The James Bond Songbook

Album review

The James Bond Songbook, as even the liner notes for the 2006 CD of the LP on BGP admit, was a cash-in album on the craze for all things James Bond that had enveloped the world by the mid-'60s. Cleverly, the record was titled to be credited to the James Bond Sextet -- even though such an ensemble didn't really exist -- as the bassist was indeed named James Bond, though he usually went by the name of Jimmy Bond as a Los Angeles session man. Even by the standards of exploitation albums, however, this might be a disappointment. Not for the quality of the music, which is pretty competent cool jazz, but because, though all 12 of the song titles are taken from Ian Fleming novels that were made into films (excepting Monty Norman's famous "James Bond Theme"), in fact the majority of these are not the soundtrack themes actually used in the movies. For when this came out in 1965, just four of these movies had actually been made. That means that only "Thunderball," "From Russia with Love," "007 Theme from Dr. No," and "Goldfinger" (as well as "James Bond Theme") correspond to the themes actually heard on the soundtracks. The rest of the numbers are small combo jazz instrumental compositions by Bond and Warren Baker that were inspired by the novels of the same titles. So those tracks don't sound particularly Bond-movie-like in either melody or arrangement, and even the five interpretations of themes actually used in Bond films are far jazzier and less menacing than the arrangements with which most Bond viewers are most familiar. It's not a bad record at all, and yes, by the standards of cash-in albums, the execution is well above average. Just realize what you're getting into, though, if you pick it up with the expectations that the music will be strongly related to the kind of music usually associated with the soundtracks of films featuring the James Bond character.

© Richie Unterberger /TiVo