The Evolution of One of the Movies’ Most Iconic Openings: James Bond

On Rogerebert.com, Charlie Brigden writes about the music behind one of the most iconic openings in movie history: James Bond’s dum-de-dum-dum gun barrel shots (in both senses of the word).

Barry’s cues were wholly representative of the music he was writing for the series at the time: dangerous and seductive, the pure essence of cool. Connery’s Bond was the same, a man who you would happily let romance you knowing you were unlikely to survive even the most fleeting of relationships, and Barry’s gun barrels personified that to a tee. By the time “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” came around in 1969, Bob Moog’s Moog synthesizer had hit the music world with a bang, and as such Barry chose to utilize it to introduce George Lazenby. While the cue begins in the traditional way, the vamp is introduced over a credit for Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, meaning that when Bond appears he’s scored by the main riff on Moog, which gives the cue a different mood that certainly represented Barry’s groundbreaking score, considered by many to be the franchise’s best.

And some background on the famous theme, with the guitar riff by Monty Norman.