Dr No is the original soundtrack for the first James Bond film of the same name.

Composer Monty Norman was selected by producer Albert R Broccoli after Broccoli backed a musical of Norman’s Belle or The Ballad of Dr Crippen written by Wolf Mankowitz a frequent collaborator with Norman and an original screenwriter for Dr No. Norman accompanied the producers and film crew to Jamaica.

The original James Bond Theme was written by Norman. John Barry, who would later go on to compose the music for 11 Bond films, arranged the Bond theme, but was uncredited – except for the credit of his orchestra playing the final piece. It has occasionally been suggested that Barry, not Norman, composed the “James Bond Theme”. This argument has been the subject of two court cases, the most recent in 2001. Some portions of the theme are, however, based on music Norman composed for a stage musical several years previously.

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. This became a top ten hit in the UK. The soundtrack album came out after the American release of Dr No in June 1963 with American single recordings of “The James Bond Theme” by Al Caiola and Leroy Holmes on United Artists Records and Si Zentner on Liberty Records. In addition to Barry’s orchestration of the “James Bond Theme” most of the tracks on the album were performed by Byron Lee & the Dragonaires who appear in the film singing “Jump Up”. The song “Under the Mango Tree” was performed by an uncredited Diana Coupland, Norman’s wife at the time. None of the Eric Rogers orchestrated tracks appear on the soundtrack album.

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 unrelated to “track 1″), is not heard anywhere in the film. 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 sound effects/”James Bond Theme” gunbarrel sequence, and Eric Rogers’ symphonic arrangements of Norman’s score including a theme for Miss Moneypenny and the music from the tarantula scene as well as 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

1. “James Bond Theme” – John Barry Orchestra
2. “Kingston Calypso” – Byron Lee and the Dragonaires
3. “Jamaican Rock” (not heard in the film, a possible unused title track)
4. “Jump Up” – Byron Lee and the Dragonaires
5. “Audio Bongo” (an electronic music version of a musical theme for Dr No)
6. “Under The Mango Tree” – Diana Coupland
7. “Twisting With James” (a version of “Dr No’s Fantasy” unused in the film)
8. “Jamaica Jazz” (unused in the film, an instrumental of “Jump Up”)
9. “Under The Mango Tree” (instrumental unused in the film)
10. “Jump Up” – Byron Lee and the Dragonaires
11. “Dr No’s Fantasy” (unused in the film)
12. “Kingston Calypso” – Diana Coupland
13. “The Island Speaks” (an instrumental version of a musical theme for Dr No accompanying Bond and Quarrel landing on Crab Key)
14. “Under The Mango Tree” – Monty Norman
15. “The Boy’s Chase” (unused in the film)
16. “Dr No’s Theme” (instrumental version of “Kingston Calypso”)
17. “The James Bond Theme” (an unused instrumental version of “Dr No’s Fantasy”)
18. “Love At Last” (heard briefly in a party sequence)

See also:

• Bond films: Soundtrack
• Dr No: Film