Tag: review

Diamonds Are Forever

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For tonight’s Bond on Vinyl post, we’re back to Connery era Bond tunes, and listening to music from Diamonds Are Forever!

Maxine Barrie may not be a household name in the same vein as the Welsh singer Dame Shirley Bassey, but she surely can sing some Shirley Bassey tunes. Working odd jobs in addition to being an unnamed television extra, Barrie’s claim to fame was her appearance on the long-running British television talent series, Stars in Their Eyes. Based on the Dutch show ‘Soundmixshow,’ the program featured a singing contest where members of the public impersonated showbiz stars, running for seventeen seasons.

On the show’s first season during the summer of 1990, Barrie performed as Shirley Bassey and was the series’s Champion. Following the program, Barrie has continued to impersonate the legendary singer as her full-time gig and is versatile in singing all genres of music originally sung by Bassey. She performs in theaters, on cruise ships, and at London Fashion Week.

For recordings, Barrie is credited as Miss B featuring Maxine Barrie, including for this 12” single of ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ released by Klone Records in the UK in 1997. Despite the vocals not quite matching up to Bassey during the original 1970s recordings, it’s a unique album of electronic, Euro House music. The song’s included remixes are more about dance music than vocals, as evident in both the ‘Bondage Mix’ on the A-side and the ‘Shaken Mix’ on the B-side.

143. Miss B Featuring Maxine Barrie – Diamonds Are Forever

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It looks like she was still going with this act more than 20 years later:

Warum Ist Die Welt So Schön

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For tonight’s Bond on Vinyl post, we’re moving on from Connery and listening to music from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service!

Born Karin Witkiewicz in 1945 in Poland, Katja Ebstein is a prominent German singer, actress, and activist. Active since 1969, she established herself in the German music scene with the Schlager genre, singing catchy, light pop tunes.

Ebstein is an enduring figure in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest, having represented Germany three times without ever winning. She achieved third place in 1970 and again in 1971. Her best result came in the 1980 contest, where she finished a close second with the song “Theater.” This performance made her the only performer to appear in the top three on three separate occasions, marking her as one of the most successful non-winning artists in the contest’s history.

Beyond pop music, Ebstein has maintained a broad artistic career. She’s been a stage performer for over 50 years, playing leading roles in theatre and on TV, and has recorded a wide range of musical and literary material. Besides her native German, Ebstein has sung in English, French, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish during her career.

This 7” German single from 1969, ‘Warum ist die Welt so schön’ or ‘Why is the world so beautiful’ carries a Bond connection on the B-Side. While the title track is catchy even if you don’t know German, the song that caught my attention was ‘Wovon Träumt Ein Weihnachtsbaum Im Mai.’ Now, while that roughly translates to ‘What does a Christmas tree dream about in May,’ it is a German cover of the song ‘Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown.’ If I knew German, I might say it’s as good as the original sung by Danish singer Nina in OHMSS, but I’ll leave it as a close second, and ahead of the instrumental version I shared last year. (See Bond on Vinyl 109). Anyways, it sounds like Bond and Christmas to me.

142. Katja Ebstein – Warum Ist Die Welt So Schön

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A Time For Love

Recommended music: [Skip to 5:30 for You Only Live Twice]

For tonight’s Bond on Vinyl post, we’re still listening to music from You Only Live Twice!

Robert Leo Hackett was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1915. The son of a blacksmith, and with eight siblings, Hackett left school at age 14 to earn money playing guitar and violin for a band at a local Chinese restaurant. After seeing a performance by jazz legend Louis Armstrong in the 1930s, Hackett was inspired and learned to play both the trumpet and the cornet. He spent a few years playing in bands around the northeast and moved to New York City in 1937. At this point in his career, Hackett started playing Dixieland and easy listening music, later joining both Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman swing music bands.

Following dental surgery, Hackett’s lip was in no condition to play cornet or trumpet, so Glenn Miller offered him a role playing guitar. Hackett’s 1947 recording of ‘I’ve Got a Crush on You’ with Frank Sinatra reached number 21 on the pop charts.

