Welcome to Vinyl Stylus, a blog about good music, and what makes music good.

Here, you'll find Rocks In The Attic - a disc by disc journey through my entire vinyl collection.

In a world full of TV talent shows, greatest hits CDs and manufactured pop, take a stroll through something that's good for your ears and good for your soul.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Rocks In The Attic #21: Monty Norman - ‘Dr.No (O.S.T.)’ (1963)

Another gem in my record collection - an original copy of the soundtrack to the first James Bond film, Dr. No - released in 1963 to coincide with the American release of the film in June of that year (the film was originally released in the UK on the 5th of October 1962, the same day as The Beatles’ first 7” single Love Me Do).

It’s a shame that John Barry’s work on this album is uncredited, given how vital he was to the music of 007 over the next three decades. He arranged the James Bond Theme, and orchestrated the final song on the album, but the rest of the soundtrack is credited to composer Monty Norman, writer of the James Bond Theme.

This soundtrack is very calypso-sounding, because of the film’s setting in the West Indies. It sounds quite fresh, and is probably the only time a Bond soundtrack has ever leant so much towards a specific genre of music - at least until the soundtrack for The Spy Who Loved Me goes all disco. Ugh.

Hit: James Bond Theme
Hidden Gem: Under The Mango Tree

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