Friday 18 February 2011

Top 5 John Barry compositions

I was very sad to hear the news that John Barry had passed away. His music played a huge part in the films I enjoyed growing up, and so many of those themes bring back wonderful images of some of my favourite movies. Bond gave me my first taste of John Barry and I have already done a Bond Theme top five, but his collection of work is much greater than just soundtracking our favourite British Spy.

If you want to pick up a complete collection of his very best work I can highly recommend Themeology. That is an album I've played an awful lot and at £3.99 is a bit of a bargain. If you've got more cash to spare then try Thempendium which is a fairly exhaustive four CD box set.

It's really tough to put the five tracks I've selected into order and I really think any one of these could be in top position and I'd still be happy. Have to stick to my own rules though so this is what I think right now.

1. Theme from The Persuaders - Spine tingling intro to the seventies crime series starring Roger Moore and Tony Curtis.



2. The James Bond Theme - A monster of a tune that whatever Barry's role in its creation (Officially a Monty Norman composition arranged by JB) defined the sound of nearly all the Bond music that followed.



3. Midnight Cowboy - Haunting harmonica driven tune that provides the melancholy backing to the latter part of the film.



4. Main Title Theme from The Ipcress File - Intertwines perfectly with the sounds of Harry Palmer in the kitchen as he makes coffe and gets ready for the day.



5. We Have All The Time In The World - One of my all time favourite songs.



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3 comments:

Steve T. said...

No Zulu Dave?

Jeff said...

It's cheating a teensy bit to reprise 2 of the 5 from your Bond Top 5 when there's so much Barry material to choose from, though everything James Bond related that Barry did was excellent.

Personally, I'd have included Born Free & perhaps the Dances with Wolves theme, as I'm a big softy at heart

Chopper said...

Steve - Stiring stuff on Zulu but not Top 5 material!

Jeff - Fair cop! If I missed the Bond tunes off I think I'd add these two ...

The main theme to Beat Girl (short but sweet)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B86I_wDmWW4

Hit and Miss (Theme to Juke Box Jury)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_2lqnTuxjg