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Today, from the Bond on Vinyl archives, we’re listening to music from The Spy Who Loved Me!
In 1968, American composer Wendy Carlos (who later wrote the electronic music for A Clockwork Orange) released her first album through Columbia Records. The album was titled ‘Switched-On Bach.’ It was a compilation of electronic classical music by Johann Sebastian Bach, and was performed on the recently invented Moog synthesizer. The album was on the US Billboard 200 chart for 59 weeks, peaking at #10. On the Billboard Classical Albums chart, the album stayed at #1 for 36 months. By 1974, the album became just the second classical music record in history to be certified Gold by selling more than a million copies. In 1986, the album reached Platinum certification in November 1986.
What does that have to do with this album? Well, Columbia Records released an album of non-electronic acoustic versions of all the same songs titled ‘Switched Off Bach’, including Spanish conductor Pablo Casals leading The Marlboro Festival Orchestra playing Bach’s Air On A G String (from Suite No. 3 In D Major).
So, what does this have to do with this Bond? Well, in The Spy Who Loved Me, Bach’s Air on the G String is played on screen when the main villain, Karl Stromberg (who wants to nuke the world and start a new civilization under the sea), wants to hear some great music while watching sharks eat his unfaithful henchwoman.
114. Switched Off Bach
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