Goldfinger (Shirley Bassey song)

"Goldfinger"
A-side label of UK vinyl single
Single by Shirley Bassey
B-side "Strange How Love Can Be"§
Released 1964
Genre Pop, orchestral pop, R&B
Length 2:48
Label Columbia
United Artists (US) / Capitol (Canada)
Songwriter(s) John Barry, Leslie Bricusse, Anthony Newley
Producer(s) George Martin

"Goldfinger" is the title song from the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger. Composed by John Barry and with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, the song was performed by Shirley Bassey for the film's opening and closing title sequences, as well as the soundtrack album release. The single release of the song gave Bassey her only Billboard Hot 100 top forty hit, peaking in the Top 10 at No. 8 and No. 2 for four weeks on the Adult Contemporary chart,[1] and in the United Kingdom the single reached No. 21.[2]

The song finished at No. 53 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema. In 2008, the single was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[3]

Background

Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley were asked to create the lyrics for the song. But when its composer John Barry played them the first three notes, Bricusse and Newley looked at each other and sang out: ". . . wider than a mile," to the melody of "Moon River," the popular theme song from Breakfast at Tiffany's. Barry was not amused.

One source of inspiration was the song "Mack the Knife", which director Guy Hamilton showed Barry, thinking it was a "gritty and rough" song that could be a good model for what the film required. Bricusse and Newley were not shown any film footage or script excerpts, but were advised of the fatal gilding suffered by the Jill Masterson character, played by Shirley Eaton. Bricusse would later recall that once he and Newley hit upon utilizing "the Midas touch" in the lyric, the pattern of the song became evident and the lyrics were completed within at most a couple of days.

The first recording of "Goldfinger" was made by Newley in a May 14, 1964 recording session, with Barry as conductor, which produced two completed takes. Barry would recall that Newley gave a "very creepy" performance which he, Barry considered "terrific". Newley's recording, however, was made purely as a demo for the film's makers. According to Barry, Newley "didn't want to sing it in the movie as they [Newley and Bricusse] thought the song was a bit weird".

Shirley Bassey was Barry's choice to record the song; he had been conductor on Bassey's national tour in December 1963 and the two had also been romantically involved. Barry had played Bassey an instrumental track of the song before its lyrics were written; the singer would recall that hearing the track had given her "goose bumps". She agreed to sing the song whatever the lyrics might eventually be. Bassey recorded the track on August 20, 1964 at London's CTS Studios in Wembley: the track's producer credit named Bassey's regular producer George Martin, but the session was in fact overseen by Barry. Vic Flick, Jimmy Page and Big Jim Sullivan are all said to have been at the sessions.

Page recalls attending the sessions, however the session musicians on the Bond films were separately relegated to the instrumental score versions of songs, while the main musicians (on Goldfinger: Vic Flick) were given the main film theme song to solely record, to be featured at the beginning of the film.[4] Leaving Page as a background acoustic contributor to Flick on the instrumental version of the song.

The recording of "Goldfinger" lasted all night as Barry demanded repeated takes due to musicians' or technical glitches, not any shortcomings in Bassey's vocal. Bassey did initially have issues with the climactic final note which necessitated her slipping behind a studio partition between takes to remove her bra. Bassey would recall of the final note: "I was holding it and holding it - I was looking at John Barry and I was going blue in the face and he's going - hold it just one more second. When it finished, I nearly passed out."

The iconic two-note phrase which is the basis for the song's introduction was not in the original orchestration, but occurred to Barry during a tea-break, following an hour and a half of rehearsal. By the time the musicians returned, twenty minutes later, he had written the figure into the orchestration.

The hit single was released in mono, with the album stereo issues (on the film soundtrack, Golden Hits Of Shirley Bassey and subsequent releases) using an alternate mix in which the instrumental take is the same, but Bassey's vocal is different; a shade less intense and with a shorter final note. Newley's version was later released in 1992 to mark the 30th Anniversary of James Bond on film, in a compilation collector's edition: The Best of Bond...James Bond.

Bassey's title theme was almost taken out of the film because producer Harry Saltzman hated it, saying, "That's the worst *** song I've ever heard in my *** life". Saltzman would also dislike Bassey's subsequent Bond theme, that for Diamonds Are Forever. However, there was not enough time for a replacement song to be written and recorded.

