Customer Reviews

From Russia with Love (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

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This is John Barry's first score for the Bond series, and it is the most complete commercial Bond/Barry soundtrack to date. Whereas in most other Bond soundtracks, a lot of music are noticably missing. IN FRWL the music are well represented.

Highlights of the score are of course, the title instrumental of the title song, sung by Matt Munro. Also Tanya Meets Klebb, Bond meets Tanya, the Golden Horn (which wasn't used in the movie), Guitar Lament (also used on the WOrld Is Not Enough DvD tribute to Desmond Llewelyn), James Bond with Bongos ( a variation of the Bond theme), the 007 theme made its first appearance here.

Noticably missing is the music that the belly dancer danced to in the gypsy camp. The track "Leila Dances" is NOT the music we heard in the movie.

Compare to later scores, the music for From Russia With Love is subtle, almost sensual, as opposed to later scores, like the brassiness of Goldfinger, the almost pompous excess of Thunderball, the rousing excitment of On Her Majesty's Secret Serice, or the glittering Las Vegasy sound of Diamonds Are Forever.

It is surprising that after a soundtrack so chock full of tracks, later soundtracks would have such sparse selections.

John Barry's association with James Bond began with his arrangement and production of the James Bond Theme (attributed to Monte Norman) for "Dr No" (1962), an otherwise very ordinary score. "From Russia With Love" (1963) was Barry's first full score for the Bond series, and it is amazingly rich and varied. Barry's skill at weaving local and exotic idioms into his scores is evident here with some Turkish and Gypsy touches. The title song was written by Lionel Bart and works much better as an instrumental arranged by Barry than as a vocal (sung by Matt Munro). Note that the opening credits uses Barry's version, while the vocal is delegated to background music later in the film ("Goldfinger" actually established the Bond tradition of the vocal title). Barry also introduced his own James Bond theme, "007," in this film which appears in several of the Bond films but never quite replaced the original Norman-Barry theme. Barry was an emerging talent with "From Russia With Love," but his skills are unmistakable integrating suspense, action, menace and romance as few film composers can. Barry seems to have a special liking for the pre-title sequences since some of his most memorable Bond music appears in them, and that is true here as well with "Stalking," the intriguing opening that suggests for a moment that 007 has been strangled, a scene that is subtly accentuated by Barry. Most of Barry's score is included on the soundtrack with the exception of the "train music" which is to be found, in brief form, on Nic Raines' "Bond Back in Action" ("The Zagreb Express"). In many ways the soundtrack recording works better than the score on the screen since some of the music is repeated in what is sometimes an annoying manner in the film. It is said that the film editor was to blame, rather than Barry. Sadly, Barry ended his relationship with the 007 series after "The Living Daylights," but his imprint remains on all of the Bond films. John Barry's style, which came into full flower with "From Russia With Love," has become as much of an artistic trademark for the series as the "007" logo.

This is the first James Bond album John Barry have been written. It's one of the best Bond-scores, but not quite The Best. The same theme appears a little to often, and most of the songs are to short. (Example: "Tania meets Klebb": 1.27. "Meeting in St. Sophia": 1.06) But it is a soundtrack that lives, and Barry really showes you how good he is already her, in his first album. The film, which is very thrilling, goes perfect together with the music. The music is very thrilling, and you get some action-songs to, whick is the exakt music that John Barry is best to write. The tree best songs: 3. "Meeting in St. Sophia" 5. "Girl Trouble" 9. "Death of Grant" If you like John Barry, you're definately gonna like this CD!

John Barry firmly establishes himself in the musical annuls of cinema history with this classic soundtrack. The FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE soundtrack is an example of exceptional film scoring and a very satisfying album drawing on all the elements of the film's score to deliver a product that musically runs the gamut of rhythm, romance, intrigue and flavorful vignettes of the film's locale. FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE is considered to be one of the better Bond films in the series. John Barry began his "official" scoring duties in tandem with his screen credit on FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE bringing a highly recognizable and definitive substantiating sound to the Bond series that distinguished it with his unique and inimitable musical style. That has been a hallmark, which brings a cohesive quality to the whole series even in Barry's absence. John Barry not only firmly incorporated his prowess as a film composer with this soundtrack but also demonstrated his ability to establish his own unique sound on compositions composed by others. The driving "From Russia With Love - main title" from track 1. and the romantically erotic "Bond Meets Tania" from track 6. with a melody composed by Lionel Bart inimitably have that "Barry Sound" stamped on them. Once again Barry also demonstrated his unique and definitive musical handling of "The James Bond Theme" on track 14. with "James Bond With Bongos" while his "007 Theme" heard on tracks 7. and 18. bring a staccato and drive to the force of this James Bond classic. One of my favorite pieces on this CD is Track 13. "Man Overboard - Smersh in Action" which captures both the beauty and suspense ever present in the world of James Bond.

The first James Bond film, 1962's "Dr. No," had achieved a nice balance between the plot and Monty Norman's Jamaican-influenced music. However, the soundtrack album itself was more a collection of songs than a traditional movie soundtrack with shifting movements. (And it was bogged down with a couple too many retreads.)

The "From Russia With Love" soundtrack album (1963) gets it right. The themes are shining and original, and even when composer John Barry revisits certain themes, he manages to rework them to make them sound fresh.