Following a 15-year run on the music staff at ABC, he was hired by Jackie Gleason in 1952 as lead cornet player and recorded seven of Gleason’s albums in the years to come. By 1965, Hackett toured with Tony Bennett, going on to many more big tours and playing on forty full albums by the time of his passing in 1976.

One of those albums is this 1967 jazz album from Project 3 Records. ‘A Time For Love’ features Hackett’s “fabulous cornet” with string instruments to back him up. The third track on the record is an easy listening bossa nova cover of the recently released ‘You Only Live Twice,’ written by John Barry. Even without the Leslie Bricusse lyrics or Nancy Sinatra vocals, it’s worth a spin.

141. Bobby Hackett – A Time For Love

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You Only Live Twice / Jackson

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For tonight’s Bond on Vinyl post, we’re listening to music from You Only Live Twice!

While I have discussed the You Only Live Twice soundtrack way back on Bond on Vinyl post #6, and touched on a cover of the title track (see Bond on Vinyl #77), I haven’t gone too deep into Nancy Sinatra’s performance on the main theme to YOLT.

Born in 1940, the daughter of singer Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra started her showbiz career with a singing appearance on her father’s television series The Frank Sinatra Show. While variety TV did not boost her music career, she initially found some success selling albums in Europe and Japan. In 1966, she changed up her singing style and finally achieved a number-one hit with ‘These Boots Are Made for Walkin’, but now she was a hit in the US.

By the end of 1967, Sinatra had thirteen songs on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, and all of these were arranged and conducted by Billy Strange (see Bond on Vinyl #40). Other hits for Sinatra around this time include ‘Sugar Town’ (her second record to sell a million copies after “Boots”, ‘Somethin’ Stupid’ (a duet with Frank Sinatra, and her third million selling record), duets with country singer Lee Hazlewood, and her cover of Cher’s ‘Bang Bang’, featured at the beginning of Kill Bill 36 years later among others.

With all this imminent success, it’s interesting to me that ‘You Only Live Twice’ producer, Cubby Broccoli, still wanted Frank Sinatra to sing the title song for the film. After Sinatra turned down his friend’s offer, the film’s composer, John Barry, wanted someone like Julie Rogers or Aretha Franklin to take on the vocals. However, when Sinatra recommended his daughter for the job, Broccoli followed his suggestion, and Barry adjusted the existing orchestration to better fit her vocal range.

This 1967 German 7″ single version runs eleven seconds longer than the version heard on the film’s soundtrack, as the track was built from an alternate set of takes with sharper instruments and vocals. Sinatra’s duet with Lee Hazlewood ‘Jackson’ is featured on the B-side and reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

140. Nancy Sinatra – You Only Live Twice / Jackson

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The Best Of Georges Jouvin

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For tonight’s Bond on Vinyl post, we’re still listening to music from Casino Royale (1967)!

Born into a family of French musicians in 1923, Georges Francis Raymond Jouvin initially studied music at the nearby Rennes Conservatory before moving on to the Paris Conservatory. Jouvin became quite adept as a trumpeter and earned the nickname “the man with the Golden Trumpet.”  

Jouvin’s first recorded album was released in 1956, consisting of covers of popular music from that time; however, his records eventually featured his own personal classical and jazz compositions. Mostly for the French record label Pathé, Jouvin recorded nearly ninety albums, thousands of individual tracks, and sold over 25 million records. With hundreds of hits to his credit, his recording career lasted into the 1980s.

When the trumpet playing and composing slowed down, Jouvin transitioned into more administrative roles in the music industry. In addition to becoming president of the union of orchestra conductors, Jouvin advanced to vice-president of a French copyright management society known as the Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers (SACEM).

