Special Mission Lady Chaplin Soundtrack AlbumSpy Bop Royale, the top agent for intelligence on spy music (and proprietor of an excellent website on the subject which has recently gone MIA), gives a heads-up on the Eurospy Forum that DigitMovies (the company responsible for the recent wave of awesome Mario Bava soundtracks) will issue Bruno Nicolai's fantastic score to Special Mission Lady Chaplin on April 26! (The bad news is that it won't include the wonderfully infectious vocal theme for contractual reasons.) The movie, a true Eurospy gem starring Ken Clark and Bond babe Daniella Bianchi, was recently issued on a very impressive DVD by Dorado Films. You can watch the trailer and the first ten minutes of the film (which includes the song) on their website. And you can order the soundtrack CD at Screen Archives!
New Shirley Bassey Single Rings Familiar (In A Good Way!)Dame Shirley Bassey (or "DSB" as the hip septagenarian now goes, it seems) has a new single out in Britain called "The Living Tree." You can listen and watch on YouTube. Spy fans may recognize that the theme for a certain secret agent subtly features in the song--a theme which recalls some of Bassey's biggest past successes. The single itself comes out April 23 (with 7 remixes, including a "Shaken and Stirred Remix" and a "Shaken and Stirred Extended Remix"--and a video), and will also be available as a download. The Dame's last big single was "History Repeating" from the Propellerheads' seminal 1997 album Decksanddrumsandrockandroll. It's success inspired a whole remix album of her back catalog, which featured a Propellerheads remix of "Goldfinger" (cool enough to be used in TV spots for The World Is Not Enough and Casino Royale) and an awesome Away Team version of "Where Do I Begin" that actually just made me use the word "awesome" in conjunction with the theme from Love Story! There are rumors of another remix album to follow the new single...
I love "The Living Tree" and its video. Dame Shirley Bassey always had a beautiful voice. She's still got the pipes. She did my favorite Bond theme song of all time, "Goldfinger." Heck, I wouldn't mind if she did one more Bond theme song.
ReplyDeleteI'd absolutely LOVE to see her do another Bond theme! I thought that a lot back in '97 when History Repeating came out, and then again when that Propellerheads remix of Goldfinger came out, and was used in TWINE ads. Do a Bassey theme with a Propellerheads beat! Would have been great. Unfortunately, I think the time has probably passed for that. DAD would have been the perfect opportunity. Now not only is the drum & bass craze pretty over, but I think the Bond filmmakers have made it clear that they're looking forward and not behind. I doubt they'd want to invoke memories of Goldfinger by using Bassey. DAD, on the other hand, put lots of references to the past in, and I'm sure ANYTHING Dame Shirley belted out would have been 100% better than Madonna's godawful theme!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I like the idea of a Bassey theme with a Propellerheads beat. It would have been awesome. It's definitely past its time now I suppose. That's another one of those what might have been moments. Since "Die Another Day" did seem to pay homage in many ways to the past Bond films, such as Halle Berry's to Ursula Andress, then having Dame Shirley back to do one more theme song would have been great. I hated Madonna's theme song. It's one of my least favorites ever. I do wish Dame Shirley had been asked back for "Casino Royale." Since it had a retro feel in ways, it would have been great to get the Queen of the Bond theme to come back. Plus I'm not a fan of Chris Cornell's theme song. I don't hate it quite as much as I did, but I was not a fan hearing it up on screen.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's a huge might have been. Sigh. It would have made such sense for DAD: a nod to the past, yet (wht the Props beat), also one to the future, or at least to the contemporary and trendy, like Halle's bikini (with a much more contemporary cut) compared to Ursula's. Oh well. I DID like the Chris Cornell song, and I know I'm one of the few. It left me kind of cold when I first listened to it (before seeing the movie), but I'd listened to it quite a lot by the time the film came out and it had really grown on me. When it came in on the movie, paired with those wonderful titles, I full-on LOVED it. But I would NEVER opt for anyone over Bassey, were she an option! My biggest regret for CR's music is that John Barry couldn't be lured back once more to score it. His moody, jazzy style on his last few projects (notably "Enigma," but also "Playing By Heart," "The Beyondness of Things" and that follow-up album...) would have suited the movie PERFECTLY and still been different enough from his (also excellent) style back on The Living Daylights to make it worth while for him. (He's always complaining in interviews that there was nothing new left to be done in Bond scores.) That said, I like Arnold, and I do like his score (definitely an improvement over his DAD misstep!), but I think he would have been GLAD to step aside one time and let his hero step in.
ReplyDelete