- "That's a charming tune."
- ― James Bond.
The James Bond Theme is the main signature theme of the James Bond film series and is featured in every EON Productions 007 film since Dr. No in different versions. The piece has been used as the accompanying fanfare to the gun barrel sequence in almost every James Bond film. It is set in the key of F, with a B flat.
The James Bond Theme has accompanied the opening titles twice, as part of the medley that opens Dr. No and then again in the opening credits of From Russia with Love. It has been used as music over the end credits for Dr. No, Thunderball, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The World Is Not Enough, Casino Royale, and Quantum of Solace.
Monty Norman has been credited with writing the song and he has received royalties since 1962, although producers had his arrangement rearranged by John Barry. Thus, a debate rages on about who is the true composer of the theme.
In the made-for-DVD documentary Inside Dr. No, Norman performs a piece of music he wrote for the stage several years earlier entitled Bad Sign, Good Sign, that resembles the melody of the "James Bond Theme" in several places, and is based on Indian music.
The song uses a surf rock style guitar riff, as the genre was a craze in the early 1960s.
Media[]
Trivia[]
- In the 1983 film Octopussy (film), Bond's snake-charming Indian contact signals him by playing the Bond theme on a flute.
- One of the series' most unusual renditions of the theme may be heard during the truck chase in the 1989 James Bond film, Licence to Kill. Ricocheting bullets sound out the tune on 007's stolen tanker truck.[1]
- Author Steve Cole subtly meta-references the theme in his 2014 Young Bond novel, Shoot to Kill. It is the "distinctive and jazzy" music played during the Dartington students' visit to the Kostler Academy.[2][3]
References[]
- ↑ (2001) Licence to Kill (Special Edition DVD) booklet (in En-US). Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, p.4.
- ↑ Cole, Steve (6 November 2014). "Chapter 18: Hell of a Tour", Shoot to Kill, Young Bond (in En-UK). London: Doubleday Childrens. ISBN 0857533738. “They passed the concert hall. Music was swelling out from inside, distinctive and jazzy with a mid-tempo beat, brasses and strings and needling steel guitars. James didn’t recognize the tune, but felt a sense of anticipation and danger in its ominous swagger; right now it felt as if the musicians were scoring his mood.”
- ↑ --, Don (15th December 2018). 003 Interview Steve Cole (En-UK) (Podcast). The 00 Files. Soundcloud. Retrieved on 2020-12-08.