Customer Reviews

Secret Agent: Music From The TV Series

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Although I share the above reader's love of this genre of music, I thought it should be pointed out that the present album (Secret
Agent: Music From the TV Series) does not feature the so-called "duelling guitar"sound so well remembered in the Johnny Rivers
recording of the U.S. theme song for the British-made TV series,
but instead an equally brilliant but stylistically different big-band-style arrangement with a different (though excellent)
male vocalist. Astley should be credited for having invented the "spy" genre of music virtually single-handed during the period 1960-62, though the distinctive sound was also being developed
by John Barry and others at about this time. He is also responsible for the classic spy-show themes and arrangements of The Saint and Department S. One of the great geniuses of 20th-century music!

This is a splendid musical collection, with my only complaints being the total run time (almost 33 minutes), and the version of Secret Agent Man here. Not Johnny Rivers, and this version (in my mind) is more reminicent of Bond, which Drake certainly is not.

Upsides: Drake and Ducks is a nice humorous piece, conjuring up amusing mental images of Drake avidly persuing a flock of ducks. The harpsichord's apperance was apparently Drake's theme instrument, and personally being a fan of the harpsichord, the instrument was splendidly used. Enjoy!

Edwin Astley was not the writer of the song made by Johnny Rivers even though he recorded a version of it.However Edwin's music can be heard on various Library discs available more or less privately.
Since his death Edwin has seemed to establish a record of being possibly the only name artiste who has been virtually ignored.
In spite of the TV documentary ASTLEYS WAY and my own book EDWIN ASTLEY TRIBUTE the music media has ignored his passing.
A disgusting state of affairs which should never have happenned

Anyone who complains about the lack of the Rivers version of the American title theme simply didn't read the cover on the CD before buying it. It says right on it, "Played by Edwin Astley and his orchestra". You can get the Rivers version in a million places quite easily, I'm sure, since it was popular well beyond its use as the American title theme. Including it on this recording would have made absolutely no stylistic sense (kind of like on the show, where it made no stylistic sense) and would have been completely out of place with the other songs.

The only thing wrong with this recording is not the lack of the Rivers version of the American title theme but the fact that the overall collection here is so short, given that this show ran for several seasons. I have SIX fully 60+ minute long CD's (File, File 2, File 3 & the 3 disc Music Bible) of music from The Prisoner, which was a mere 17 episodes! Surely across the many, many seasons of both versions of Danger Man they could have come up with more music than this to include, especially since it seems to be the only such collection available.

Secret Agent Man by Edwin Astley And His Orchestra, brings back memories of the dueling electic guitars of the 60's, spies, embassies, intrigue, also seen in the 1997 TV Razor & Tie, this is the song that everyone knew, everyone sang the verse, and everyone tried to do the "dooo, di, doo, di doo di doo"ing of the dueling guitars, this is the song that made every secret agent thereafter, like James Bond, and the rest all take a number to this cold war, epic, black and white tv show of the same name, of greater plot, and intellectual depth, suave and sophisticated, than the glitzy special effects relied upon by shows of today...sing it with us: "Secret Agent Man, Secret Agent Man, They've give you a number, and taken away your name, dooo, di, doo, di doo di dooooo, dooo, di, doo, di doo di dooooo!" (dueling wet electric guitars)"They've give you a number, and taken away your name". Well worth the buy, a must for the collector, a must for your car CD player as you pull into your next secret agent adventure. finis.