Moonraker (soundtrack)
| Moonraker | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by John Barry | |||||||||||||
| Released | 1979 | ||||||||||||
| Recorded | April 1979 | ||||||||||||
| Length | 30:54 | ||||||||||||
| Label | EMI | ||||||||||||
| Producer | Frank Collura (Reissue) | ||||||||||||
| John Barry chronology | |||||||||||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
Moonraker is the soundtrack for the eleventh James Bond film of the same name.
Moonraker was the third of the three Bond films for which the theme song was performed by Shirley Bassey. Frank Sinatra was considered for the vocals, before Johnny Mathis was approached and offered the opportunity. Mathis was unhappy about the song and withdrew from the project, leaving the producers scrambling for a replacement. Kate Bush declined, so John Barry offered the song to Bassey within just weeks of the release date. As a result, Bassey made the recordings with very short notice and never regarded the song 'as her own' as she had never had the chance to perform it or promote it first. The film uses two versions of the title theme song, a ballad version heard over the main titles, and a disco version for the end titles. Confusingly, the United Artists single release labelled the tracks on the 7" single as "Moonraker (Main Title)" for the version used to close the film and "Moonraker (End Title)" for the track that opened the film. The song failed to make any real impact on the charts, which may partly be attributed to Bassey's failure to promote the single, given the last minute decision and the way in which it was quickly recorded to meet the schedule.
As with "We Have All The Time In The World" back in 1969, Hal David wrote the lyrics. Paul Williams's original lyrics were discarded.
Finally in 2005, Bassey sang the song for the first time outside James Bond on stage as part of a medley of her three Bond title songs. An instrumental strings version of the title theme was used in 2007 tourism commercials for the Dominican Republic.
The score for Moonraker marked a turning point in Barry's output, abandoning the Kentonesque brass of his earlier Bond scores and instead scoring the film with slow, rich string passages - a trend which Barry would continue in the 1980s with scores such as Out of Africa and Somewhere in Time.
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