John Barry
La-La Land is closing out 2024 with an amazing pair of expanded releases: lovingly-restored John Barry scores to James Bond films The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) and Moonraker (1979), both reissued for their 50th and 45th anniversaries.
Golden Gun, Roger Moore's second go-round as Ian Fleming's Agent 007, featured a Barry score with its now-standard pop song heard in the film's opening title sequence: a melodramatic number with lyrics by Don Black sung by "To Sir, with Love" singer Lulu. (Barry dismissed it as one of his weaker efforts.) Nonetheless, this film and score has its fans who will no doubt be satiated by this 2CD reissue, featuring the film score, several unreleased gems (including an instrumental demo of the main theme) and a remaster of the original soundtrack album. It's produced by Neil S. Bulk, newly mixed by Chris Malone (who utilized hi-res digital transfers of the original 2" tapes from the MGM vaults) and mastered by Doug Schwartz, with Bond aficionado Jon Burlingame penning new liner notes in a package designed by Dan Goldwasser. It's limited to 5000 copies, sold exclusively at La-La Land Records and the official 007 web store for its first 90 days of release.
Bond joined another trend in 1979's adaptation of the Fleming novel Moonraker: the post-Star Wars sci-fi boom. (A keypad in the film even plays John Williams' five-note motif to another 1977 sci-fi classic, Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind.) In Moore's fourth Bond picture (and 11th overall), 007 ventures across California, Italy, Brazil and finally outer space itself to foil a eugenicist plot of supervillain industrialist Hugo Drax. The film also features the return of "Jaws," the towering, steel-toothed assassin from The Spy Who Loved Me played by Richard Kiel, as well as the final appearance of Bernard Lee as Bond's supervisor M. John Barry's lush, string-laden score flirted with disco balladry, with Hal David adding romantic lyrics to the title song, the third to be sung by Shirley Bassey (a last-minute pick after Johnny Mathis reportedly dropped out). Moonraker, which like much of the film itself was recorded in Paris, was long thought to be unable to comprehensively reissued due to a persistent rumor that the master tapes had been lost. That turns out to be delightfully untrue; hi-res digital transfers of MGM's 2" tapes have been newly mixed for this set by Mike Matessino (with the same team of producer Bulk, mastering engineer Schwartz, notes from Burlingame and design from Goldwasser). As with Golden Gun, this 2CD set features an expanded and restored score presentation, alternates and the original soundtrack album - along with a really special treat for fans: several early versions of the title song featuring lyrics and vocals by Paul Williams! What a find! Moonraker lands at the LLL and 007 web stores for its first 90 days, also limited to 5000 copies.