Goldfinger (song)
| Goldfinger | |
|---|---|
| Shirley Bassey | |
| publication | September 1964 |
| length | 2:48 |
| Genre (s) | Pop song |
| text | Leslie Bricusse / Anthony Newley |
| music | John Barry |
Goldfinger is the theme song of the James Bond film of the same name from 1964. The piece was composed by John Barry , the text is by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley . The song is sung by Shirley Bassey .
History of origin
The film series James Bond 007 had the premiere of James Bond - 007 Dr. No started on October 5, 1962 and is becoming a box office hit. The third Bond film Goldfinger formed the dramaturgical and musical basis for the other films in the series. John Barry had been working on the theme song for this Bond film since August 1963 and asked Anthony Newley if he could write the lyrics. Since Newley as a composer mostly cooperated with lyricist Leslie Bricusse, Newley and Bricusse now worked together as lyricist for this project. Leslie Bricusse was already a fan of Ian Fleming's novel series when he was commissioned to write the text for the theme melody for the planned film Goldfinger .
Filming began on January 20, 1964 and ended on July 21, 1964. In the novel there was a scene with Bond girl Jill Masterson, completely painted over in gold, lying on the bed . This scene gave the hint for the text passage "for a golden girl knows when he's kissed her / its the kiss of death from Mr. Goldfinger". Anthony Newley sang an unfinished demo recording in the recording session conducted by John Barry on May 14, 1964 . This version remained unreleased until 1992 when an anniversary edition of various James Bond songs was released. As the melody of the film music of Moon River resembled Barry masked his composition with an existing three-note Bläserriff.
John Barry proposed Shirley Bassey as singer, whom he had accompanied on a tour in December 1963. She arrived at the scheduled recording date on August 20, 1964 in the Cine-Tele Sound (CTS) recording studios with a nave-like room. Sound engineer Eric Tomlinson had to record about 15 takes before Barry was happy with the midnight result. Bassey was accompanied by the orchestra conducted by Sid Margo. The guitar solos were from Vic Flick, the saxophone solo from Johnny Scott. All in all, a wind-dominated recording with a powerful presentation by Bassey was created. Film producer Harry Saltzman initially rejected the song because it was not suitable for the young cinema audience; but in the end he accepted it because there was no more time for a new production.
Publication and Success
The film premiered on September 17, 1964 in London's Odeon Leicester Square. After the single Goldfinger / Strange How Love Can Be (Columbia DB 7360) was released on September 18, 1964, it reached number 21 in the UK charts. In the USA the single and the soundtrack LP became million sellers . In May 1965 Goldfinger was awarded a gold record for more than a million singles sold. The single climbed to number 8 in the USA, the album was number one there for three weeks. In Europe the song was represented in numerous charts in the top ten, for example in April 1965 with number 8 in Germany. In Japan Goldfinger reached number one on the singles chart. The film, in which the song appears in both the opening credits and the credits, grossed 124.9 million US dollars worldwide.
In the list of AFI's 100 Years… 100 Songs published by the American Film Institute in 2004 as one of the 100 most important songs in American film, the song was voted 53rd.
Cover versions
In total, there are at least 45 cover versions of the theme song for Goldfinger . Composer John Barry was the first to release an instrumental version with his guitarist Vic Flick (October 1964), followed by Billy Strange with a similarly orchestrated instrumental recording (recorded on October 5, 1964), Santo & Johnny (November 1964) or Sounds Incorporated (November 1966) ). The Wise Guys (LP Hairy Times ; 1996), Chaka Khan (October 2004) or Leningrad Cowboys (LP Zombies Paradise ; June 2006) brought out vocal versions.
The theme song for the James Bond film License to Kill ( License to Kill ) , which in 1989 by Gladys Knight was interpreted, contained substantial elements of Goldfinger , after which the author details of License to Kill been adjusted accordingly. At the 85th Academy Awards in February 2013, the song was performed for the 50th James Bond anniversary by Shirley Bassey on stage at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles .
The song was used in an instrumental version in the opening credits of the video game 007 Legends , which was released in 2012 for the 50th anniversary of the film series.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Philip C. DiMare, Movies in American History , 2011, p 209
- ^ John Williams, Miss Shirley Bassey (2010), p. 268
- ↑ Sound On Sound from January 2014, Shirley Bassey: Goldfinger
- ↑ Craig Rosen, The Billboard Book of Number One Albums , 1996, p. 75
- ^ John Burlingame, The Music of James Bond , 2012, p. 39 ff.
- ↑ Eddi Fiegel, John Barry: A Sixties Theme: From James Bond to Midnight Cowboy , 2012, o. P.
- ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 187
- ↑ AFI's 100 Years… 100 songs. (PDF; 134 kB) In: afi.com. American Film Institute (AFI), June 22, 2005, accessed August 28, 2015 .
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8pMbx02zwk