Movie Soundtracks: “James Bond Theme” For “Dr. No” By Monty Norman, Now 91 (1928, London)

Monty Norman
Monty Norman

Soundtrack/theme music from the 1962 Terence Young film “Dr. No,” with Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Joseph Wiseman, Jack Lord, John Kitzmiller, Lois Maxwell & Bernard Lee.

Monty Norman (born 4 April 1928) is a singer and film composer best known for composing the “James Bond Theme”.

Norman is famous for writing the music to the first James Bond movie, Dr. No, including the “James Bond Theme”, the signature theme of the James Bond franchise. Norman has received royalties since 1962 for the theme. However, as the producers were dissatisfied with Norman’s arrangement, John Barry re-arranged the theme. Barry later claimed that it was actually he who wrote the theme, but Norman won two libel actions against publishers for claiming that Barry was the composer, most recently against The Sunday Times in 2001. In the made-for-DVD documentary Inside Dr. No, Norman performs a music piece which he wrote for the stage several years earlier entitled “Bad Sign, Good Sign”, that resembles the melody of the “James Bond Theme” in several places.

Norman collected around £600,000 in royalties between the years 1976 and 1999 for the use of the theme since Dr. No.

From Wikipedia

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