''On Her Majesty's Secret Service'' ("OHMSS") is the soundtrack for the James Bond film. It was composed, arranged, and conducted by John Barry; his fifth in the series.

Opening theme

The opening theme for ''On Her Majesty's Secret Service'' proved challenging for composer John Barry. The convention in the previous James Bond films was to accompany the opening credits with a song whose lyrics included the film's title. This film became the first in the series since '' From Russia with Love'' to deviate from this rule (and ''From Russia with Love'' had differed only in featuring the song, sung by

Matt Monro Matt Monro (born Terence Edward Parsons, 1 December 1930 – 7 February 1985) was an English singer. Known as "The Man with the Golden Voice", he performed internationally during his 30-year career. AllMusic has described Monro as "one of the m ...

, at the end of the film rather than the beginning). Barry felt it would be difficult to compose a theme song containing the title "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" unless it was written operatically, in the style of

Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...

. Leslie Bricusse had considered lyrics for the title song but director

Peter R. Hunt Peter Roger Hunt (11 March 1925 – 14 August 2002) was a British director, editor and producer of film and television, best known for his work on the ''James Bond'' film series, first as an editor and then as a second unit director. He finall ...

allowed an instrumental opening title theme in the tradition of the first two Bond films. The track is also notable for its use of the

Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...

in its bassline. This instrument's distinctive sound would become a mainstay of other film soundtracks in the 1970s. The opening theme, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", also serves as an action theme alternate to Monty Norman's " James Bond Theme" - a piece of music which makes its last appearance in this film. Barry's arrangement of Norman's "James Bond Theme", first used in '' Dr. No'' in 1962, had been used throughout Sean Connery's tenure from 1962 to 1967, but since "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", the theme has been incorporated as a melody within each film's score, rather than as a standalone piece. "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was remixed in 1997 by the

Propellerheads Propellerheads were an English electronic music duo, formed in 1995 in Bath and consisting of Will White and Alex Gifford. History Their first release was an EP named ''Dive!'', released in 1996 through the independent label Wall of Sound. ...

for the '' Shaken and Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project'' album. Nic Raine, Barry's orchestrator, created an arrangement of the "Escape from Piz Gloria" sequence that was featured in a teaser trailer for Pixar's 2004 animated film ''

The Incredibles ''The Incredibles'' is a 2004 American computer-animated superhero film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Written and directed by Brad Bird, it stars the voices of Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah V ...

''. Notably, the performance of the piece used in the trailer was conducted by John Barry himself. (Barry had been asked to write the score for ''The Incredibles'', but declined as he did not want to duplicate his older work.) '' No Time to Die: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack'' contains references to two tracks from this soundtrack: * We Have all the Time in the World (featured in "Matera"); * On Her Majesty's Secret Service Main Title (featured in "Good to Have You Back").

Songs

Barry also composed the love song "

We Have All the Time in the World "We Have All the Time in the World" is a James Bond theme song sung by Louis Armstrong. Its music was composed by John Barry and the lyrics by Hal David. It is a secondary musical theme in the 1969 Bond film '' On Her Majesty's Secret Service'', ...

" sung by

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

, with lyrics by Hal David,

Burt Bacharach Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; born May 12, 1928) is an American composer, songwriter, record producer and pianist who composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. A six-time Gra ...

's regular lyricist. "We Have All the Time in the World" is often mistakenly referred to as the opening credits theme, when in fact the song is played within the film, during the Bond–Tracy courtship montage, bridging Draco's birthday party in Portugal and Bond's burglary of the Gebrüder Gumbold law office in Bern, Switzerland. It is also heard during the short scene where Bond is in his office clearing his desk having just offered his resignation - also included in this musical cue are elements of "Under the Mango Tree" from '' Dr. No'', the instrumental version of "From Russia With Love", and "Thunderball". "We Have All The Time In The World" was Armstrong's last recorded song (he died of a heart attack two years later), and at the time of release it barely made an impact on the charts. Barry and David also wrote two other songs for the film, both performed by Danish singer

Nina Nina may refer to: * Nina (name), a feminine given name and surname Acronyms *National Iraqi News Agency, a news service in Iraq * Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, on the campus of Norwegian University of Science and Technology *No income, ...

. One, entitled "Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown?", was featured in the film in several scenes. The other, "The More Things Change", was recorded by Nina at the same session, but did not end up in the finished film. Instead, it appeared as the b-side of the UK single of "Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown?" and an instrumental version of it appeared on John Barry's 1970 LP ''Ready When You Are J.B.''

Track listing

Tracks 1–11 represent the original 1969 album presentation. # "

" –

# "This Never Happened to the Other Feller"contains the " James Bond Theme", originally composed for the ''Dr. No'' soundtrack # "Try" # "Ski Chase" # "Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown?" –

# "On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Main Title)" # "Journey to Blofeld's Hideaway" # "We Have All the Time in the World (Instrumental)" # "Over and Out" # "Battle at Piz Gloria" # "We Have All the Time in the World – James Bond Theme" # "Journey to Draco's Hideaway" # "Bond and Draco"contains the " James Bond Theme", originally composed for the ''Dr. No'' soundtrack # "Gumbold's Safe" # "Bond Settles In" # "Bond Meets the Girls" # "Dusk at Piz Gloria" # "Sir Hilary's Night Out (Who Will Buy My Yesterdays?)" # "Blofeld's Plot" # "Escape from Piz Gloria" # "Bobsled Chase"
In 2003, the soundtrack was digitally remastered and re-released with additional tracks (tracks 12 to 21); the liner notes state that these additional tracks contain "previously unreleased music within cue". Due to legal reasons, the additional tracks were placed after the tracks making up the original soundtrack. In both the original soundtrack and its re-release, the tracks are not in the chronological order in which they occur in the film.

Track listing (in chronological order, as they appear in the film)

# "This Never Happened to the Other Feller" # "On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Main Title)" # "Try" # "Journey to Draco's Hideaway" # Bond and Draco # "We Have All the Time in the World" –

# "Gumbold's Safe" # "Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Grown?" –

# "Journey to Blofeld's Hideaway" # "Bond Settles In" # "Bond Meets the Girls" # "Sir Hilary's Night Out (Who Will Buy My Yesterdays?)" # "Blofeld's Plot" # "Escape from Piz Gloria" # "Ski Chase" # "Over and Out" # "Battle at Piz Gloria"The first half of this piece is not used in the film. Instead, the original arrangement of the "James Bond Theme" from '' Dr. No'', plays instead # "Bobsled Chase" # "We Have All the Time in the World – James Bond Theme" # "We Have All the Time in the World (Instrumental)"Not used in the film # "Dusk at Piz Gloria"

References

{{Authority control Soundtrack albums from James Bond films

Soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

1969 soundtrack albums EMI Records soundtracks John Barry (composer) soundtracks Albums conducted by John Barry (composer) Albums arranged by John Barry (composer) cs:On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Opening theme

Songs

Track listing

Track listing (in chronological order, as they appear in the film)

See also

References