John Barry Prendergast was an English composer and conductor of film music. Born in York, Barry spent his early years working in cinemas owned by his father. During his national service with the British Army in Cyprus, Barry began performing as a musician after learning to play the trumpet. Upon completing his national service, he formed a band in 1957, the John Barry Seven. He later developed an interest in composing and arranging music, making his début for television in 1958. He came to the notice of the makers of the first James Bond film Dr. No, who were dissatisfied with a theme for James Bond given to them by Monty Norman. Noel Rogers, the head of music at United Artists, approached Barry. This started a successful association between Barry and the Bond series that lasted for 25 years.
Thomas Montgomery Newman is an American composer and conductor best known for his many film scores. In a career that has spanned over four decades, he has scored numerous films including The Player (1992), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), The Horse Whisperer (1998), American Beauty and The Green Mile, Pay It Forward (2000), In the Bedroom (2001), Road to Perdition and White Oleander, Finding Nemo (2003) and its sequel Finding Dory (2016), Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004), Cinderella Man (2005), WALL-E (2008), the James Bond films Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015), Bridge of Spies (2015), 1917 (2019), and Elemental (2023). He also composed the music for the HBO drama series Six Feet Under (2001) and 2003 miniseries Angels in America. Throughout his career, he has collaborated extensively with directors such as Sam Mendes, Andrew Stanton, Frank Darabont, Steven Soderbergh, Jon Avnet, John Madden and John Lee Hancock.
David Arnold is an English film composer whose credits include scoring five James Bond films, as well as Stargate (1994), Independence Day (1996), Godzilla (1998) and the television series Little Britain and Sherlock. For Independence Day, he received a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television, and for Sherlock, he and co-composer Michael Price won a Creative Arts Emmy for the score of "His Last Vow", the final episode in the third series. Arnold scored the BBC / Amazon Prime series Good Omens (2019) adapted by Neil Gaiman from his book Good Omens, written with Terry Pratchett. Arnold is a fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors.
Casino Royale is a 2006 spy film, the twenty-first in the Eon Productions James Bond series, and the third screen adaptation of Ian Fleming's 1953 novel of the same name. Directed by Martin Campbell from a screenplay by Neil Purvis, Robert Wade, and Paul Haggis, it stars Daniel Craig in his first appearance as Bond, alongside Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Judi Dench, and Jeffrey Wright. In the film, Bond is on assignment to bankrupt terrorism financier Le Chiffre (Mikkelsen) in a high-stakes poker game at the Casino Royale in Montenegro.
Since its inception in 1962, the James Bond film series from Eon Productions has featured many musical compositions, many of which are now considered classic pieces of British film music. The best known piece is the "James Bond Theme" composed by Monty Norman. Other instrumentals, such as "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", and various songs performed by British or American artists such as Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger", Nancy Sinatra's "You Only Live Twice", Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die", Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better", Sheena Easton's "For Your Eyes Only", Duran Duran's "A View to a Kill", Tina Turner's "GoldenEye" also become identified with the series.
The "James Bond Theme" is the main signature theme music of the James Bond films and has featured in every Bond film since Dr. No in 1962. Composed in E minor by Monty Norman, the piece has been used as an accompanying fanfare to the gun barrel sequence in every Eon Bond film besides Casino Royale.
The Spy Who Loved Me is the soundtrack for the tenth James Bond The Spy Who Loved Me. The soundtrack is one of only two Bond soundtracks to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score. The other score nominated was Skyfall (2012).
The World Is Not Enough is the 1999 soundtrack of the 19th James Bond film of the same name and the second Bond soundtrack composed by David Arnold. The score features more instances of electronic music, which Arnold included to "make the thing a little more contemporary". To add an ethnic flavor to tracks that conveyed the film's Turkey and Central Asia setting, Arnold brought in percussionist Pete Lockett, qanun player Abdullah Chhadeh, and singer Natacha Atlas.
"You Know My Name" is the theme song of the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale, performed by American musician Chris Cornell, who wrote and produced it jointly with David Arnold, the soundtrack's composer. The film producers chose Cornell because they wanted a strong male singer. Cornell and Arnold tried to make the song a replacement theme for the character instead of the "James Bond Theme" reflecting the agent's inexperience in Casino Royale, as well as an introduction to Daniel Craig's grittier and more emotional portrayal of Bond.
