"The dry riffle of the cards and the soft whirr of the roulette wheel, the sharp call of the croupiers and the feverish mutter of a crowded casino hide the thick voice at Bond's ear which says, 'I will count up to ten.'" So read the blurb on the jacket of the original printing of Ian Fleming's 1953 novel Casino Royale, which introduced Agent 007 to the world. Fleming's novel set the tone for those that followed, introducing the "Bond girl" (Vesper Lynd), the larger-than-life villain (Le Chiffre, agent of SMERSH) and the exotic locations (the French seaside resort of Royale les Eaux, plus Lisbon, Portugal).

The television industry quickly set its sights on Fleming's novel; on October 21, 1954, CBS-TV aired a one-hour adaptation of Casino Royale as part of the Climax! anthology series. Director/producer Gregory Ratoff's production starred Barry Nelson as James "Jimmy" Bond and legendary screen villain Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre. It was inevitable that the big screen would beckon, and the next year, Fleming sold film rights to Ratoff and Michael Garrison. Following Ratoff's death in 1960, rights were later acquired by producer Charles K. Feldman. By then, the enormously-successful James Bond film series produced by Albert R. Broccoli had already begun with 1962's Dr. No, and Broccoli turned down the offer to co-produce an adaptation of Fleming's original novel with Feldman. Undeterred, the tenacious Feldman went ahead and created one of the most infamous films in Hollywood history, 1967's lavish, big-budget spy spoof Casino Royale. Due to complicated rights entanglements, the "official" Bond canon didn't get around to a remake of Casino Royale until nearly forty years later, in 2006. With its leading man Daniel Craig just announced to star in the next Bond film for director Sam Mendes, today's Friday Feature looks at the musical legacy of two very different Casino Royales.

Charles K. Feldman spared no expense on his star-studded psychedelic production, to the tune of a then-staggering $12 million, and made a number of hires, including five directors, ten screenwriters and seven James Bonds. (Bond's nephew Jimmy, as portrayed by Woody Allen, also joins in.) The plot, such as it is, goes something like this: Retired spy Sir James Bond (the always-dapper David Niven) is visited by M (John Huston), the head of the MI6, and his associates, who inform Bond that the evil SMERSH organization has been eliminating agents around the globe. Bond resists M's urging to return to active duty, but M's plan backfires when he is killed in an explosion of his own design at Bond's estate. Promoted to the head of MI6, Bond determines to outwit SMERSH and its sinister agent Le Chiffre (Orson Welles) by assigning a number of agents the "007" designation, including baccarat player Evelyn Tremble (Peter Sellers), Vesper Lynd (Urusla Andress) and Miss Moneypenny (Barbara Bouchet). Tremble eventually takes on Le Chiffre at the titular casino in a baccarat game; Sellers and Welles disliked each other so intensely that screen time shared by the two actors was kept to an absolute minimum. By the film's wild conclusion, the Bonds have encountered cowboys, Indians, flying saucers, Scotsmen, a French Legionnaire, and the fiendish Dr. Noah (get it?), among others.

It was Feldman's inspired choice to employ Burt Bacharach to write the score, however, that helped guarantee the film's immortality. (Feldman and Bacharach had previously worked together on 1965's What's New, Pussycat?, also starring Sellers and Allen. The popular composer then scored After the Fox in 1966 with Sellers as The Fox!) For his efforts, Bacharach was rewarded with a Grammy nomination for the soundtrack album and an Oscar nomination for "The Look of Love," breathily sung by Dusty Springfield over an unforgettably ironic sequence with Peter Sellers and Ursula Andress viewed through a giant fish tank. "The Look of Love," with lyrics by Hal David, would go on to receive countless cover versions, the most famous among them by Bacharach and David's muse Dionne Warwick and A&M bossa nova titans Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66. The soundtrack also spawned the infectious instrumental theme song, performed by Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass. Bacharach not only brought consistency to the film, but his highly melodic style was ideal for Casino Royale, the sly humor in the music often bringing laughs on its own.

