''Dr. No'' is the

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to e ...

for the 1962 film of the same name composed by

Monty Norman Monty Norman (''né'' Noserovitch; 4 April 1928 – 11 July 2022) was a British composer, musician and singer. A contributor to West End musicals in the 1950s and 1960s, he is best known for composing the " James Bond Theme", first heard in t ...

Scoring the film

Composer

was selected by producer

Albert R. Broccoli Albert Romolo Broccoli ( ; April 5, 1909 – June 27, 1996), nicknamed "Cubby", was an American film producer who made more than 40 motion pictures throughout his career. Most of the films were made in the United Kingdom and often filmed at Pi ...

after Broccoli backed a musical of Norman's ''Belle'' or ''The Ballad of Dr. Crippen'' written by

Wolf Mankowitz Cyril Wolf Mankowitz (7 November 1924 – 20 May 1998) was an English writer, playwright and screenwriter. He is particularly known for three novels— ''Make Me an Offer'' (1952), '' A Kid for Two Farthings'' (1953) and ''My Old Man's a Dustma ...

, a frequent collaborator with Norman and an original screenwriter for ''Dr. No''. Norman's only previous film score had been ''

The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll ''The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll'' is a 1960 British horror film produced by Hammer Film Productions. It was directed by Terence Fisher, and stars Paul Massie as Dr. Jekyll, and co-stars Dawn Addams, Christopher Lee and David Kossoff. The screenp ...

'' (1960). Norman traveled to Jamaica on the same chartered aircraft as the producers and many of the film's crew arriving on 14 January 1962. He met

Chris Blackwell Christopher Percy Gordon Blackwell (born 22 June 1937) is an English businessman and former record producer, and the founder of Island Records, which has been called "one of Britain's great independent labels". According to the Rock and Roll ...

, a location scout and production assistant recommended to the producers by Ian Fleming. Blackwell introduced Norman to

Byron Lee Byron Lee ,
''Jamaica Gleaner'', 27 October 2008. born Byron Aloysius St. Elmo Lee ...

and the Dragonaires who performed the Jamaican music in the film. Lee and his band including guitarist Ernest Ranglin and trombonist

Carlos Malcolm Carlos Malcolm OD (born c. 1934) is a world renowned Jamaican trombonist, percussionist and bandleader who helped cultivate the infamous Jamaican genres of music known as Ska and Reggae. Biography Carlos Malcolm was born in Panama c. 1935Port ...

recorded the Jamaican parts of the score in Kingston's Federal Studios, with Norman himself and his then wife Diana Coupland who accompanied Norman on the airplane containing the film's crew to Jamaica, recording vocals along with

Byron Lee and the Dragonaires Byron Lee and the Dragonaires (known as Byron Lee's Dragonaires after Lee's death and now The Dragonaires) are a Jamaican ska, calypso and soca band. The band played a crucial pioneering role in bringing Caribbean music to the world. Byron ...

who appear in the film performing "Jump Up". The song "Under the Mango Tree" was performed by an uncredited Diana Coupland, backed by Ernest Ranglin on guitar.Burlingame, Jon (2012) ''The Music of James Bond'', OUP USA, , p. 5–11 Ranglin also played on several other tracks. Lee recalled that most of their work was not used in the completed film but appeared on the soundtrack album. The rest of Norman's score was orchestrated by his frequent

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchest ...

Bert Rhodes, to whom Norman gave half of his £500 fee, and was recorded at CTS Studios, 49–53 Kensington Gardens Square, Bayswater, London on 25 and 26 June 1962 with the 20–30 piece orchestra conducted by Eric Rogers. None of the orchestrated tracks appear on the soundtrack album. The original "

James Bond Theme The "James Bond Theme" is the main signature theme music of the James Bond films and has featured in every Eon Productions Bond film since '' Dr. No'', released in 1962. Composed by Monty Norman (with arrangements for film provided by John Bar ...

" was written by Norman. John Barry, who would later go on to compose the music for eleven Bond films, arranged the theme, but was uncredited – except for the credit of his orchestra playing the final piece. John Barry claimed he, not Norman, originated the theme. This argument has been the subject of two court cases, the most recent in 2001. Some portions of the theme Norman claimed were based on music from the son
"Good Sign, Bad Sign"
that he composed for his unstaged musical several years previously, titled "A House for Mr. Biswas". Vic Flick, the guitar player on the James Bond Theme states:

Norman is famous for writing the music to the first James Bond movie Dr No, and has been credited with writing the "James Bond Theme", the signature theme of the James Bond franchise. Norman has received royalties since 1962 for the theme, but it was arranged by John Barry after the producers were dissatisfied with Norman's music. Barry claims that he actually did write the theme, but nevertheless, Mr. Norman won two libel actions against publishers for claiming that Barry was the composer, most recently against The Sunday Times in 2001. During the trial, Barry testified on the stand that he had composed the James Bond Theme, but that Norman was contractually obligated to receive credit for the score.