Casino Royale: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. The soundtrack to the 2006 film Casino Royale was released by Sony Classical on 14 November 2006. The music was composed by David Arnold and is Arnold's fourth soundtrack for the popular James Bond movie series. Frequent collaborator Nicholas Dodd orchestrated and conducted the score.
Tomorrow Never Dies: Music from the Motion Picture is the soundtrack of the 18th James Bond film of the same name.
The James Bond film series is a British series of spy films based on the fictional character of MI6 agent James Bond, "007", who originally appeared in a series of books by Ian Fleming. It is one of the longest continually running film series in history, having been in ongoing production from 1962 to the present. In that time, Eon Productions has produced 25 films as of 2021, most of them at Pinewood Studios. With a combined gross of over $7 billion, the films produced by Eon constitute the fifth-highest-grossing film series. Six actors have portrayed 007 in the Eon series, the latest being Daniel Craig.
Quantum of Solace: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album for the James Bond film of the same name. Released on 17 October 2008. The album contains the score composed by David Arnold. It is Arnold's fifth soundtrack for the James Bond franchise. His frequent collaborator Nicholas Dodd orchestrated and conducted the score.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to James Bond:
Skyfall is a 2012 spy film and the twenty-third in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions. The film is the third to star Daniel Craig as fictional MI6 agent James Bond and features Javier Bardem as Raoul Silva, the villain, with Judi Dench returning as M. Directed by Sam Mendes and written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and John Logan, the film has Bond investigating a series of targeted data leaks and co-ordinated attacks on MI6 led by Silva. It sees the return of two recurring characters, Miss Moneypenny and Q, after an absence of two films. Ralph Fiennes, Bérénice Marlohe, and Albert Finney are among the supporting cast.
"Skyfall" is a song recorded by English singer Adele for the James Bond film of the same name. It was written by Adele and producer Paul Epworth and features orchestration by J. A. C. Redford. British film production company Eon Productions invited the singer to work on the theme song in early 2011, a task that Adele accepted after reading the film's script. While composing the song, Adele and Epworth aimed to capture the mood and style of the other Bond themes, including dark and moody lyrics descriptive of the film's plot. "Skyfall" was released at 0:07 BST on 5 October 2012 as part of the Global James Bond Day, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of Dr. No, the first James Bond film.
Sévérine is a fictional character who appears in the 23rd James Bond filmSkyfall (2012). Played by Bérénice Marlohe, Sévérine is a former sex slave who works as an accomplice of Raoul Silva. She collaborates with James Bond to stop her boss, but is captured and killed by Silva.
Spectre is a 2015 spy film and the twenty-fourth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions. Directed by Sam Mendes and written by John Logan, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Jez Butterworth from a story conceived by Logan, Purvis, and Wade, it stars Daniel Craig as Bond, alongside Christoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Dave Bautista, Monica Bellucci, and Ralph Fiennes. It was distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. In the film, Bond battles Spectre, an international crime organisation led by Franz Oberhauser (Waltz).
Spectre: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album to the 24th James Bond film of the same name. Released by Universal Music Classics on 23 October 2015 in the United Kingdom and on 6 November 2015 in the United States, the music was composed by Thomas Newman, who previously composed the soundtrack of the 23rd Bond film Skyfall, making him the third composer after John Barry and David Arnold to score more than one film in the series. The film's theme song "Writing's on the Wall" performed by Sam Smith is the fourth theme song that doesn't feature the title of its film in the lyrics. It is also the third song after "You Know My Name" (2006) and "Skyfall" (2012) that did not appear on the film's official soundtrack album.
No Time to Die: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album to the 25th James Bond film of the same name. Released by Decca Records on 1 October 2021, the music was composed by Hans Zimmer, making him the sixth non-British composer after Marvin Hamlisch, Bill Conti, Michael Kamen, Éric Serra and Thomas Newman to score a film in the series. The film's theme song of the same name performed by Billie Eilish, was composed with her brother Finneas O'Connell. The 12" vinyl album version features an additional four short music cues listed only as Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4.
