Customer Reviews

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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Wow. The best Bond score to the best Bond movie has finally been done right. The sound is perfection, and the missing music, some of the best in the film, is almost all here. A highlight is the Gumbold's Safe cue that everyone (myself included) has been salivating over for years, what a joy to hear it in perfect stereo.

Anyway, I've read that the cues had to be kept in the original album order for contractual reasons, but if you're like me and want to burn a CDR in the correct film order, here it is, matched off my DVD,

2, 6, 3, 12, 13, 1, 14, 7, 15-20, 5, 4, 9, 10, 21, 11, 8

Now, I should add, 8 is at the end because I couldn't find it in the film, I think it's just an album instrumental version of We Have All The Time In The World.

The score for On Her Majesty's Secret Service is in one word, Brilliant! The new remastered remixed version of the soundtrack is unbelieveable. John Barry has created what many consider to be the best score for any James Bond film.The music sounds so crisp and perfect. Why is this soundtrack better than all the rest? Simple, because it has all the right ingredients. First off, the instrumental title song, is filled with slam-bang synthesizers that actually make the song sound better without a singer. Louis Armstrong performs the undeniably wonderful We Have All The Time In The World, which is a slow romantic piece that can be heard in the film, and is now regarded as a classic. Nina performs the odd, yet fun Do You Know How Trees are Grown?
Tracks Ski Chase and Over And Out are clear exciting action music. Battle At Piz Gloria is a fantastic, over the top, smashing action track that has a generally building pace. There is also a sweet instrumental version of We Have All The Time In The World as well. The bonus tracks are also no less then stunning. There is the famed Gumbold's Safe and the cool Bond Meets The Girls. Blofeld's Plot is rather a combination of tracks that go very well together and the mysterious, yet exciting Escape From Piz Gloria and the magnificent Bobsled Chase. There you have it. That is what makes a perfect Bond soundtrack. Two thrilling and romantic main songs and the brilliance of John Barry's perfect score. With 21 tracks and over 79 minutes of music, On Her Majesty's Secret Service is truly Far More!!!

Emi/Capital/MGM Records are in the process of releasing "remastered" editions of most the the James Bond soundtracks as part of the "40th Anniversary," and they are to be applauded. Great sound and solid packaging...and a superb price! Many of the recordings with additional tracks and several with an attempt at the "full score." At the top of the list of the initial releases is what appears to be John Barry's full score to "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," perhaps the best of all of the 007 scores. This is a long awaited treasure. The sound is first rate, the packaging is solid, and the music will surprise even long-time fans. There are bits and pieces that many fans will claim they have never heard before. This is a James Bond score and soundtrack recording as it should be. Fans will again be reminded just how perfect a fit Barry was to 007.

OHMSS has always been one of my favorite Bond films. When I started collecting soundtracks from the Bond films 25 years ago, just finding a copy of OHMSS was difficult at best. Although the music on the LP was (and still is) moving, I was disappointed that more cues from the film didn't find their way to the soundtrack. Granted, with only about 45 minutes worth of total playtime on an LP, things are going to be edited out.

My biggest disappointments from the original version of the album were that one my favorite tracks, "Escape from Piz Gloria" was missing entirely and also the end of "Over and Out" was cut just as it was getting to the dramatic conclusion!

I actually had given up hope entirely that John Barry's musical score for OHMSS would ever be released in its entirety. I suppose that's why it took 3 years for me to discover this new album! I was amazed that not only were additional tracks added to the album, but the existing tracks were restored to their unedited glory!

To summarize, if you ever enjoyed the original release of the OHMSS soundtrack, this one is more than worth the money!!!

After so many years we finally get John Barry's very innovative James Bond score on this soundtrack. Here Barry creates a definitively new sound for George Lazenby, Sean Connery's replacement. Yet, Barry's music remains rooted in the fundamental style established in the previous Bond films. Essentially Barry gives a new interpolation to The James Bond Theme unique to Lazenby's only performance. Later Barry would again do the same for Roger Moore's Bond, thus establishing three unique sounds respectively for Connery, Lazenby and Moore. Furthermore in OHMSS Barry delivers an exciting instrumental theme for the film full of drive, determination and urgency. His use of a synthesizer for this reoccurring theme is truly innovative for its time and achieved its desired effect. These new musical elements accentuate Lazenby's performance as a man of action and resolve to get the job done. The choice of Louis Armstrong to vocalize We Have All The Time In The World seems more judicious with the passage of time. This particular soundtrack received a first rate re-mastering. Not only are additional and essential tracks included, but also cuts (tracks 2, 4 and 9) from the original soundtrack have been restructured (more music inserted or added) to what was presented in the film. Track 7 JOURNEY TO BLOFELD'S HIDEAWAY has been completely restructured and is very beautiful and moving. This is an improvement over the way the THUNDERBALL soundtrack was re-mastered. It is almost possible to play all the available tracks in the order as they were heard in OHMSS. Of the new tracks included Track 14 GUMBOLD'S SAFE, Track 13 BOND AND DRACO and Track 20 ESCAPE FROM PIZ GLORIA are my personal favorites, but they are actually all exceptionally good. This James Bond soundtrack demonstrates the extensive and incomparable scoring that John Barry put into this film. This is one of Barry's best and one of the best from the series.

