Old Hollywood

Goldfinger - Shirley Bassey (vocals) Composed by John Barry for Goldfinger (1964)

“I went and stayed with John Barry for a couple of weeks [while my new home was under construction]. By then he was a top movie composer. He had made a big score for Zulu and was booked to write the music for The Ipcress File, which he did, magnificently.

During my stay, he was writing the music for a James Bond movie. I hadn’t realized that there was such a big drawback to staying with a composer: they compose all day and in John’s case, all night. You wind up with no voice from shouting above the music. John could work twenty-four hours at a stretch, and as he would not accept rent, I took on the role of a helpful gofer to his driven genius. I made tea and sandwiches, did the tidying up, and ran errands as he slaved away at the piano. One night I got no sleep at all, as over and over again for hours on end right until dawn he worked on the same tune.

I slept for short periods, but would wake up when the music stopped. I had gotten so used to it that the silence bothered me. I decided to get up and make coffee for John. I entered the room and found him slumped exhausted over the piano. He had obviously finally finished the one tune that he had been slaving on all night. I made him some coffee and he played it for me as the sun came up and warmed the room. Not only was I the first person to hear this tune, I heard it and heard it all night long. 

‘What’s it called?’ I asked him when he finished playing. ‘It’s Goldfinger’ he replied - and fell fast asleep on the piano.

Shortly after that my house in Albion Chase was ready and I moved into my own home for the first time. A unique joy. That night I fell asleep in my strange new surroundings humming Goldfinger to make myself feel at home.” 

-Michael Caine, in his autobiography What’s It All About? 

John Barry - Off Again (Follow Me: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Waltz - vocals by Bibari Maeda, composed by Tōru Takemitsu for The Face of Another (1966)

Alfred Hitchcock & the Jeff Alexander Orchestra -  I’ll Never Smile Again (via Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Music to be Murdered By)

Background info about the album & additional tracks previously posted here.

Georges Delerue - Jules & Jim: Main Title (via Georges Delerue: Music from the Films of Francois Truffaut)

Jerry Goldsmith - The Wrong Clue (Chinatown: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

“The function of a score is to enlarge the scope of a film. I try for emotional penetration, not for complementing the action. For me, the important thing about music is statement. I can’t describe how I arrive at the decision to make a statement, I simply feel it and react to it.”