Music
- Dr No
Credits
Music: Monty Norman
Conducted By: Eric Rodgers
Orchestrated By: Burt Rhode
James Bond Theme: Monty Norman
James Bond Theme Played By: John Barry and Orchestra
Album Label: United Artists (US), Columbia (UK)
Single Label: United Artists, Liberty Records
Highest Chart Position: 13 (UK), 58 (US)
History
Composer Monty Norman was selected by producer Albert
R. Broccoli after Broccoli backed a musical of Norman's, "Belle
or The Ballad of Dr. Crippen", written by Wolf Mankowitz
- a frequent collaborator with Norman and an original screenwriter
for Dr. No. Norman's tracks were conducted
by Eric Rodgers and orchestrated by Burt Rhodes.
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Above: Cover art from the Columbia
45RPM album released in the UK.
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Norman accompanied the producers and film crew
to Jamaica, but midway through the production, the producers
hired composer John Barry to rearrange the main theme and write
the rest of the music for the film. The change in composer introduced
inconsistencies between the film and the soundtrack. The music
in film was almost entirely John Barry's, while the soundtrack
is mostly Monty Normans work, most of which was unused in the
film.
The original "James Bond Theme" was written by Monty
Norman. Barry, who would later go on to compose the music for
eleven Bond films, arranged the Bond theme, but was uncredited
- except for the credit of his orchestra playing the final piece.
It has occasionally been suggested that Barry, not Norman, composed
the "James Bond Theme". This argument has been the
subject of two court cases, the most recent in 2001, which Norman
won. Some portions of the theme actually originated from a song, "Good
Sign, Bad Sign" composed by Norman from an aborted musical, "The
House of Mr. Biswas", several years previously. In its original
form, the music is almost unrecognisable to the Bond theme. Many
fans consider Barry's arrangement the most important element
in crafting what is now one of the most recognisable themes in
the world. Barry has rarely spoken about the dispute over the
song's credit, except to question why Norman was not brought
back on subsequent Bond movies.
The selection of Diana Coupland to sing on two of the tracks,
including "Under The Mango Tree", was no doubt influenced
by her being married to Norman at the time.
The soundtrack album of Dr. No was not originally issued
to coincide with the film's initial release in October
1962. However, in addition to his fee for orchestrating
The James Bond Theme, Barry was allowed to perform a different
orchestration of the theme on Columbia Records. This became
a top ten hit in the U.K.
The soundtrack album came out after the American release
of Dr. No in June 1963 with American single recordings
of The James Bond Theme by Al Caiola and Leroy Holmes on
United Artists Records and Si Zentner on Liberty Records.
In addition to Barry's orchestration of the "James
Bond Theme" most of the tracks on the album were performed
by Byron Lee & the Dragonaires who appear in the film
singing "Jump Up". The soundtrack is an oddity
in that is contains mostly a representation of Jamaican
local music rather than film score. None of the Eric Rogers
orchestrated tracks appear on the soundtrack album. |
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Above: Cover art from the United Artists
LP release in 1962 in the USA (UA 581). |
One musical theme that appears in three different
orchestrations on the album: Dr. No's Fantasy, Twisting with
James and the misleadingly entitled "The James Bond Theme" (track
17 on the album, but entirely unrelated to the "track 1"),
is not heard anywhere in the film. Diana Coupland recalled that
it was Norman's first attempt at a 'James Bond Theme'. Notable
omissions from the soundtrack include the film's opening sci-fi
electronic music sound effects/"James Bond Theme" gunbarrel
sequence, and Eric Rogers symphonic arrangements of Norman's
score including a brief theme for Miss Moneypenny and the music
from the tarantula scene as well as Dr. No's death (reused during
the climax of the helicopter attack in From
Russia with Love but not on that soundtrack album either). Nic Raine later rerecorded
some cues from the film (unheard on the original soundtrack)
for the "Bond Back In Action" album.
Soundtrack Listing
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"James Bond Theme" (01:45) - Monty
Norman Orchestra
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"Kingston Calypso" (02:42) - Byron
Lee and the Dragonaires
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"Jamaican Rock" (02:03) - not
heard in the film, a possible unused title track
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"Jump Up" (02:08) - Byron Lee
and the Dragonaires
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"Audio Bongo" (01:30) - an Electronic
music version of a musical theme for Dr. No
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"Under the Mango Tree" (02:20) - Diana Coupland
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"Twisting with James" (03:08) - unused in the film
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"Jamaica Jazz"(01:04) - unused
in the film, an instrumental of Jump Up
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"Under the Mango Tree" (02:40)
- instrumental unused in the film
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"Jump Up" (01:25) - Byron Lee
and the Dragonaires
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"Dr. No's Fantasy" (01:40) - unused
in the film
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"Kingston Calypso" (02:30) - Diana
Coupland
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"The Island Speaks" (03:18) -
instrumental version of a musical theme for Dr. No accompanying
Bond and Quarrel landing on Crab Key
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"Under the Mango Tree" (02:37) - Monty Norman
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"The Boy's Chase" (01:30) - unused
in the film
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"Dr. No's Theme" (01:57) - instrumental
version of Kingston Calypso
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"The James Bond Theme" (02:20)
- unused instrumental version of Dr. No's Fantasy
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"Love at Last" (02:00) - heard
briefly in a party sequence