Thankfully, during his career of playing jazz covers, Columbia Records released this compilation album, ‘The Best Of Georges Jouvin.’ This was his only album exclusively released in Germany. It features a dozen songs, mostly from stage and screen. The album includes a trumpet-forward rendition of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s theme song to Casino Royale. While it is not as easy to find cover versions of songs from this film compared to the official EON Production James Bond soundtracks, it is usually a fun listen.

139. Georges Jouvin – The Best Of Georges Jouvin

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Film Hits for Dancing

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For tonight’s Bond on Vinyl post, we’re not listening to music from Dr. No, but we are listening to music from five other James Bond films released through 1967!

Born in Munich, Germany, in 1922, Hugo Strasser would go on to be a famous German clarinetist, as well as a jazz bandleader. In the years after World War II, Strasser formed his own 16-man dance orchestra. Known for its dance music, the band played for decades and always adjusted to different genres of music.

Strasser was exceptionally famous for his series of dance-friendly music for ballroom devotees. His sophisticated style and dedication to dance music made him a favorite among fans of ballroom and classic swing. Strasser’s Orchestra released its first record in 1957 and had over 200 records released by the time of Strasser’s passing in 2016.

‘Hugo Strasser Und Sein Grosses Tanzorchester – Filmhits Zum Tanzen’, which translates to ‘Hugo Strasser and His Large Dance Orchestra – Film Hits for Dancing’ is our pick for tonight. This 1968 compilation album from Columbia Records was only released in Europe, in fact, only with German text. What really makes this record unique, though, is not its inclusion of hit tunes from 28 different film soundtracks, but rather the presentation on the album. Divided into 10 separate medleys of 2-3 songs each from a variety of genres such as bossa nova, foxtrot, waltz, and more. Besides the inclusion of Goldfinger and Casino Royale (1967) on side one, there is this ‘slow beat’ medley of James Bond music on the B-side. It’s a nice listen to hear Thunderball roll right into From Russia With Love and then transition into the latest Bond theme at the time – You Only Live Twice. I think you’ll enjoy it too. 🍸

138. Hugo Strasser and His Large Dance Orchestra – Film Hits for Dancing

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James Blonde

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For tonight’s Bond on Vinyl post, we’re not listening to music from any James Bond film, just a parody album called James Blonde!

In 1958, the Colpix Records label was founded as the first recording company for Columbia Pictures/Screen Gems. The name Colpix is a combination of the name Columbia (Col) and Pictures (Pix). By January of the following year, the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) sued Columbia Pictures for $1,000,000 as they said the Colpix name was a confusing use of their trademarked label, Columbia Records. As far as I can tell, the infringement suit did not go anywhere, as the label name stuck until it was succeeded by Colgems (for Columbia Pictures television division Screen Gems) in 1966.

Along the way, Colpix released hundreds of albums in a variety of genres, including music by Nina Simone, radio coverage of President Kennedy’s last days in Dallas, and comedy albums. In addition to albums of Hanna-Barbera cartoons such as Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound, they also put out more adult fare from stand-up comedians like Woody Allen, Marty Brill, and Larry Foster. Brill and Foster teamed up for this 1965 album ‘James Blonde.’

This record is unique as it is a full-fledged James Bond parody album, released two years before the parody film, Casino Royale (1967). It is also interesting to me that the album is organized into eleven tracks, when it’s really one big 33-minute story, at most split into two acts. I really doubt listeners would skip right to a specific chapter and not take in the whole production. It’s a fun listen, and even with annoying audience laughter in the background, is a great spoof of the James Bond franchise.

137. Marty Brill & Larry Foster – James Blonde (“The Man From T.A.N.T.E.”)

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Bang! Bang! Bang!

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For tonight’s Bond on Vinyl post, we’re listening to music from the first four James Bond films, including Thunderball!

Elliott Fisher was a session musician and arranger, but years before leading his own orchestra, he was best known for being a concert violinist. Fisher did not play just any old violin, but he was the proud owner of a Stradivarius violin. You know, those string instruments built in Italy in the 17th and early 18th centuries that now can sell for millions of dollars.