Hit the jump for the unusual catalogue history of Burt Bacharach's Casino Royale, including a look at Kritzerland's smashing new incarnation, and also a fast-forward to David Arnold's 2006 interpretation!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEnoKqiGJFI]

Casino Royale was first released on LP by the Colgems label in 1967:

Burt Bacharach, Casino Royale: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Colgems COSO-5005, 1967 - reissued Varese Sarabande VSD-5265, 1990 / 302 066 409-2, 2002)

1. Casino Royale Theme (Main Title) - Performed by Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass
2. The Look of Love - Vocal by Dusty Springfield
3. Money Penny Goes for Broke
4. Le Chiffre's Torture of the Mind
5. Home James, Don't Spare the Horses
6. Sir James' Trip to Find Mata
7. The Look of Love (Instrumental)
8. Hi There Miss Goodthighs
9. Little French Boy
10. Flying Saucer - First Stop Berlin
11. The Venerable Sir James Bond
12. Dream On, James, You're Winning
13. The Big Cowboys and Indians Fight at Casino Royale/Casino Royale Theme - Performed by Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass

The album's reputation grew over the years, especially among audiophiles. Harry Pearson, the publisher and editor of The Absolute Sound, contributed to the Casino cult. He described the record as having had "mad levels on it," with "extremely wide dynamic range." In other words, "they [Bacharach, producer Phil Ramone and engineer Jack Clegg] weren't afraid to push the medium to the limits of the recording process...there's no saturation, no distortion. The record is clean as a whistle." Typical of Feldman's go-for-broke approach, the album was supposedly recorded on a very high grade of tape, "and the engineers really pushed it." The album became known as a prime test for expensive stereo equipment, and pristine copies of the LP fetch exorbitant prices even today.

It's no surprise that Casino Royale was much demanded in the compact disc format. It made its first appearance on CD in 1990 from Varese Sarabande as VSD-5265 with the original track listing intact. But Varese's transferring the original tape for CD caused a loss of iron oxide, and the tape to one of the most famous audiophile titles of all time was irreparably damaged. In 2002, the label remastered the title for another CD release (Varese Sarabande 302 066 4092) but the sound was largely identical to the first. In 1999, Classic Records released the soundtrack as a two-sided audio DVD (Classic Records HDAD-2007) with one side in 96/24 DVD-V format and the other in high-resolution 192/24 DVD-A. This disc is of unknown origin; no licensing information whatsoever is present on the release, while credits are minimal and all artwork is reprinted straight from the LP jacket.

It surprised many when Kritzerland announced that one of its final 2010 releases would be a remastered and expanded edition of Casino Royale (Kritzerland KR 20017-6). With the damaged tape, what could the label bring to the table? The results are nothing short of stunning. The first half of the disc is dedicated to a new presentation of the score in film order, which makes a big difference in making the album sound more like a narrative score. It's no exaggeration to say that it's like hearing the score for the first time; it's more cinematic and fully-realized than before, not to mention pristine, thanks to the efforts of producer Bruce Kimmel and remastering engineer James Nelson. Some cues which were combined for the original LP are broken up and placed in proper position, and there's some "new" material, too. The most welcome and long-awaited of these additions is the climactic song performed by Mike Redway, "Have No Fear, Bond is Here," which was replaced on the original LP with a reprise of the Tijuana Brass track. There's also a short cue from the Indian temple sequence and an even shorter Keystone Kops cue; all of these shifts and additions add up to a remarkable new listening experience. The clarity is eye-opening, and the detail thrilling. The audible dropouts on previous releases have disappeared, and there are bits in the percussion and touches throughout the orchestration that should surprise even the most dedicated listener. The Kritzerland team has worked wonders. The second half of the disc is the original LP presentation, mastered from a mint copy of that hallowed vinyl, with no added EQ or processing; as good as that sounds (its best yet!), the new, complete presentation makes this a must-own release, and the definitive treatment of a classic score.