This is a masterpiece. I think this is the best Bond soundtrack, because it has ALL the right ingredients:
1. Good action music (Track 10: Battle At Piz Gloria)
2. Very beautiful, slow music (Track 7: Journey To Blofeld's Hideaway)
3. Great suspense music (Track 14: Gumbold's Safe Break)
4. Superb casino music (Track 3: Try)
5. A very good song (Track 1: We Have All The Time In The World)
6. Fantastic redinitions of the James Bond Theme (Track 2: This Never Happened To The Other Feller)
7. High brass (Track 6: On Her Majesty's Secret Service)
8. etc, etc.

I like every track on the album. Barry succesfully combines synthesizers/alpine horns with the orchestra.
The score is also very thematic: You've got the "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" theme (which is great!), the "We Have All The Time In The World" theme and, of course, the "James Bond Theme".
There's also a very good balance between action music and slow music.

The best tracks:
1. We Have All The Time In The World: What a beautiful ballad! I think Louis Armstrong is just the right man for this song and performes great. Certainly one of the best Bond songs.

2. This Never Happened To The Other Feller: Contains great redenitions of the Bond theme. The twanging guitar is replaced by synths, which works great in the picture.

3. Try: A tremendous casino cue. I love the flute solo.

6. O.H.M.S.S. Theme: This is one of the greatest action themes Barry has ever written. David Arnold calls this "a killer tune", and it certainly is. It's a good thing you can hear this theme in more of the tracks.

Track 7: Journey To Blofeld's Hideaway: One of the most beautiful cues ever written for a Bond film.

10. Battle At Piz Gloria: A fast-paced version of the O.H.M.S.S. theme. Probably my favourite track.

11. We Have All The Time In The World/James Bond Theme: First a long and beautiful instrumental version of the song and then a great version of Monty Norman's James Bond Theme.

14. Gumbold's Safe Break: Very simple, but very effective. In this cues Barry repeats a simple phrase over and over again, but if he has repeated it a view times, he changes it a little bit.

20. Escape From Piz Gloria: Another cue that contains the O.H.M.S.S. theme in an incredible way.

If you are a fan of the James Bond music, then you HAVE to buy this one immediately. It's just great. I want to thank producer Lukas Kendall. He made many fans of the Bond soundtracks happy. And I also want to thank John Barry for this wonderful score!

It is no exaggeration to say that some admirers of John Barry's work have been waiting for this re-release of On Her Majesty's Secret Service for decades.
Well, it was worth the wait; the work on this disk is truly incredible. The soundtrack now runs to over 75 minutes, and features all those cues that could previously only be heard by viewing the film (Gumbold's Safe, the Ice Cavern scene, Bond's dalliances at Piz Gloria, and so on. Only the ice waltz source music is missing, but that's simply because a disk can only hold so much).
The reproduction is so pin-sharp that you can hear all manner of orchestrations which were lost on past releases - and that's what makes this such a good buy. We always knew there was something special about these early Bond scores, but now we can hear every bit of the inventive genius that went into them.
It leaves you longing for the glory days of James Bond music

It has been a very long time coming, but it is finally here. This re-issue is how the sound-track should have originally been released!

Clocking in at 80 minutes, there was nothing cut, and some previously unreleased was included. (Twice the length of the original release)

For those of us that have been waiting year after year for this sound-track to be reissued, the wait is over, and with the previously unreleased material, it was worth it.

Most superlatives have already been used up in other reviews. This was always one of my favorite Bond films, partly for the music. But the album versions are longer, have obviously been remastered, and of course do not include sound effects or dialog (don't laugh, some soundtracks do). I just love track 7. It's hard to listen to this in the car, as inevitably, you must arrive at your destination and get out -- something that is hard to do if you should only be midway though certain tracks! It's interesting that Amazon now sells each MP3 track separately for this CD, something that's usually reserved for newer, popular albums. Although I tend to be guilty of cherry-picking tracks from my CD collection and mixing them together for a 'favorites' CD, this one will always be played as one, although I appreciate the Luckard review from March 2, 2003 who listed the tracks in movie-order. I do prefer listening to Bond soundtracks in this way, and will burn this CD to reflect that.

I don't know why I waited so long to acquire a copy of this soundtrack. It ranks among the best soundtracks I've heard, along with the likes of Star Trek: The Motion Picture by Jerry Goldsmith (look for the 20th Anniversary edition; forget the original version), any of The Lord Of The Rings soundtracks by Howard Shore, and the instantly recognizable Raiders Of The Lost Ark by John Williams. John Barry really has the gift, and this soundtrack proves it.

The powerful opening credit theme is repeated on several tracks, and this is a good thing. It is driving and exciting, really giving the feeling of impending action.

In listening to the opening credit theme I was thinking how appropriate this cut would be for a college football marching band. Its tempo is conducive to a marching pace, and being a brass-heavy arrangement it would carry well to the crowd. Does anyone know of any college band that has done this song?

Louis Armstrong is widely known as a trumpet player, but he also did a lot of singing in his musical career. His rendition of We Have All The Time In The World is a joy to experience.

Mr. Luckard's review was very helpful in creating a CD-R of the CD I purchased; my thanks to him. I was unable to fit the entire CD on an 80-minute CD-R using the lossless WAV format. I don't understand why the CD-R wouldn't hold the whole album, but Mr. Luckard's review proved doubly useful in selecting which track to leave off!

If you're a Bond fan, soundtrack hound, or just into orchestral music, this soundtrack is well worth picking up. At less than $9 at the time I purchased it, the price was also more than fair.