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Yeah, I know—GOLDFINGER is ooooold news.
But sometimes I think it's worth singing the praises of an old classic and starting a new conversation about it. I suspect it's a while since we stroked some of the classic scores that converted people into Soundtrackers.
The thing about GOLDFINGER in and among Bond scores is this.
It deserves extra praise for being the score that really created the style and expectations of James Bond music that endure to this very day.
It broke new ground.
It defined something not defined before.
It was an original triumph created when no prior template or formula existed—and was a hit.
It was a score so good it pressed a deep imprint on the metal of the cinematic 007 world that no rival score could hammer out.
Now, I don't know about you, but as great as GOLDFINGER is, I feel that John Barry surpassed his work on GOLDFINGER several times during the course of the series.
I wonder, therefore, why he kept going back to GOLDFINGER when asked which his favourite score was?
I can only assume it indicates that Barry was fondest of his breakthrough works, as this was.
You see, even if DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER was GOLDFINGER 'with knobs on', and OHMSS was stratospherically good, neither was as INFLUENTIAL as GOLDFINGER.
Neither broke ground like that.
And that's the difference—INFLUENCE, and breaking ground.
Maybe that's because they already had foundations to build on. The foundations laid by, yes, GOLDFINGER.
With that in mind, I sometimes think that in the 56 years since the ground was broken, we might have forgotten just how original, important and groundbreaking GOLDFINGER was.
Time tends to smudge the important influence things had when they were new.
I put it to you, members of the jury, that no 007 film score has been as influential to the world of 007 as GOLDFINGER.
I'm rambling, aren't I?
I guess I'm just saying GOLDFINGER deserves an extra special round of applause, even if it was surpassed a few times along the way.
Cheers
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Ssshurely you mean GOLD..MEMBER!!? 
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I put it to you, members of the jury, that no 007 film score has been as influential to the world of 007 as GOLDFINGER
I don't disagree with all the reasons put forth above by Mr. Cheers.
Along with the 1964 'invasion' of The Beatles, I point my finger towards this James Bond flick as the final nails in the coffins of Golden Age studio orchestra film scoring, though.
The influence of pop music and James Bond rendered Clifton Parker, William Alwyn, Georges Auric, Humphrey Sealre, Benjamin Frankel, etc., as rendundant, 'old hat' and undesirable.
In Hollywood, Hugo Friedhofer, Franz Waxman, Miklos Rozsa, Dimitri Tiomkin, etc., we no longer sought-after-properties during and after 1964. By 1968, Daniele Amfitheatrof was selling insurance to earn income after his film scoring career during the '40s & '50s dried up by the time of DR. NO.
I suspect the the James Bond 'sound' was what Universal Studios' executive Wasserman and Alfred Hitchcock wanted for Torn Curtain and Hitchcock had difficulty communicating to Bernard Herrmann that they wanted his Torn score to imitate John Barry.
Guys such as Andre Previn and Malcolm Arnold left the film-scoring scenes altogether prior to the 1970s.
If it wasn't Goldfinger, though, it likely would have been something similar anyway because the whole 'spy' genre inhabited the mid-'60s' overall zietgeist. Italian knock-offs of English spy movies produced a number of memorable Euro-Spy soundtracks, too!
Praise Goldfinger if one must, but in my middle age I prefer to listen to pre-Bond soundtracks from the '50s and ... when in my mood to listen to cinematic espionage ... I turn towards Riz Ortolani or Armando Trovajoli instead of John Barry.
By the way, last year Digitmovies released Carlo Savina's 1966 Goldsnake on both vinyl LP as well as usual CD formats. I bought the CD and like it much; it may not be my amongst my favo(u)rite Savina discs but I would still recommend it.
I wonder if any U.K. FSMers (who love Barry's Bonds) have ever purchased any Italian Euro-Spy soundtacks?
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Yes, the Goldfinger score was groundbreaking and trendsetting. It is the DNA which is passed down in each Bond film. Serra used it in Goldeneye, it is used in the intro to the License to Kill song, Arnold regularly used the wailing brass in his scores, at the height of the the Westminster Bridge finale in Spectre, Newman uses Barry Goldfinger brass to heighten tension.
This one really launched Barry's career into the stratosphere and he never looked back.
Barry's initial Bond score, From Russia With Love is very different, darker, more moody but still a wonderful score but didn't set the long term trend that Bond music would follow over the decades.
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It is a favorite of mine too and the score that got me into soundtracks. The movie has everything, a villain in Odd Job, Great European locations, mysterious Fort Knox, Gadgets and a good cast. My dad somehow borrowed my OHMSS soundtrack, he just loved Louie Armstrong’s We Have All The Time in the World. Really a beautiful song. I read somewhere at the time that North by Northwest was the forerunner of the James Bond movies and I ended up buying Herrmann’s London albums.
