| On Her Majesty's Secret Service | ||||
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 Album cover art by Terence Gilbert | ||||
| Soundtrack album by | ||||
| Released | 1969 | |||
| Recorded | October 1969 | |||
| Label | EMI | |||
| Producer | Phil Ramone | |||
| John Barry chronology | ||||
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| James Bond soundtrack chronology | ||||
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| Singles from On Her Majesty's Secret Service | ||||
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| Review scores | |
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| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  [1] |
On Her Majesty's Secret Service ("OHMSS") is the 1969 soundtrack for the James Bond film. It was composed,arranged,and conducted by John Barry;his fifth in the series.
The opening theme for On Her Majesty's Secret Service proved challenging for composer John Barry. The convention in the previous James Bond films was to accompany the opening credits with a song whose lyrics included the film's title. This film became the first in the series since From Russia with Love to deviate from this rule (and From Russia with Love had differed only in featuring the song,sung by Matt Monro,at the end of the film rather than the beginning).
Barry felt it would be difficult to compose a theme song containing the title "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" unless it was written operatically,in the style of Gilbert and Sullivan. Leslie Bricusse had considered lyrics for the title song [2] but director Peter R. Hunt allowed an instrumental opening title theme in the tradition of the first two Bond films Dr. No and From Russia with Love.
The track is also notable for its use of the Moog synthesizer in its bassline. This instrument's distinctive sound would become a mainstay of other film soundtracks in the 1970s.
The opening theme,"On Her Majesty's Secret Service",also serves as an action theme alternate to Monty Norman's "James Bond Theme" - a piece of music which makes its last appearance in this film. Barry's arrangement of Norman's "James Bond Theme",first used in Dr. No in 1962,had been used throughout Sean Connery's tenure as James Bond from 1962 to 1967,but since "On Her Majesty's Secret Service",the theme has been incorporated as a melody within each film's score,rather than as a standalone piece.
"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was remixed in 1997 by the Propellerheads for the David Arnold compilation Shaken and Stirred:The David Arnold James Bond Project .
Nic Raine,Barry's orchestrator,created an arrangement of the "Escape from Piz Gloria" sequence that was featured in a teaser trailer for Pixar's 2004 animated film The Incredibles . Notably,the performance of the piece used in the trailer was conducted by John Barry himself. (Barry had been asked to write the score for The Incredibles,but declined as he did not want to duplicate his older work.)
The soundtrack of the 2021 James Bond film No Time to Die contains references to two tracks from this soundtrack: [3]
Barry also composed the love song "We Have All the Time in the World" sung by Louis Armstrong,with lyrics by Hal David,Burt Bacharach's regular lyricist. "We Have All the Time in the World" is often mistakenly referred to as the opening credits theme,when in fact the song is played within the film,during the James Bond (George Lazenby)–Tracy di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg) courtship montage,bridging Marc-Ange Draco (Gabriele Ferzetti)'s birthday party in Portugal and Bond's burglary of Gebrüder Gumbold's (James Bree) law office in Bern,Switzerland. It is also heard during the short scene where Bond is in his office clearing his desk having just offered his resignation - also included in this musical cue are elements of "Under the Mango Tree" from Dr. No,the instrumental version of "From Russia with Love",and "Thunderball". "We Have All The Time In The World" was Armstrong's last recorded song (he died of a heart attack two years later),and at the time of release it barely made an impact on the charts.
Barry and David also wrote two other songs for the film,both performed by Danish singer Nina. One,entitled "Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown?",was featured in the film in several scenes. [4] The other,"The More Things Change",was recorded by Nina at the same session,but did not end up in the finished film. Instead,it appeared as the b-side of the UK single of "Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown?" and an instrumental version of it appeared on John Barry's 1970 LP Ready When You Are J.B. [5]
Tracks 1–11 represent the original 1969 album presentation.
In 2003, the soundtrack was digitally remastered and re-released with additional tracks (tracks 12 to 21); the liner notes state that these additional tracks contain "previously unreleased music within cue". For legal reasons, the additional tracks were placed after the tracks making up the original soundtrack. In both the original soundtrack and its re-release, the tracks are not in the order in which they occur in the film.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)