almost 53 years to the day that Dr No introduced us to the cinematic domain of 007. Time to celebrate, certainly, and the following cues will provide the ultimate soundtrack to a Vesper-fuelled evening of intrigue.
- John Barry is the Godfather of British film music. He composed scores for 11 James Bond films and set the benchmark for those who followed. Let’s start things off nice ‘n’ easy with a cue from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, arguably the best of Barry’s Bond scores. ‘Try’ is cocktail music in its purest form.
- Next, from Thunderball, ‘Café Martinique’, an erogenous version of ‘Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’. Beautiful.
- Eric Serra’s compositions for GoldenEye are hugely underrated. ‘We Share the Same Passions’, written for the Monaco sequences, exudes elegance and perfectly captures Bond’s glamorous world.
- Bridging the gap is an evocative piece from The World is Not Enough featuring a luxurious vocal from Natacha Atlas. ‘Baku’ is beautiful.
- Back to Barry and a cue from Moonraker. ‘Bond Lured to Pyramid’. Dream-like and mysterious.
- Another great piece of musical Cocktailana (yes, I just made that up) comes from many people’s favourite James Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me. ‘Ride to Atlantis’. Marvin Hamlisch must have written it with a Martini on the piano.
- Off to Japan next for ‘Mountain and Sunsets’ from the epic You Only Live Twice. A romantic and thrilling piece.
- Casino Royale shook the James Bond series to the core and David Arnold really rose to the occasion. His score for the film is a fine piece of work. Apart from the rocking title song, the musical highlight has to be ‘City of Lovers’, a heart-stirring version of ‘Vesper’s Theme’.
- ‘Into Miami’ from Goldfinger is short and sweet, but will give you enough time to order that Mint Julip.
- Diamonds Are Forever was Bond at his most glitzy. ‘The Whyte House’ dazzles.
- So many James Bond cover albums have been released over the years. Heavily overlooked is the ‘Basie Meets Bond’ album by who else? Count Basie and his Orchestra. Every track is a killer, but his version of ‘From Russia With Love’ will blow you away.
- Another wonderful cover album from the 60s is from Roland Shaw and His Orchestra. ‘Thunderball’ swings like a pendulum do.
- This should have been the title song for Tomorrow Never Dies. It made the end credits, but is no less brilliant for that. kd lang belts out the explosive ‘Surrender’ like her life depends on it.
- No list of James Bond music would complete without The Dame. This is another ‘shoulda bin’. With a lyric from Don Black and music by David Arnold, ‘No Good About Goodbye’ more than deserved to be the main title song for Quantum of Solace, but was never to be. This is heart-breaking brilliance, 007 etched into its very fibre. Play loud.
- We all know it. We can all hum it, but when was the last time you actually listened to ‘The James Bond Theme’ by Monty Norman? It is brilliant. Belvedere Vodka Martinis all the way.
By Lancelot Narayan
Music from the James Bond films can be heard from 7pm every day in The Departure Loungethedeparturelounge.playtheradio.com @Music4TheJetSet
