Film score fans, you've hit the jackpot! After a successful year of landmark releases such as an expanded edition of Pino Donaggio’s score to Carrie and the remaster and remix of Promises, Promises: The Original Broadway Cast Recording, just to name two, the Kritzerland label is going to the Casino. Of course, I mean Casino Royale. Unlike in most casinos, however, the odds are in the label’s favor, because no film score fan is going to want to be without producer Bruce Kimmel’s deluxe expanded soundtrack. It will feature Burt Bacharach’s score in two complete versions plus previously-unreleased bonus tracks, all painstakingly remastered for the best possible sound yet. Casino Royale will not be available from Kritzerland until Monday, December 20, at 6:00 a.m., but the label was kind enough to give The Second Disc’s readers an exclusive heads-up on this exciting news.

“Casino Royale is too much…for one James Bond!” read the striking poster for Charles K. Feldman’s 1967 mammoth spy spoof loosely based on Ian Fleming’s first-ever James Bond novel. The producer’s solution? How about not one, but seven James Bonds? Plus his nephew Jimmy? This madcap adventure also required the services of roughly five directors and as many as ten screenwriters, three of whom took credit. But only one man tackled the musical score, and it's largely due to Burt Bacharach’s work that the film is so well-remembered today. (Bacharach composed three tremendous soundtracks for Peter Sellers vehicles in the mid-sixties, and Casino is the crown jewel among them, the others being What’s New Pussycat? and After the Fox.) The score would be a classic for “The Look of Love” (sung by Dusty Springfield over a spellbindingly memorable sequence with Sellers and Ursula Andress viewed through a giant fish tank; believe me, you have to see it!) alone, but there’s plenty more, from Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass’ swinging title song to memorably melodic cues like “Little French Boy” and “Home James, Don’t Spare the Horses,” otherwise known as “Bond Street.” The new Casino Royale will feature all of these and more, including for the first time ever, the giddy, groovy vocal rendition of “Casino Royale” (with lyrics by Hal David) heard at the film’s conclusion.

We at The Second Disc couldn't be more thrilled. Mark your calendars now for Monday, because this limited edition of 1,000 likely won’t be around long. Ready to hit the jump? Direct from Kritzerland, here’s Bruce Kimmel on everything you need to know to have a swinging time at Casino Royale, including the history of this landmark recording and why it's sounding better than ever.

UPDATE: Order Casino Royale now from Kritzerland here! The track list is also after the jump.

CASINO ROYALE IS TOO MUCH… FOR ONE JAMES BOND!

In 1953, British author Ian Fleming created one of the most enduring cinematic characters with the publication of his first 007 novel, Casino Royale. Thirteen years later, producer Charles K. Feldman (of What’s New Pussycat? fame) reimagined Fleming’s story as a large-scale, star-studded spy spoof inspired by the Bond mania that swept across the world in the 1960s. While not exactly delivering the kind of James Bond films audiences had loved and come to expect, Casino Royale has became a cult classic in the ensuing decades, a colorful addendum to the history of the 007 legacy. With an all-star cast that included David Niven, Deborah Kerr, John Huston, Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, cameos by Jean-Paul Belmondo, David McCallum, and Peter O’Toole, and even featuring an authentic Bond girl, Ursula Andress (from Dr. No), the rag-tag craziness on view was directed by several different directors – John Huston, Joseph McGrath, Robert Parrish, with Val Guest overseeing the entire production. As would be expected, the end result was eclectic, sometimes very funny, and sometimes just plain weird.

One person who immensely helped tie the whole thing together was the brilliant Burt Bacharach, who provided one of the most popular and universally applauded features of Casino Royale: its musical score. Hired on the strength of his music for What’s New Pussycat?, the composer was expected to bring the same kind of cheek to Feldman’s latest picture, offering a colorful kaleidoscope that went on to define the Swingin’ Sixties without referencing the typical musical spy vernacular. In fact, Bacharach’s approach is much closer to the Henry Mancini/Blake Edwards song scores such as The Pink Panther or The Party, which may explain the soundtrack’s extraordinary success on its own. The score was nominated for a Grammy and “The Look of Love” received an Oscar nomination. Bacharach had, of course, had countless hits by the time of this film, and would go on to have countless more (one of the only pop song composers to have hits in every decade since the 1950s), as well as providing the soundtracks to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Arthur, and many other films.

This is the third CD release for Casino Royale (although both releases on Varese Sarabande were pretty much identical) – the original LP has long been considered one of the great audiophile releases, thanks to a nod in The Absolute Sound. But due to an unfortunate accident, just prior to the transfer of the master tape, the tape was rewound too quickly and stripped of iron oxide, thereby compromising and damaging the tape. The transfer could still be made and the CD came out – but anyone expecting it to sound like the LP was disappointed, and for obvious reasons. For this release, we have spent much time in trying to alleviate some of the effects of the tape damage – our mastering engineer, James Nelson, has painstakingly and lovingly repaired numerous dropouts and other anomalies and we’ve worked very hard to get this to sound as good as it ever has or will, and the result is pretty amazing. We’ve also added three short bonus cues, available on CD for the first time, including the original end credits vocal.

But one of the main reasons for doing this third CD release was to offer as a bonus a straight transfer of that original record – done from several pristine copies of the LP – so that the original sound, with no additional processing or EQ, is captured on CD for the very first time. We leave it for others to judge whether that sound holds up for today’s listeners. Given what happened to the master tape, this is as close to that original LP sound as we’re ever going to get.

This very special release is limited to 1,000 copies only. The price of the CD is $19.98, plus shipping. Additionally, we are offering a special deal with the purchase of this release. Go to the item page [on Monday] and click on the link to find out about it.

Click here to visit Kritzerland, where Casino Royale will be available for pre-order on Monday, December 20, at 6:00 a.m.

Burt Bacharach, Casino Royale: An Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack (Kritzerland KR-200176, 2010)

1. Casino Royale Theme (Main Title) - Performed by Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass
2. The Venerable Sir James Bond
3. Agent Mimi
4. Little French Boy
5. Money Penny Goes for Broke
6. The Look of Love (Instrumental)
7. The Look of Love - Vocal by Dusty Springfield
8. The Indian Temple
9. Sir James’ Trip to Find Mata
10. First Stop Berlin
11. Home James, Don’t Spare the Horses
12. Hi There Miss Goodthighs
13. Dream On, James, You’re Winning
14. Le Chiffre’s Torture of Mind
15. Flying Saucer
16. The Big Cowboys and Indians Fight at Casino Royale/End Credits (Vocal Version)
17. Keystone Kops (Bonus Trackette)
18. Casino Royale Theme (Main Title) - Performed by Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass
19. The Look of Love - Vocal by Dusty Springfield
20. Money Penny Goes for Broke
21. Le Chiffre’s Torture of the Mind
22. Home James, Don’t Spare the Horses
23. Sir James’ Trip to Find Mata
24. The Look of Love (Instrumental)
25. Hi There Miss Goodthighs
26. Little French Boy
27. Flying Saucer – First Stop Berlin
28. The Venerable Sir James Bond
29. Dream On, James, You’re Winning
30. The Big Cowboys and Indians Fight at Casino Royale/Casino Royale Theme - Performed by Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass

Tracks 1-17 are the original score tracks in film presentation order.
Tracks 18-30 originally released as Colgems LP COSO 5005, 1967. Later released on CD as Varese Sarabande VSD-5265, 1990 / 302 066 409-2, 2002.