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

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl5WHj0bZ2Q]

When it was announced that Albert R. Broccoli's EON Productions would film a "straight" adaptation of Casino Royale to star Daniel Craig for release in 2006, attention was immediately drawn to the question of "Who will write the score?" The answer was David Arnold, the go-to Bond composer since 1997's Tomorrow Never Dies. The shadow of John Barry still loomed large over the Bond films, even though Barry hadn't written a score for one since 1987's The Living Daylights. Arnold was a big fan of Barry, even having recorded a tribute album to the great James Bond scores of the past (1997's Shaken and Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project), and pulled off the difficult feat of applying a modern, gritty edge to a classic, Barry-style action score with flair.

This film, as adapted by Paul Haggis and the team of Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, of course hewed more closely to the Fleming original than Feldman's absurdist extravaganza. That said, as a "reboot" of the series, it was reset to the present day, and dispensed with many of the traditional Bond elements seen in each previous film. It concerns the young James Bond on the cusp of his promotion to "double-0" status. M (Judi Dench) sends him to Madagascar with bomb maker Mollaka (Sebastien Foucan) his target. After efficiently disposing of Mollaka, Bond uncovers an even bigger scheme, that of Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), a banker who short-sells stock of big businesses, and then plots terrorist attacks on those businesses to drive down the share prices. Bond successfully stops Le Chiffre's plan to destroy an airliner, but follows him to Casino Royale in Montenegro, where the villain sets up a Texas hold-'em tournament (in lieu of the original's baccarat) in an attempt to recoup his clients' money. Bond is assigned to beat Le Chiffre in the tournament, but of course, compilcations ensue. He and Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) become entangled and further perils present themselves before Bond completes his mission and the familiar "The name's Bond...James Bond" can be uttered.

The soundtrack to David Arnold's Casino Royale was released on November 14, 2006 by Sony Classical (88697 02369-2). Yet despite the strengths of Arnold's dark, modern and evocative score, the album was a disappointment to many. For starters, the film's song, "You Know My Name" co-written by Arnold and Soundgarden's Chris Cornell and performed by Cornell, was nowhere in sight. (CD singles of "You Know My Name" would be released about a month later as Interscope 0602517188808/0602517186682 and Cornell would also include it, in slightly remixed form, on his album Carry On).  The song did recur instrumentally in Arnold's score, principally in the tracks "I'm the Money" and "Aston Montenegro." While the Sony CD is a packed almost-75 minutes, 13 further cues were released as iTunes exclusives, many of them shorter than one minute in length.  Arnold took advantage of the opportunity to develop many of his own themes and motifs, as (breaking with tradition) Monty Norman's familiar Bond theme wasn't heard in full until the film's very end, completing Bond's transformation into 007.

David Arnold, Casino Royale: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Sony Classical 88697 02369-2, 2006)

1. African Rundown
2. Nothing Sinister
3. Unauthorized Access
4. Blunt Instrument
5. CCTV
6. Solange
7. Trip Aces
8. Miami International
9. I'm the Money
10. Aston Montenegro
11. Dinner Jackets
12. The Tell
13. Stairwell Fight
14. Vesper
15. Bond Loses It All
16. Dirty Martini
17. Bond Wins It All
18. The End of An Aston Martin
19. The Bad Die Young
20. City of Lovers
21. The Switch
22. Fall of a House in Venice
23. Death of Vesper
24. The Bitch is Dead
25. The Name's Bond... James Bond

David Arnold, Casino Royale: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - iTunes Exclusive Bonus Tracks (Sony Classical, no cat. no., 2006)

1. License: 2 Kills
2. Reveal Le Chiffre
3. Mongoose vs. Snake
4. Bombers Away
5. Push Them Overboard
6. Bedside Computer
7. Beep Beep Beep Bang
8. Inhaler
9. Brother from Langley
10. Prelude to a Beating
11. Coming Round
12. I'm Yours
13. Running to the Elevator

Whether your taste is for zany spy comedy or out-and-out thrills, it's safe to say that you'll hit the jackpot with one of the scores to Casino Royale. Have no fear, Bond is here!