I'm pretty sure that Herrmann himself says this about North By Northwest on the notes on one of the back covers of the Phase 4 series. And thumbs up to Goldfinger too. Definitely one of the best, both in terms of the music and it's legacy.
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I've said on a different thread that Goldfinger was the most influential film score of the mid to late 60s right up to The Graduate, especially when considering the dozens of spy films that followed. Not all of those scores imitated Barry, but they often had to acknowledge Barry's spy sound in some way; Schifrin's The Liquidator song being one of the most blatant examples.
The song Goldfinger makes its mark in a grand way with just that clarion blast of brass before Bassey even starts in. Everyone talks about how Bassey belted out the song, but listen again: After that opening brass blast, Barry lowers the volume and Bassey enters at an almost conversational level . . . before elevating again.
The score was so self-assured, ballsy, brash. Nobody else would have scored Goldfinger the way Barry did.
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I've said on a different thread that Goldfinger was the most influential film score of the mid to late 60s right up to The Graduate, especially when considering the dozens of spy films that followed. Not all of those scores imitated Barry, but they often had to acknowledge Barry's spy sound in some way; Schifrin's The Liquidator song being one of the most blatant examples.
The song Goldfinger makes its mark in a grand way with just that clarion blast of brass before Bassey even starts in. Everyone talks about how Bassey belted out the song, but listen again: After that opening brass blast, Barry lowers the volume and Bassey enters at an almost conversational level . . . before elevating again.
The score was so self-assured, ballsy, brash. Nobody else would have scored Goldfinger the way Barry did.
Yes, I love the way we get a moment of quiet after the initial burst. A great intro for the singer allowing her the space to start. When it came to Thunderball we don't get that. It's straight on from the intro to old Tom belting the song out!
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Well it gets my vote as one of the best Bond scores ever despite the mindnumbing repetitiveness of Dawn Raid on fort knox, possibly Barry's worst track! Just my opinion. Dont shoot me. 
I loved that miami track right after the title and the crisp one-note sound he uses when Bond discovers Shirley Eaton.
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I guess I'm just saying GOLDFINGER deserves an extra special round of applause, even if it was surpassed a few times along the way.
All valid, and well put. But it will always come back to the incredible run Barry had with Bond. How he could sustain an apex as high as this...
Goldfinger
Thunderball
You Only Live Twice
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Diamonds are Forever
...for five films in a row, is a mystery. The other Barry Bonds all have some wonderful cues in them, but these five core works are true greatness. And you need the expanded CDs to fully appreciate it, especially on Diamonds are Forever, but really on all of them.
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Into Miami is really the coolest ever jaz cue ever in a film, I often why on Earth Barry never did a more full length track of this tune.
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Yeah, I know—GOLDFINGER is ooooold news.
But sometimes I think it's worth singing the praises of an old classic and starting a new conversation about it. I suspect it's a while since we stroked some of the classic scores that converted people into Soundtrackers.
The thing about GOLDFINGER in and among Bond scores is this.
It deserves extra praise for being the score that really created the style and expectations of James Bond music that endure to this very day.
It broke new ground.
It defined something not defined before.
It was an original triumph created when no prior template or formula existed—and was a hit.
It was a score so good it pressed a deep imprint on the metal of the cinematic 007 world that no rival score could hammer out.
Now, I don't know about you, but as great as GOLDFINGER is, I feel that John Barry surpassed his work on GOLDFINGER several times during the course of the series.
I wonder, therefore, why he kept going back to GOLDFINGER when asked which his favourite score was?
I can only assume it indicates that Barry was fondest of his breakthrough works, as this was.
You see, even if DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER was GOLDFINGER 'with knobs on', and OHMSS was stratospherically good, neither was as INFLUENTIAL as GOLDFINGER.
Neither broke ground like that.
And that's the difference—INFLUENCE, and breaking ground.
Maybe that's because they already had foundations to build on. The foundations laid by, yes, GOLDFINGER.
With that in mind, I sometimes think that in the 56 years since the ground was broken, we might have forgotten just how original, important and groundbreaking GOLDFINGER was.
Time tends to smudge the important influence things had when they were new.
I put it to you, members of the jury, that no 007 film score has been as influential to the world of 007 as GOLDFINGER.
I'm rambling, aren't I?
I guess I'm just saying GOLDFINGER deserves an extra special round of applause, even if it was surpassed a few times along the way.
Cheers
The first 2 notes of "Goldfinger" are the same as "Moon River" and they stick out like a sore thumb.
When Barry first played them for Newley and Bricusse they both sang "MR".
FYI John Scott plays the ad-lib alto sax solo on "Miami". I met Mr. Scott a few times and we discussed Barry's style.
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