The "James Bond Theme" is the main signature theme music of the James Bond films and has featured in every Eon Productions Bond film since Dr. No, released in 1962. Composed in E minor by Monty Norman (with arrangements for film provided by John Barry and others), the piece has been used as an accompanying fanfare to the gun barrel sequence in every Eon Bond film besides the 2006 reboot Casino Royale (played fully, instead, at the end of that film).
The "James Bond Theme" has accompanied the opening titles twice, as part of the medley that opens Dr. No and then again in the opening credits of From Russia with Love (1963). It has been used as music over the end credits for Dr. No, Thunderball (1965), On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), The World Is Not Enough (1999), Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012), and Spectre (2015).
In 2008, the 1962 recording of "The James Bond Theme" by The John Barry Seven And Orchestra on the United Artists label was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Authorship and origin
Monty Norman wrote and composed the "James Bond Theme" and received royalties from 1962 until his death in 2022. Norman collected around £600,000 in royalties between 1976 and 1999. For Dr. No, Norman scored the film and the theme was arranged by John Barry, who would later go on to compose the soundtracks for eleven James Bond films. Courts have ruled that the theme was written by Norman, despite claims and testimony by Barry that he had actually written the theme. Norman consequently won two libel actions against publishers for claiming that Barry wrote the theme, most recently against The Sunday Times in 2001.
Norman describes the distinctive rhythm of the guitar in the first few bars of the "James Bond Theme" as "Dum di–di dum dum". He said that it was inspired by "Bad Sign, Good Sign", a song he composed for a musical adaptation of V. S. Naipaul's novel A House for Mr Biswas, set in the Indian community in Trinidad. Norman showed his manuscript music from A House for Mr Biswas in a filmed interview and sang its lyrics. In 2005, Norman released an album called Completing the Circle that features "Bad Sign, Good Sign", the "James Bond Theme", and a similar-sounding song titled "Dum Di-Di Dum Dum". For these songs Norman added lyrics that explain the origin and history of the "James Bond Theme".
Though the "James Bond Theme" is identified with John Barry's jazz arrangement, parts of it are heard throughout Monty Norman's score for Dr. No in non-jazzy guises. Barry's arrangement is repeated ("tracked") in various scenes of the first Bond film. This is consistent with the account given by Barry and some of the film-makers, contained in supplementary material on the DVD release of Dr. No: Barry was called in to make an arrangement of Norman's motif after Norman had completed the score. There is no information about the distinctive ostinati, countermelodies, and bridges introduced by Barry that are juxtaposed with Norman's motif in order to flesh out the arrangement. These added musical figures have become as recognizable to listeners as Norman's motif, which is probably responsible for the controversy over the authorship of the "James Bond Theme" as listeners have come to know it. Also of note, the "James Bond Theme" introduction is very similar to a portion of Celia Cruz' Plegaria a La Roye as recorded in Cuba with La Sonora Matancera in 1954.
The "James Bond Theme" was recorded on 21 June 1962, using five saxophones, nine brass instruments, a solo guitar and a rhythm section. The guitar motif heard in the original recording of the theme was played by Vic Flick on a 1939 English Clifford Essex Paragon Deluxe guitar plugged into a Fender Vibrolux amplifier. Flick was paid a one-off fee of £6 for recording the famous James Bond Theme motif. John Scott played the saxophone. Barry, who was paid £250 for his work, was surprised that his theme appeared so often in Dr. No. He was told by Noel Rogers, the head of United Artists Music, that though the producers would not give him any more money or a writing credit they would get in touch with him if there was another Bond film made.
Use in the James Bond films
Within the Bond films themselves, many different arrangements of the theme have been used, often reflecting the musical tastes of the specific times. The electric guitar version of the theme is most associated with the Sean Connery era although it was also used in some Roger Moore films, in Timothy Dalton's final film Licence to Kill and in the Bond films starring Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig with the arrangement by David Arnold.