In 2022, the James Bond movie franchise celebrated its 60th anniversary, and this documentary was released on Amazon Prime on James Bond Day, the day that the first Bond Movie was released in cinemas, directed by Mat Whitecross (Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, Take That: "The Flood", Coldplay: "Paradise", Oasis: Supersonic, Red Nose Day Actually). Basically, Dr. No, the first feature film to be adapted from the series of James Bond spy novels by Ian Fleming, was released in 1962. Since then, twenty-five films (excluding unofficial films Casino Royale (1967) and Never Say Never Again) featuring secret agent 007 have been made across sixty years, starring Sir Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Sir Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig. This film examines the history of the films through the music and songs by the various composers and artists throughout the six decades. Monty Norman composed the "James Bond Theme", one of the most famous and iconic themes in movie history, as well as all the music for Dr. No. The second film, From Russia with Love, was the first to be composed by John Barry, who is recognised and most associated with the music of the franchise, he composed the score for twelve of the films. George Martin Live and Let Die, Marvin Hamlisch composed for The Spy Who Loved Me, Bill Conti composed for For Your Eyes Only, Michael Kamen composed for Licence to Kill, Éric Serra composed by GoldenEye, David Arnold composed for the following five films, Thomas Newman composed for the next two, and Hans Zimmer composed for No Time to Die. Sir Michael Caine tells the story that he was staying with John Barry whilst he was composing the theme song for Goldfinger, so Caine was the first person ever to hear it. Dame Shirley Bassey was chosen to sing "Goldfinger", a few years later for "Diamonds Are Forever", again for "Moonraker", and she recorded a song called "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" (originally made for Thunderball), she is perhaps the singer most associated and recognised for singing Bond theme songs. "We Have All the Time in the World" by Louis Armstrong, the love theme for On Her Majesty's Secret Service, has become most associated with the franchise over time, and reappeared again in No Time to Die, in instrumentals and the song in the end credits. "Live and Let Die" by Paul McCartney and Wings was the first rock themed Bond song. "Nobody Does It Better" by Carly Simon is one of the most famous songs and has become of the most associated with the franchise. "All Time High" by Rita Coolidge was written by Sir Tim Rice for the film Octopussy, the first song not to have the film's title in the lyrics but was not so successful. "A View to a Kill" performed and co-written by Duran Duran was the first Bond song to go to Number One in the USA. "GoldenEye" was written by Bono and The Edge of U2 but performed by Tina Turner. "The World Is Not Enough" by Garbage was written by Don Black, who wrote lyrics for "Thunderball" by Sir Tom Jones, "Diamonds Are Forever", "The Man with the Golden Gun" by Lulu, and "Surrender" by k.d. Lang for Tomorrow Never Dies. "Another Way to Die" by Jack White (also writing) and Alisha Keys for Quantum of Solace is an example of the producers choosing high profile artists to boost the profile for the film. "Skyfall" by Adele (also writing, with Paul Epworth) was the first James Bond theme song to win the Oscar for Best Original Song, and "Writing's on the Wall" by Sam Smith (also writing, with Jimmy Napes) was the second. Billie Eilish wrote and performed the most recent song, "No Time to Die", with Finneas O'Connell, it went on also to win the Oscar, and many of her improvised vocals during recording were incorporated into the score for the film during emotional scenes. Other James Bond theme songs (not already mentioned) include "From Russia with Love" by Matt Monro, "For Your Eyes Only" by Sheena Easton, "The Living Daylights" by a-ha, "Licence to Kill" by Gladys Knight, "Tomorrow Never Dies" by Sheryl Crow, and "You Know My Name" by Chris Cornell for Casino Royale. Other songs to mention that featured in the films include "Where Has Everybody Gone" and "If There Was a Man" by The Pretenders for The Living Daylights, "If You Asked Me To" by Patti LaBelle, and "The Experience of Love" by Eric Serra for GoldenEye. With contributions from David Arnold, John Barry (archive), Dame Shirley Bassey (archive), Don Black, Neil Brand, Barbara Broccoli (Bond series producer, daughter of Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli), Sir Michael Caine, Martin Campbell, Celeste, Daniel Craig, Maryam d'Abo, Duran Duran (Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, and Roger Taylor), Sheena Easton, Billie Eilish, Marc Forster, Cary Joji Fukunaga, Garbage (Shirley Manson, Duke Erikson, Steve Marker, and Butch Vig), John Glen, Marvin Hamlisch, Naomie Harris, Sir Tom Jones (voice), Lulu, Sir Paul McCartney (archive), Rami Malek, Sam Mendes, Thomas Newman, Sir Tim Rice, Carly Simon (archive), Nancy Sinatra, Anna Smith (film critic), Sam Smith (archive), Jason Solomons (film critic), Tina Turner (voice), Reggie Watts, Jack White, Michael G. Wilson (Bond series screenwriter and producer, half-brother of Barbara Broccoli), and Hans Zimmer. The music of the James Bond movies is a huge part of why it an enduring franchise, from both the compositions (often incorporating the title song music within the film score) and the popular artists who have performed the songs in them. It was fascinating to see behind-the-scenes for the music of the most recent film, the discussions about the famous music of the films, to hear the insights from the filmmakers, composers, and artists themselves about the songs, and it is exactly the sort of film you want if you are a huge Bond fan like me, a most interesting documentary. Very good!
Review of The Sound of 007
