Fact: The James Bond theme song is easily one of the most recognizable movie themes of all time.
What makes this an even more impressive achievement is the fact that over the course of 24 films, what audiences have actually been hearing is a variation of the original theme recorded all the way back in 1962 by a man named John Barry.
The main James Bond theme is usually reserved for the gun barrel opening sequences, which feature in some way in all of the bond films. However in more recent years the themes have been reworked, and often replaced altogether. In this case, such as in some of the Daniel Craig bond films, the theme has been inserted at different points of the movie, often subtly, and with different pacing to the original theme.
The theme that most people recognize is the main guitar riff with saxophone and brass instruments off the sheet music, but in some variations a guitar is not even used to produce the familiar tone. In the first Pierce Brosnan Bond film Goldeneye, Kettle Drums were used for the main riff, but the sound is almost indistinguishable from the electric guitar version. Another interesting fact about the guitar version, is that the original session guitarist who played on the first recording in 1962 was paid only £6 for the session. Even with inflation that’s a pittance compared to artists in today’s recording industry, but maybe being part of history is a paycheck on its own!
Next time you’re watching a Bond film, try and pick out all the times you hear the theme. You will be surprised at how many variations there are in one film, let alone throughout the whole catalogue of James Bond films. The ringtone has approximately 15,000 downloads of 2012.
