From Russia with Love is the first series film with John Barry as the primary soundtrack composer. Barry, arranger of Monty Norman’s James Bond Theme for Dr No, would be the dominant Bond series composer for most of its history and the inspiration for the current lead Bond film composer, David Arnold (who uses cues from this soundtrack in his own for Tomorrow Never Dies).

Following the decision of the producers not to use Norman, though keeping his “The James Bond Theme”, Harry Saltzman decided on using the then popular Lionel Bart of Oliver! fame. Bart was unable to read or write music, but he offered to compose the music and lyrics for a title song to the film.

The producers chose Barry to score the film. Barry had not only arranged and conducted “The James Bond Theme” from the previous film, but had already scored some motion pictures such as Beat Girl and Never Let Go. Barry’s group also charted as #1 in the November 1962 UK charts with a different arrangement of the Bond theme than was heard in the film.

The title song was sung by Matt Monro. Monro’s vocal version is played during the film (as source music on a radio) and properly over the film’s end titles. The title credit music is a lively instrumental version of the tune preceded by a brief Barry composed “James Bond is Back” then segueing into the “James Bond Theme”. On the original film soundtrack Alan Haven played a jazzy organ over the theme but this version was not released on the soundtrack album. The tune also appears in a soft string arrangement as a theme for Tania. In Germany, the original release featured an end title track cover version called Die Wolga ist Weit sung by Ruthe Berlé.

Originally planning to use local Turkish music as Norman had used Jamaican music on Dr No, Barry accompanied the film crew to Istanbul, however he found nothing suitable for the film. There are different tracks of Turkish type music in the film that do not appear on the soundtrack, and a “Leila Dances” theme on the album is not heard in the film.

In this film, Barry introduced the percussive “007” theme that came to be considered the ‘secondary James Bond Theme’. Barry’s instrumental group The John Barry Seven had had a UK chart hit with a cover version of Elmer Bernstein’s The Magnificent Seven; both that tune and 007 featured seven beats. It is used in various of the Bond films of Sean Connery, and also Roger Moore’s Moonraker. The arrangement appears twice on this soundtrack album; the second version, entitled “007 Takes the Lektor”, is the one used during the gunfight at the gypsy camp and also during Bond’s theft of the Lektor decoding machine. The soundtrack album version is not heard in the film.

The completed film features a holdover from the Monty Norman-supervised Dr No music – the post-rocket-launch music from No (after Bond disrupts No’s attempts to jam the takeoff) appears in Russia at the conclusion of the helicopter attack, and also at the attempt of SPECTRE to intercept Bond’s speedboat. This cue, lifted by Arnold for Tomorrow Never Dies, is absent from the Russia soundtrack album. The original Barry arrangement of “The James Bond Theme” for Dr No was inserted by the producers in the film when Bond searches his room in Istanbul for microphones. Barry did a new arrangement of the theme used when Bond leaves London and flies into Istanbul titled “James Bond with Bongos” that Billy Strange did a cover version of for the US charts.

Barry noted that Bart’s lyrics used the title of the film, but had nothing to do with the story of the film, a matter he would rectify when he was assigned the next Bond film. Goldfinger would be the first Bond film in which he had total creative control over the soundtrack, including the music of the theme song (Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley would contribute the theme’s lyrics).

Barry’s “Stalking” – the haunting track from the pre-credit sequence between Bond and Grant – is echoed on the 1977 film version of The Spy Who Loved Me.

Track listing:

1. “Opening Titles / James Bond Is Back / From Russia with Love – (instrumental) / James Bond Theme”
2. “Tania Meets Klebb”
3. “Meeting in St Sophia”
4. “The Golden Horn”
5. “Girl Trouble”
6. “Bond Meets Tania”
7. “007”
8. “Gypsy Camp”
9. “Death of Grant”
10. “From Russia with Love” – Matt Monro
11. “Spectre Island”
12. “Guitar Lament”
13. “Man Overboard / Smersh in Action”
14. “James Bond with Bongos”
15. “Stalking”
16. “Leila Dances”
17. “Death of Kerim”
18. “007 Takes the Lektor”

See also:

• Bond films: Soundtrack
• From Russia With Love: Film