"From Russia With Love" was the first Bond movie with Barry as its lead composer (though the theme song itself was penned by Lionel Bart). The brilliant mood-building and no-punches-polled orchestrating style Barry showed when reworking Norman's "James Bond Theme" for "Dr. No" permeates "Russia." Almost every selection is potent, well-arranged and effective, from the opening instrumental melding the title song with the Bond theme, to the final track, "007 Takes the Lektor."

Some of the best tracks on this CD are the vaguely menacing "Tania Meets Klebb;" "James Bond With Bongos" (used as Bond arrives in Istanbul for his mission); and the tense, bombastic "007," which first appears in the middle of the CD and is revised even more punchily as "007 Takes the Lektor."

But the best track is "Stalking," used in the pre-credit sequence during which villain Red Grant stalks Bond on Spectre Island. Using the chord sequence of the Bond theme, "Stalking" builds up to a powerful, brassy climax and then a relaxing resolution.

The quibbles with this album are minor; the track "Leila Dances," which luckily didn't make the movie itself (the music for the belly-dancer sequence in the movie is much more imaginative). "Leila Dances" is so repetitive and unoriginal as to be dull, a rare criticism of a Barry-composed tune. And Matt Monro's warm vocal version of the theme song is marred by a dated 60s sound mix (most of the instruments in one channel and Monro in the other) -- and some tape rewind noise that somehow made the final cut.

But it's hard to find many faults with this impressive album -- one that perfectly mirrors the excitement and daring of Agent 007 himself. In his first stab at scoring a Bond film, Barry came up with a classic that holds up surprisingly well four decades later.

The 2nd movie with some of the best music ever! Matt Munro performs to the title song, and it charted at #20 in the UK charts. The opening music is truly exciting as are many of the other tracks on this CD. The Golden Horn, although not featured in the movie is a stunning piece by itself, as is Girl Trouble.
One of the most popular pieces on this CD is 007. This piece is truly exciting, and has been featured in other James Bond movies such as Moonraker. 18 tracks. A chart-topping hit single. Famous music. It all adds up to a fabulous soundtrack that should be in everyone's home!...

First of all I don't agree with some people that say in Internet 007 themes are ofensive or poorly written. See this CD for example, Matt Monroe may be a bit too romantic for some fans but I still think it sounds quite good.

Now about the original score- that's a must for any person who likes Bond music, cause this is one of the best. Altough there some parts of music missing I won't be involving it in my rating.
It fully recreates one of my fave Bond movs and pure spy-sound. Take for instance tracks like 007 takes the Lektor and Bond With Bongos, and you'll feel like Bond himself, at least I did. Specially Bongos-that sounds so cool, when Bond arrives at the airport!
There are fine variations of the main theme(I love the lyrics, but I must admit John Barry improves them in a instrumental way) in tracks Tania Meets Klebb and Bond meets Tania, the first one is more mysterious.
Other tracks- Meeting at St Sophia (eerie), Girl Trouble(too exciting to be a woman fight music!), Gypsy Camp(nice guitars), Spectre Island(one of the best), Man Overboard/Smersh in Action(creepy SMERSH theme again), Stalking(amazing theme for one of the best pre-title sequence), Death of Kerim(too bad there wasn't more "train" music).

You'll be surprised with some tracks that don't appear in the mov, but don't worry- you'll get used to it, as a kind of pause or relaxing part.
Overall a very good score that true Bondians should have.

P.S: I'm not hoping for some complete rerelease as some guys do. I know there's not 100% music of the film in it, but what we've got is very good. I know there's Bond Back in Action, but those themes don't sound like in the movie.

This is a great soundtrack. FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE is the soundtrack that really begins to show the great music in the James Bond series. All the tracks are good and capture the mood of the movie really well.

Track one, Opening Titles is one of the best music pieces played for the titles in the James Bond movies. It mixes the wonderful instrumental of the From Russia With Love theme with the great James Bond theme.

Some highlights are:
The thrilling "Meeting In St. Sophia" which perfectly captures the mood of the scene inside St. Sophia's. The beautiful "Bond Meets Tania" which is a beautiful version of the From Russia With Love theme played primarily by violins and harps. "James Bond With Bongos", the music played as Kerim Bey's driver drives James Bond to see Kerim Bey, which is a great, upbeat version of the James Bond theme. "Stalking" which is a tense theme played for the pre-credits scene in the movie, and finally "007 Takes The Lektor" which is an exciting and fast-paced song played while 007 takes the Lektor, and which would be played in future Bond films like Thunderball and Moonraker.

The rest of the soundtrack is good, and despite the fact that it is missing music from the Zagreb train scene, it is still an excellent soundtrack. Definitely a must buy for James Bond music fans, or for anyone who likes good movie soundtracks.

This is the best of the Bond soundtracks, with a diversity of themes. A number of selections including "The Golden Horn" were not used in the actual film. I think that MGM/UA/EMI should release the entire recorded soundtrack from the movie on one CD, and would'nt that be great.

This is a great soundtrack. FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE is the soundtrack that really begins to show the great music in the James Bond series. All the tracks are good and have a real FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE feel to them. This soundtrack is really exciting. It is well worth your money if you or if you don't like James Bond.