On Her Majesty's Secret Service | ||||
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Soundtrack album by John Barry Performed by Louis Armstrong | ||||
Released | 1969 | |||
Recorded | October 1969 | |||
Label | EMI | |||
Producer | Phil Ramone | |||
John Barry Performed by Louis Armstrong 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 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.
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 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 Shaken and Stirred:The David Arnold James Bond Project album.
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.)
No Time to Die:Original Motion Picture Soundtrack 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 Bond–Tracy courtship montage,bridging Draco's birthday party in Portugal and Bond's burglary of the Gebrüder Gumbold 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". Due to 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 chronological order in which they occur in the film.
Diamonds Are Forever is a 1971 spy film, the seventh in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions. It is the sixth and final Eon film to star Sean Connery, who returned to the role as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond, having declined to reprise the role in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969).
The Best of Bond... James Bond is the title of various compilation albums of music used in the James Bond films made by Eon Productions up to that time. The album was originally released in 1992 as The Best of James Bond, as a one-disc compilation and a two-disc 30th Anniversary Limited Edition compilation with songs that had, at that point, never been released to the public. The single disc compilation was later updated four times in 1999, 2002, 2008, and 2012. The 2008 version was augmented with the addition of a DVD featuring music videos and a documentary. Another two-disc edition, this time containing 50 tracks for the 50th anniversary of the franchise, was released in 2012.
John Barry Prendergast was an English composer and conductor of film music.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the tenth novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, first published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 1 April 1963. The initial and secondary print runs sold out, with over 60,000 books sold in the first month. Fleming wrote the book in Jamaica whilst the first film in the Eon Productions series of films, Dr. No, was being filmed nearby.
Piz Gloria is a revolving restaurant at the 2,970 m (9,740 ft)-high summit of the Schilthorn near Mürren in the Bernese Oberland, Switzerland.
The James Bond film series from Eon Productions has featured numerous musical compositions since its inception 1962, many of which are now considered classic pieces of British film music. The best known of these pieces is the "James Bond Theme" by Monty Norman. Other instrumentals, such as "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", and various songs performed by several notable 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; Madonna's "Die Another Day" became a dance hit around the world, while A View to a Kill becomes the first and only James Bond song to have reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. Three Bond songs have won the Academy Award for Best Original Song: "Skyfall" by Adele, "Writing's on the Wall" by Sam Smith and "No Time to Die" by Billie Eilish, with Writing's on the Wall also became the first Bond theme to reach number one on the UK Singles Chart.
The "James Bond Theme" is the main signature theme music of the James Bond films and has featured in every Eon Productions Bond film since Dr. No, released in 1962. Composed by Monty Norman, the piece has been used as an accompanying fanfare to the gun barrel sequence in every Eon Bond film besides the 2006 reboot Casino Royale.
"We Have All the Time in the World" is a James Bond theme and popular song sung by Louis Armstrong. Its music was composed by John Barry and the lyrics by Hal David. It is a secondary musical theme in the 1969 Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, the title theme being the instrumental "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", also composed by Barry. The song title is taken from Bond's final words in both the novel and the film, spoken after the death of Tracy Bond, his wife. As Armstrong was too ill to play his trumpet, it was therefore played by another musician. Barry chose Armstrong because he felt he could "deliver the title line with irony".
You Only Live Twice is a 1967 spy film and the fifth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, starring Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It is the first Bond film to be directed by Lewis Gilbert, who later directed the 1977 film The Spy Who Loved Me and the 1979 film Moonraker, both starring Roger Moore. The screenplay of You Only Live Twice was written by Roald Dahl, and loosely based on Ian Fleming's 1964 novel of the same name. It is the first James Bond film to discard most of Fleming's plot, using only a few characters and locations from the book as the background for an entirely new story.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service is a 1969 spy film and the sixth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions. It is based on the 1963 novel by Ian Fleming. Following Sean Connery's decision to retire from the role after You Only Live Twice, Eon selected George Lazenby, a model with no prior acting credits, to play the part of James Bond. During filming, Lazenby announced that he would play the role of Bond only once.
You Only Live Twice is the soundtrack for the fifth James Bond film of the same name. It was composed by Bond veteran John Barry. At the time, this was his fourth credited Bond film. The theme song, "You Only Live Twice", was sung by Nancy Sinatra, the first non-British vocalist of the series, with music by Barry and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse. The soundtrack has previously been available in two versions on CD – the first, a straight reissue of the LP soundtrack, and the second, an expanded reissue including several previously unreleased tracks. The film soundtrack was recorded at CTS Studios, London. It debuted on the top 40 Billboard 200 album chart on August 19, 1967, and went up to 27.
For Your Eyes Only is the soundtrack for the 12th James Bond film of the same name.
Casino Royale: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. The soundtrack to the 2006 film Casino Royale was released by Sony Classical on November 14, 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.
The Man with the Golden Gun is the soundtrack for the ninth James Bond film of the same name.
Goldfinger is the soundtrack of the 1964 film of the same name, the third film in the James Bond film series, directed by Guy Hamilton. The album was composed by John Barry and distributed by EMI. Two versions were released initially, one in the United States and the United Kingdom, which varied in terms of length and which tracks were within the soundtrack. In 2003, Capitol-EMI records released a remastered version that contained all the tracks within the film.
Octopussy is the soundtrack for the eponymous thirteenth James Bond film. The score was composed by John Barry, the lyrics by Tim Rice. The opening theme, "All Time High" is sung by Rita Coolidge and is one of six Bond film title songs or songs that are not named after film's title.
Teresa "Tracy" Bond is a fictional character and the main Bond girl in the 1963 James Bond novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and its 1969 film adaptation. She is the second Bond girl to marry 007, the first being in You Only Live Twice as an undercover ploy. In the film version, Tracy is played by actress Diana Rigg.
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.
Birg is a summit of the Bernese Alps, overlooking the valley of Lauterbrunnen in the canton of Bern. It lies on the east flank of the Schilthorn, above the village of Mürren.
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.