Recommended music: [skip to 21:15 for Goldfinger]
For tonight’s Bond on Vinyl post, we are still listening to music related to Goldfinger!
Born in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1920, Alexander Emil Caiola showed an interest in music in his youth. Rather than follow in his father’s footsteps as a barber, Caiola desired to be a singer but was soon convinced by his father to also seek career opportunities by playing an instrument. Soon enough, Caiola learned to play the banjo and, by the age of eleven, he was already a child prodigy on the guitar.
Al formally trained with guitarists in both Jersey City and New York City. When he was sixteen, he sang and played guitar on the children’s radio program ‘Sally and Sam’ along with jazz guitarist Tony Mottola.
Caiola’s music career took a different turn when he joined United States Marine Corps. Throughout World War II, Caiola played trumpet in the Marine Band, and toured much of the Pacific Theater, until the bandmembers were assigned to active combat. Eventually, Caiola was also included and served as a stretcher bearer during the Battle of Iwo Jima. Following the war, he took advantage of the G.I. Bill to study music composition and theory at New Jersey College of Music.
That’s enough Al Caiola talk for tonight as his covers of James Bond music appear on a few albums in my collection. This 1965 compilation ‘Sounds For Spies And Private Eyes’ includes themes from many films and television shows in the spy genre, including Goldfinger. The record is full of jazzy surf rock with Caiola nailing the guitar, and even though I am not familiar with all the themes, the whole album is a fun listen.
132. Al Caiola – Sounds for Spies and Private Eyes
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