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Today, from the Bond on Vinyl archives, we’re moving on and listening to music related to The Man With The Golden Gun!
Rock legend Alice Cooper, along with his original band lineup, was apparently a big fan of Bond film music, even admitting in a 1972 Rolling Stone interview, “We swiped about 11 bits from the Goldfinger soundtrack on the first album, just redid them in guitar.” When recording their latest album in 1973, they included their own rocking version of ‘Man With The Golden Gun’ as it was well known that this was to be the next Bond story adapted for the big screen, and they hoped their song would be selected.
Bond producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman had considered getting Cat Stevens or Elton John to perform the film’s main theme, ultimately selecting Scottish singer Lulu to sing the song written by composer John Barry with lyrics by Don Black.
According to Cooper, “It actually came in a day too late. By the time [the producers] heard it, they’d already signed for Lulu’s song. I went, “You’re gonna take Lulu over this? ’Cause it was perfect for The Man With the Golden Gun. It had helicopters, it had machine guns — it had the Pointer Sisters, Ronnie Spector, and Liza Minnelli doing background vocals! We went to every single one of those John Barry albums to try and invent the perfect James Bond song. Even Christopher Lee, who played [the villain] Scaramanga in the movie, said, “Oh, man, why did we take the Lulu song? This song is the one!”
I’m not sure how well this timeline matches up, as Cooper’s album was released in November 1973, the same month The Man with the Golden Gun started filming. In fact, the band broke up within a few months, long before the film’s December 1974 theatrical premiere.
Lulu’s version of the theme (and the soundtrack) was later quoted by Barry as “It’s the one I hate most …” due to the final product being rushed. While the alternate version of the main theme would likely not have saved Golden Gun from being the lowest-grossing of the Roger Moore Bond films, it is a fun listen.
Yes, the packaging is made to look like stained cardboard.😜
80. Alice Cooper – Muscle Of Love
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