So, in 1949, Fisher stopped at a restaurant for dinner and hid the Stradivarius in his automobile. Unfortunately, the vehicle was stolen during his meal, and when his car was recovered, the priceless violin was missing. The violin was recovered, undamaged, by the insurance company, which offered a reward for its return, but this was after they had paid Fisher $50,000 for his claim.

In 1957, after Fisher became a professor of music at Denver University, he was asked to create spooky sounds for a sci-fi/horror film, ‘Kronos’. As this was still years before the desired creepy sounds could be created on a Moog synthesizer, Fisher created the soundscape with his violin. This led to Fisher getting jobs creating more spooky sounds for film and television, where he played violin during recording sessions. Capitol Records then hired Fisher for this 1966 compilation album of exotica-sounding themes from the spy genre, Bang! Bang! Bang!’ Besides the theme to ‘Our Man Flint,’ the remaining ten tracks are from the first four James Bond films, including the Thunderball theme and Mister Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

136. Elliott Fisher And His Orchestra – Bang! Bang! Bang!

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Outta’ Sight!

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Tonight’s Bond on Vinyl post brings us to listening to music from Thunderball!

Growing up in California’s San Fernando Valley, Davie Allan learned to play guitar as a teen. His musical career took off when he partnered with a high school friend, Mike Curb, to create an instrumental surf band. Curb founded Curb Records in 1963 and released the first Davie Allan single.

By the next year, Curb founded Sidewalk Records and brought Allen with him as a session musician playing on film soundtracks. Allan was able to secure a recording contract for his new surf rock band, Davie Allan and the Arrows.

When the film ‘The Wild Angels’ was released in theaters in 1966, the soundtrack by Allan and the Arrows was a big winner for the band. The single and soundtrack album found their way to the Billboard charts, and Allan & the Arrows were able to get the job for many more soundtracks to biker and teen films in the years to come. By 1968, Allan had over a dozen albums and a slew of singles to his name.

Allan was also included in other Capitol Records releases, like this 1968 compilation LP, ‘Outta’ Sight!’. While this album was meant to be a collection of stars which helped to shape the musical revolution of the groovy 1960s, it actually comes off pretty tame. Besides including artists such as The Standells, The Stone Poneys, and Glen Campbell, the last track is a cover of Don Black and John Barry’s ‘Theme from Thunderball’ by Davie Allan & The Arrows. It is remarkably similar to the original tune, but with way more surf! 😎👍

135. Outta’ Sight!

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Volume VIII

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Ladies and gents, for tonight’s Bond on Vinyl post, we’ve got one more night of listening to music related to Goldfinger!

Founded by Henry Casella (King Henry) in 1960, King Henry & the Showmen was a band known for its long life. Known as the house band in Pennsylvania’s Poconos Mountain’s Mount Airy Lodge since 1965, they played live shows through 2015. The show band quickly began gaining fans from all over the east coast and was able to take their show on the road to sell out shows at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Atlantic City, and even the MGM Grand Resort in Las Vegas.

Along the way they met show business such as: Barbara Eden, Frankie Avalon, Gregory Hines, Jerry Lewis, Joan Rivers, Rip Taylor, and Tony Bennett. After playing in Las Vegas with Lou Rawls in the 1970s, they ended up sharing a stage with him in the Poconos in the 1990s.

Maintaining three of the original members of the band, the group adapted to the sounds of the times. This versatility meant they could play a rumba or a tango, but could then switch it up to country, Dixieland, Italian music, pop, or rock as the audience dictated. One of their most popular tunes during the last decade of their run was a cover of Robin Thicke’s ‘Blurred Lines.’😛

King Henry & the Showmen released over thirty albums during their career including this 1976 LP vinyl record ‘Volume VIII” which features exotica/lounge/jazz pop/ rock music. Not only does this album include a cover of Pinball Wizard’ by The Who but also features their cover of John Barry’s ‘Goldfinger.’ It is a very loungy rendition, and a fun listen. Unfortunately, I cannot find a recording online, so you’re going to have to dive into the lounge music on your own to hear the cheesy tune for yourself.