Release

The release on vinyl of Bassey's (mono) version, UA 790, sold more than a million copies in the United States (Guinness Book of Records), and it also reached No. 1 in Japan, No. 4 in Australia, and the Top 10 of many European countries including Austria (No. 7), Belgium (No. 9 on the Dutch charts), Germany (No. 8), Italy (No. 3), the Netherlands (No. 5), and Norway (No. 7). A No. 24 hit in France, Bassey's "Goldfinger" was not one of Bassey's biggest hits in her native UK, its No. 21 peak being far lower than that of the nine Top 10 hits she'd previously scored, but despite Bassey subsequently returning to the UK Top 10 three more times, "Goldfinger" would ultimately become her signature song in the UK as well as the rest of the world. In 2002 poll in which BBC Radio 2 solicited listeners' favourite piece of popular music from the last fifty years performed by a British act, "Goldfinger" by Shirley Bassey ranked at No. 46.[5]

Other versions and adaptations

Re-recordings

Bassey re-recorded "Goldfinger" for her 2014 album Hello Like Before. In doing so she addressed two notes that she thought "sounded wrong" in the original.[6]

Recorded covers

  • In 1964, Billy Strange recorded a version, which even charted along with Bassey's original.[7]
  • In 1965, The Honeycombs did an instrumental cover of it on their Japanese tour which also appeared on their album In Tokyo which was released in Japan only.
  • In 1965, Count Basie did an instrumental version of the song on his album Basie Meets Bond.
  • In 1965, Ray Barretto did an instrumental version of the song on his album Señor 007.
  • In 1965, Billy Preston did an instrumental version of the song on his album Early Hits of 1965.[8]
  • In 1965, Enoch Light and The Light Brigade did an instrumental version of the song on the album Discoteque Vol. 2: Dance, Dance, Dance".
  • In 1965, Harry James recorded a version on the album Harry James Plays Green Onions & Other Great Hits. (Dot DLP 3634 and DLP 25634).
  • In 1967, Eino Grön recorded the Finnish rendering "Hän Vaatii" ("He Required") for his self-titled album.
  • In 1978, the song was covered by Howard Devoto's post-punk band Magazine, as the B-side to their single Touch and Go.
  • In 1996, Man or Astroman? did an instrumental version of the song on the various-artists comp Secret Agent S.O.U.N.D.S..
  • In 2000, Hank Marvin did an instrumental version of the song on his album Marvin at the Movies.
  • In 2006, it was covered in a heavy metal fashion by Finnish rock group Leningrad Cowboys on their album Zombies Paradise.
  • In 2012, for the James Bond video game 007 Legends, an instrumental version was written and composed by David Arnold for the main title sequence, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the film franchise.
  • In 2016, Finnish singer, and former Nightwish vocalist Tarja Turunen released a cover of the song on her album "The Brightest Void"
  • In 2017, Guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Thomas Morgan made a live recording of the song which was released on their album Small Town for ECM.

Live and televised performances

Soundtrack appearances

Remixes and samples

Parodies

Parodies of the song include "Dr. Evil", written by They Might Be Giants for Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,[10] and "Max Power", from The Simpsons episode "Homer to the Max".[11]

Inspired songs

In 1989, after the release of the James Bond theme song "Licence to Kill", from the film of the same title, it was felt to significantly reuse important elements of "Goldfinger", and so the songwriting credits for the former were adapted for all subsequent releases.

Charts

Charts Peak
position
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[12] 7
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[13] 9
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Wallonia)[14] 14
Germany (Official German Charts)[15] 8
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[16] 5
Norway (VG-lista)[17] 7
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[18] 21
US Billboard Hot 100[19] 8
US Adult Contemporary (Billboard)[20] 2

See also

References

  1. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 29.
  2. ↑ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums. London: Guinness World Records Limited
  3. ↑ "Grammy Hall of Fame Award Archived 2015-07-07 at the Wayback Machine.. Grammy.org. Retrieved 21 December 2012
  4. ↑ Barry, John in Burlingame, Jon. (2014) The Music of James Bond, Reprint Edition, Oxford University Press
  5. ↑ "BBC - Press Office - Best of British Top 50".
  6. ↑ "Dame Shirley Bassey rights Goldfinger 'wrong notes'". BBC. 21 November 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2015.
  7. ↑ "Goldfinger - Shirley Bassey - Song Info - AllMusic".
  8. ↑ "Billy Preston - Early Hits Of 1965".
  9. ↑ Graff, Amy. "Remembering Tom Petty's legendary shows at San Francisco's Fillmore in 1997". SFGate. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
  10. ↑ More Music from the Motion Picture Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, Allmusic
  11. ↑ "Homer comes over all tree-hugger". British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2008-09-07.
  12. ↑ "Austriancharts.at – Shirley Bassey – Goldfinger" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40.
  13. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Shirley Bassey – Goldfinger" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50.
  14. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Shirley Bassey – Goldfinger" (in French). Ultratop 50.
  15. ↑ "Musicline.de – Shirley Bassey Single-Chartverfolgung" (in German). Media Control Charts. PhonoNet GmbH.
  16. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – Shirley Bassey – Goldfinger" (in Dutch). Single Top 100.
  17. ↑ "Norwegiancharts.com – Shirley Bassey – Goldfinger". VG-lista.
  18. ↑ "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company.
  19. ↑ "Shirley Bassey Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard.
  20. ↑ "Shirley Bassey Chart History (Adult Contemporary)". Billboard.
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