Despite Barry's claims that he wrote the theme, the idea of the Bond melody can be easily heard in Norman's earlier son
"Good Sign, Bad Sign"
which could explain why Norman has prevailed twice in court to defend his authorship of the theme. The soundtrack album of ''Dr. No'' was not originally issued to coincide with the film's initial release in October 1962. However, in addition to his fee for orchestrating the "James Bond Theme", Barry was allowed to perform a different orchestration of the theme on

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. It was founded on January 15, 1889, evolving from the A ...

. This became a top ten hit in the UK. The soundtrack album came out after the U.S. release of ''Dr. No'' in June 1963 with American

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song relea ...

single recordings of "The James Bond Theme" by

Al Caiola Alexander Emil Caiola (September 7, 1920 – November 9, 2016) was an American guitarist, composer and arranger, who spanned a variety of music genres including jazz, country, rock, and pop. He recorded over fifty albums and worked with some of ...

and

Leroy Holmes Alvin LeRoy Holmes (September 22, 1913 – July 27, 1986) was an American songwriter, composer, arranger, orchestra conductor and record producer. Biography Holmes graduated from Hollywood High School, studied music at Northwestern Universi ...

United Artists Records United Artists Records was an American record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1957 to issue movie soundtracks. The label expanded into other genres, such as easy listening, jazz, pop, and R&B. History Genres In 1959, ...

and

Si Zentner Simon Hugh Zentner (June 13, 1917 in New York City, United States – January 31, 2000 in Las Vegas, Nevada) was an American trombonist and jazz big-band leader. Zentner played in the bands of Les Brown, Harry James, and Jimmy Dorsey in the ...

Liberty Records Liberty Records was a record label founded in the United States by chairman Simon Waronker in 1955 with Al Bennett as president and Theodore Keep as chief engineer. It was reactivated in 2001 in the United Kingdom and had two previous revival ...

. One musical theme that appears in three different orchestrations on the album: "Dr. No's Fantasy", "Twisting with James" and the misleadingly entitled "The James Bond Theme" (track 17 on the album, but entirely unrelated to the "track 1"), is not heard anywhere in the film. Diana Coupland recalled that it was Norman's first attempt at a '"James Bond Theme"'. Notable omissions from the soundtrack include the film's opening sci-fi

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electro ...

sound effects (provided by

Daphne Oram Daphne Blake Oram (31 December 1925 – 5 January 2003) was a British composer and electronic musician. She was one of the first British composers to produce electronic sound, and was an early practitioner of musique concrète in the UK. As a co ...

)/''"James Bond Theme"''

gun barrel sequence The gun barrel sequence is a signature device featured in nearly every List of James Bond films, ''James Bond'' film.Cork, John & Scivally, Bruce (2002). ''James Bond: The Legacy''. Boxtree, 46. Shot from the point of view of a presumed assassin, ...

, and Eric Rogers' symphonic arrangements of Norman's score including a brief theme for Miss Moneypenny, the music from the

tarantula Tarantulas comprise a group of large and often hairy spiders of the family Theraphosidae. , 1,040 species have been identified, with 156 genera. The term "tarantula" is usually used to describe members of the family Theraphosidae, although m ...

scene, and Dr. No's death (reused during the climax of the helicopter attack in '' From Russia with Love'' but not on that soundtrack album either).

Track listing

# "

" –

John Barry Orchestra John Barry Prendergast (3 November 1933 – 30 January 2011) was a British composer and conductor of film music. He composed the scores for eleven of the ''James Bond'' films between 1963 and 1987, as well as arranging and performing the ...

# "Kingston Calypso" (a version of " Three Blind Mice") –

# "Jamaican Rock" (not heard in the film, a possible unused title track) # "Jump Up" –

# "Audio Bongo" (an

version of a musical theme for Dr. No) # "Under the Mango Tree" – Diana Coupland # "Twisting with James" (a version of "Dr No's Fantasy" unused in the film) # "Jamaica Jazz" – (unused in the film, an instrumental of "Jump Up") # "Under the Mango Tree" – (Instrumental unused in the film) # "Jump Up" –

# "Dr. No's Fantasy" (unused in the film) # "Kingston Calypso" – Diana Coupland # "The Island Speaks" (an instrumental version of a musical theme for Dr. No accompanying Bond and Quarrel landing on Crab Key) # "Underneath the Mango Tree" –

# "The Boy's Chase" (unused in the film; Norman recalled it was written for the car chase when Bond is driven from the airportp. 73 Chowdhury, Ajay & Field, Matthew ''On Track with Monty'' ''Monty Norman Interview'' in ''Movie Classics Dr. No'' ''Cinema Retro'' Special Edition Issue No 4) # "Dr. No's Theme" (an instrumental version of "Kingston Calypso") # "The James Bond Theme" (an unused instrumental version of "Dr. No's Fantasy") # "Love at Last" (heard briefly at the Queens Club)

References

{{Authority control Soundtrack albums from James Bond films

Soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrac ...

1963 soundtrack albums United Artists Records soundtracks Liberty Records soundtracks Monty Norman albums John Barry (composer) soundtracks

Scoring the film

Track listing

See also

References