Thunderball

As with many of the old Bond albums, I was always convinced that the films contained a greater proportion of exciting music than the album and no more so than in the case of Thunderball. As has happened for several of the Bond scores, the album was in preparation before the recording was complete and so several important chunks are missing. In the case of Thunderball, this is most notable in terms of music from the opening and closing of the film. Quite apart from the extra music, this new release has much better sound and so when the brass and Tom Jones belt out Thunderball, the correct visceral impact is achieved, as opposed to the somewhat tinny sounding original. Naturally enough, the original score all sounds much improved, with greater dynamic range and a much cleaner, almost hiss free acoustic. On this occasion, none of the original album cues are significantly different in length to the original line up.

Although Bond films usually have an exciting prologue and perhaps one good action scene midway through, most of the best stuff is saved until last and, in theory at least, Thunderball is no exception. The original album contained most of the in between cues, effective suspense, but little significant little action and as such, the bonus tracks come as a thrilling change of pace. The Gunbarrel is perhaps second only to Williams' Star Wars fanfare as the best musical opening to a film and its rightful inclusion, before a feisty and martial action cue, is a brilliant opener - if only it were actually at the beginning of the disc. Track 14 is a set of more incidental cues, of a more suspenseful nature, save for the lethargic jazz of Bond Meets Domino. Street Chase is, like much of the action in Thunderball, based around Barry's 007 theme - indeed the Bond theme makes only a couple of token appearances outside of the opening - and with a brief bit of scoring for the exotic location in the final half a minute.

As I commented in my original review, I was never particularly thrilled by the lethargic underwater finale, although listening to Barry's exciting and bombastic scoring, you'd never guess the sequence itself is so slow going. Track 16 is largely build up, eventually exploding into an action cue based around the 007 motif (which featured only as a concert arrangement on the original disc) and is developed into something even more heroic, with far louder and more complex orchestrations. Barry introduces a motif, similar in style to that employed for the finale sequence of Goldfinger, during Underwater Mayhem, building up layers until the tension finally dissolves with the Death of Largo and an orchestral reprise of the song for the End Titles.

The original album really did Barry's score no justice - the suspense was of course good, but Bond needs excitement and this is probably the most action fuelled and bombastic Bond score that Barry wrote, certainly for the Connery years. This new album turns Thunderball from an almost ran to an top effort and, although the tracks really need a little shuffling for an ideal mixture of action, suspense and local colour, it still plays as one of the best Bond scores and an essential.

Unlike most of the other expanded releases which can be played in the correct order simply by programming the CD player, Thunderball has longer suites in the bonus section and so many of the original album cues come within the longer, previously unreleased tracks. However, with thanks to Neil at John Barry - A Life in Music, the nearly correct track order as below, but check out the link for information about a more detailed edit, should you feel so inclined:

13, 2, 1, 3, 4, 5, 14, 7, 6, 9, 10, 15, 8, 16, 17, 12. Extra tracks: 11 & 18.