134. King Henry And The Showmen – Volume VIII

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Jazz “Hot and Cool”

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For tonight’s Bond on Vinyl post, we are still listening to music related to Goldfinger!

Harold (Hal) Serra was born in Springfield, Illinois, in 1928. When Hal was in his teens, he went to New York City to study becoming a jazz pianist. Hal not only became a pianist, but also an arranger and a composer. He eventually formed his own trio, which was featured on NBC’s ‘The Today Show’ for more than two years, until the show changed its format. Besides ‘The Today Show’ performances, Serra wrote and recorded television commercials for multiple well-known products.

Serra played and conducted in the New York club scene for performers such as Woody Allen and Ella Fitzgerald. He even worked and traveled with singer Julie London. One interesting project that Serra oversaw was transcribing the music recordings from the album ‘Charlie Parker with Strings’ for a jazz concert at Carnegie Hall. Another unique jazz project would be recording albums in the 1960s and 1970s for Statler Records.

Formed in the 1940s by a professional dancer and dance instructor, the Statler Records label was known for recording popular music for use as dance instruction and gymnastics. While the early decades saw this music on vinyl records, it evolved into instructional CDs and DVDs before shutting down sometime around 2008. Fortunately, I was able to find this 1967 recording of Jazz “Hot and Cool” which features big-band jazz, ragtime, and swing covers for “dancing and physical fitness needs.” Now, I may not be dancing to this album, but it kicks off with a swing version of ‘King of the Road’ and also features yet another cool jazzy cover of ‘Goldfinger’ on it. I cannot find a recording of this album online, so you will have to seek out a physical copy if you want it for your own James Bond-themed physical fitness needs. 😛

133. Hal Serra And His Orchestra – Jazz “Hot and Cool”

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Sounds For Spies And Private Eyes

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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The Silence (Il Silenzio)

Recommended music: [skip to 13:45 for Goldfinger]

Tonight, we’re still listening to music featured in Goldfinger!

Born in 1925 as Hans Joachim Etzel in Breslau, Poland, Roy Etzel grew up during World War II. He received his musical training at the Army Music School in Frankfurt, Germany. Following World War II, Etzel played trumpet in multiple well-known big bands from the 1940s until 1966, eventually earning the nickname “Mr. Trumpet” in Germany. That same year, Etzel appeared as a trumpet player in the film ‘Come to the Blue Adriatic’ and played the song ‘Golden Midnight Sun.’

At this point, he had put a handful of albums under his own name and decided to go into business for himself. He became the band leader of his own band, the Roy Etzel Sound Orchestra, which released albums throughout the 1970s, with Etzel composing and writing lyrics along the way. Etzel’s music career continued with more records released all the way until 1985.

Etzel published an autobiography, This is My Life, in 2004 and lived in Munich until his passing in 2015 at age 90. Fortunately, before Etzel transitioned to being a bandleader, he did release this 1965 compilation album, ‘The Silence (Il Silenzio).’ The Italian song ‘Il Silenzio’ is an instrumental piece notable for its trumpet theme and normally contains some spoken Italian lyrics. Written earlier in 1965, the song uses the same Italian Cavalry bugle call that Russian composer Tchaikovsky used in 1880. Etzel’s version, which leads off the album, does not have any lyrics and sounds remarkably like the U.S. military bugle call ‘Taps.’ This album reached the US Billboard 200 on Christmas 1965 and stayed on the charts for five weeks.

Anyways, the track that closes out the first half of the album is a cover of John Barry’s ‘Goldfinger.’ Just a year after the film’s debut, it was still immensely popular to cover. This is an incredibly unique version with the only lyric retained being the word “Goldfinger,” while Etzel’s trumpet takes center stage.

131. Roy Etzel – The Silence (Il Silenzio)

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