Recommended music:
Tonight, we’re listening to music from the first four Bond films, Diamonds Are Forever and The Spy Who Loved Me! Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a recording of all of these, so you’ll need to pick up the vinyl yourself.
Born in London in 1930, Alan Stanley Tew broke out in the 1950s as the arranger and pianist for the British Len Turner Band. By 1960, Tew composed the song “Zou Bisou Bisou” (also known as “Zoo Be Zoo Be Zoo.” Originally performed by both Gillian Hills and Sophia Loren in 1960, with many covers over the next five decades, the song was even featured in the season five premiere of the TV show Mad Men.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Tew continued his career composing stock music, which was then licensed for films and television. While I am not familiar with most of the British programs in his credits, some of the musical cues he created would later be used as incidental music in modern shows such as SpongeBob SquarePants.
Tew released half a dozen albums of his own and more than twenty records with his own orchestra, the Alan Tew Orchestra, in the 1970s. In addition to a collaboration with Cat Stevens, the 1970s saw Tew’s Orchestra produce some bombastic scores that eventually helped develop funk music. In 2009, his arrangements were used in the score for Black Dynamite, a dozen years after his passing. His funky music would go on to be sampled by a variety of hip-hop artists, including Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, and Ice Cube.
The album that brought Tew to my attention is this 1978 jazz/pop compilation, “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.” The music really reminds me of Meco’s disco-esque covers on ‘Music Inspired By Star Wars And Other Galactic Funk’, released the year before. Not only does this album feature Star Wars and Close Encounters (hence the album name) among the film and TV tunes, but it also features a pair of Bond tracks. The most recent Bond song, ‘Nobody Does It Better’ from “The Spy Who Loved Me,” is included on the A-side. At the same time, the B-side ends with a unique 007 medley featuring The James Bond Theme first heard in Dr. No, and instrumental covers of From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, and Diamonds Are Forever.
128. Alan Tew – Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
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