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I have (or had) the first two lps on your list...must now look through lp collection to see if they are still there...
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I doubt Barry had any say in the album covers. At least the earlier ones. As far as the covers shown above, he may have got a chuckle from them. If he saw any of them.
Just to be clear, I don't mean "cover" as in an album's pictorial cover design. I mean cover as in somebody other than John Barry recording Barry's Bond music.
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Posted: |
Apr 7, 2015 - 3:07 AM
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By: |
MusicMad
(Member)
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I bought the Ray Martin album shown above whilst in Italy (1982, I think) ... it was a re-release with a somewhat adult sleeve design - very colourful! I do wonder why Honey's Theme is from Goldfinger 
The arrangements are somewhat extreme - very easy-listening (if cringe-worthy at times) but, to these ears, still better than many other more modern cover versions credited to performers such as:
- Secret Service Orchestra (James Bond Themes - Disky DC886062)
- Secret Service Orchestra (BondJamesBond - Hallmark 311672)
- Nicky North (Diamonds Are Forever . Great James Bond Movie Themes - Conifer TQ203)
- London Theatre Orchestra (The James Bond Themes - e2/MCPS ETDCD054)
- Moneypenny Singers (Stirred Not Shaken - BIA4135)
Not all bad but some of the vocals are weak.
The Conifer CD was one of my earliest purchases of these themes (on CD) at a time when the OST were not available (I think there was an expensive import CD of the title songs only which I refrained form buying) and I was surprised to find that the majority of the tracks (i.e. all excluding Casino Royale [1967], A View to a Kill and The Living Daylights were the same recordings as I'd had on vinyl LP. The CD had no artist credit but the LP credited Nicky North and yet I've never found out anything about this arranger/conductor and believe the name to be a nom-de-plume. If anyone can advise otherwise ...
Move forward 20+ years and I buy the Vocalion CD release Eric Winstone Plays 007/Supersonic Sounds only to find that many of these JB007 themes are the aforementioned Nicky North recordings. They do, without exception, sound significantly better.
And then we have (excluding Nic Raine/CoPP and, of course, the various John Barry re-recordings):
- Franck Pourcel (James Bond's Greatest Hits - EMI 509999722224 (4CD set)) not bad, other than the awful Live and Let Die ...
- Russ Pay (Double O Heaven . The Greatest Bond Themes - Doppelganger AOP007) - mostly solo guitar and very enjoyable
- Ed Starink - Star Inc. (James Bond Film Themes - Laser 76008) which I bought before the Conifer CD mentioned above ... all synthesised with only the more modern themes working
- Geoff Love (Big Suspense Movie Themes/Big Bond Movie Themes - Vocalion CDLK 4461) easily the best of the bunch (excepting Roland Shaw)
- John Cacavas (007 Classics - Edelton EDL2513-2) - very likeable
- Dieter Reith (Best of James Bond - Hanssler CD93.083) - several great interpretations, several not-so-great
- Count Basie (Basie Meets Bond - Capitol 72435 38225 2 1) - an interesting jazz take
- Proteus 7 (For Your Ears Only - Dorian xCD-90258) - a few JB007 jazzy cues interspersed with dialogue ... okay
Carl Davis (James Bond Themes - Tring TRP907) - these are the Nic Raine arrangements but performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
- David Arnold et al. (Shaken And Stirred - Warner Bros. 3984-20738-2) - some interesting arrangements/performances
and numerous odds 'n' ends covers by more well-known artists such as Ronnie Aldrich, Gordon Franks, Erich Kunzel, Frank Chacksfield, Si Zentner, Hugo Montenegro, Leroy Holmes ...
There may be more and strangely, I've yet to get Stanley Black's recordings which are, I believe, very good.
Mitch
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I never heard him comment on the Roland Shaw albums, but I believe he was flattered by SHAKEN AND STIRRED.
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Talking of Roland Shaw, I thought this recollection of Vic Flick was amusing. Vic, of course, had played the "Gypsy Camp" cue in From Russia With Love.
"I got a call from a contractor (Sid Sax) to be prepared to play the 'Gypsy Encampment Solo'. The Musical Director (Roland Shaw) had found out I was the original perpetrator. "There will be a Solo Fee in it for you," I was bribed. So, once again I found myself in a large studio with a large orchestra playing my little Gypsy heart out. I got the Solo Fee in my envelope. One pound sterling! So you see, there is money in the music business - it's just that I didn’t get too much of it."
That's terrible. It sounds like he was working without an agent, and he performed without an agreement in place. Then all the studio owed him was "a payment" of no specified amount.
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I bought the Ray Martin album shown above whilst in Italy (1982, I think) ... it was a re-release with a somewhat adult sleeve design - very colourful! I do wonder why Honey's Theme is from Goldfinger
Mitch, I collect Bond LP artwork off the Net and can't find the Ray Martin you're referring to. If you click my name you could send me an email and say hello.
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I read somewhere that John Barry liked covers by an organist by the name of Sir Julian (Gould). I heard his version of Barry's Seance on a Wet Afternoon, which was the flip side of Call Me Bwana. It was excellent, with an electric guitar playing the melody.
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I never heard him comment on the Roland Shaw albums, but I believe he was flattered by SHAKEN AND STIRRED.
.Roland Shaw did a DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER lp which featured bikini clad babes as human pistol shot targets. Including gun shot wounds and scores for "best" shots.
Bulls-eye!
"Those were the days"
- Harvey Weinstein
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