Seven Great John Barry James Bond Scores
John Barry defined the sound of 007.
To celebrate the upcoming release of the new James Bond film No Time to Die, here are snippets from seven of the greatest James Bond scores, all courtesy of the late, great John Barry. Other composers have worked on Bond films, but none have come close to matching his musical genius.
I’m deliberately omitting the James Bond theme itself from this list, as it is such an obvious choice. I also don’t want to get into semantic arguments about the fact that technically Monty Norman composed the Bond theme. True, but Barry arranged it to the point that it barely resembled the original, and all but made it his own. Barry is uncredited on first Bond film Dr No, but he was the creative force behind the main theme’s iconic arrangement.
At any rate, here are seven selections from John Barry’s fabulous Bond scores. Rest assured I haven’t forgotten the Bond title songs. I will discuss them in a separate article, later this week.
First up, here’s a segment of the Thunderball score, during the SPECTRE hijacking of the Vulcan aircraft carrying the nuclear weapons. It introduces the eerie underwater theme also used throughout much of the film (at around 3:23). I love Barry’s ominous use of the piano.
