Goldfinger

Goldfinger is the soundtrack of the 1964 film of the same name, the third film in the James Bond film series, directed by Guy Hamilton. The album was composed by John Barry and distributed by EMI. Two versions were released initially, one in the United States and the United Kingdom, which varied in terms of length and which tracks were within the soundtrack. In 2003, Capitol-EMI records released a remastered version that contained all the tracks within the film. Background John Barry had composed the previous James Bond soundtracks for From Russia with Love. Due to Barry's increased "compositional depth" as seen through the soundtracks he produced since From Russia with Love, movie producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman allowed him to write the theme song for Goldfinger in addition to the soundtrack. Barry created the melody of the song before drafting the lyrics with the help of Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse. The theme was first sung by Newley at a demo session on May 14, 1964 in. At the behest of Barry, Shirley Bassey was chosen to sing the track. On Bassey, Barry was quoted saying "Nobody could have sung it like her; she had that great dramatic sense." The theme was recorded on August 20, 1964 after an all-night session in the recording studio. The session was produced by EMI in-house producer George Martin, who also was the Beatles' producer at the time. Guitarist Vic Flick, who played on the track, recalled at a 2012 Academy of Motion Pictures salute to the music of James Bond that Bassey was having difficulty getting a proper take. Martin spoke to her and then over the recording baffle her brassiere came flying. She nailed it on the next take. Session musicians on the Bond films were separately relegated to the instrumental score versions of songs, while the main musicians (on Goldfinger: Vic Flick) were given the main film theme song to solely record, to be featured at the beginning of the film. Notably, two of the session musicians were John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page, who together would be the founding members of Led Zeppelin.