A superbly atmospheric John Barry score effectively conveyed the mood of swinging London for this 1965 film by Richard Lester. Usually playing around with variations of the haunting main theme, Barry used vivacious horns, melancholic strings, and above all a groovy jazz organ (played by Alan Haven). A couple of the tracks don't work well in isolation: the vaudevillian "Something's Up!," and the vocal version of the main theme (not used in the film) by mediocre singer Johnny De Little. But overall, it's got a consistently captivating groove, rating as one of Barry's best scores.

Digitally remastered reissue of this long lost recording from the British composer/conductor. Back in 1972, a studio recording was made of the concert John Barry conducted at The Royal Albert Hall, the first symphonic concert of his career. Comprised of his work on six James Bond films to date, the Bond Suite lasts for almost 18 minutes and runs from "Dr. No" to "Diamonds Are Forever", released just one year previous. Along with renditions of his critically acclaimed work "Born Free" and "Midnight Cowboy", the master tapes of this historic concert recorded by Polydor UK were long considered lost, until Stephane Lerouge found them in the archives of Universal! Includes a 16 page booklet featuring a new interview with Barry and stills provided by EON Productions.

Born John Barry Prendergast to a father who owned a cinema and a mother who played piano, all the elements were in place for John to develop his career as he did. Even when he had to do national service, he managed to secure a job as an army bandsman, so he managed to use that period to hone his craft. John first came to prominence via his recording of Hit and miss, which became the theme to the TV show Jukebox jury. Famous as his TV theme became, John's most famous hit is the James Bond theme. This particular compilation, as its title suggests, focuses on John's recordings for EMI. Many of these recordings date from the early to mid sixties, but there are a few from the nineties too. Most of the tracks are instrumentals, but there are also three Shirley Bassey tracks (Goldfinger, Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Diamonds are forever) and a Matt Monro track (Born free) in which John was involved. Two of the Shirley Bassey tracks are famous, but I'd not heard the other one before buying this CD. It was apparently intended as the theme for Thunderball but was dropped in favor of the Tom Jones song Thunderball. There are 25 tracks altogether and the CD comes with a nice booklet. By no means a definitive John Barry compilation, this does at least contain all those early sixties tracks that I particularly wanted and showcases John's versatility as a composer and arranger. Sadly, John died early in 2011 but his legacy in the history of cinematic music is assured.

Retrospective that highlights the best film scores from the acclaimed soundtrack composer. Though best known for his work in many of the Bond films, Barry has composed many other great movie themes during his 40+ year career Not only does this collection include Bond classics like 'Goldfinger' and 'Diamonds Are Forever' (both sung by Dame Shirley Bassey), it also features many other musical moments from films like 'Midnight Cowboy', 'Dances With Wolves', 'Out Of Africa', 'Born Free'(sung by Matt Monro) and more. Like John Williams, Barry's style is easily identifiable yet each theme is unique in it's own way.

Original soundtrack of the 1990 Academy Award and Golden Globe winning film Dances with Wolves produced, directed, and starring Kevin Costner. The original score and songs were composed and conducted by John Barry. John Barry won the 1991 Academy Award for Best Original Score and the 1992 Grammy Award for "Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television".