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Barely a week after JAWS emerged from the sea for its 50th anniversary with an expanded soundtrack release from Intrada, La-La Land touched off another tremendous batch of archival scores for the month, including another expanded James Bond title and a deep cut from John Williams.
With expanded or remastered presentations of Goldfinger, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun, Moonraker, Octopussy, Licence to Kill, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World is Not Enough and Die Another Day already certifying LLL as the home of definitive presentations of Bond soundtracks, there’s another one striking hard: 1965’s Thunderball, the fourth film in the series featuring a returning Sean Connery as Ian Fleming’s thrill-a-minute secret agent. Here, Bond squares off against another agent of the terrorist organization SPECTRE – the eyepatch-sporting Emilio Largo – attempting to stop SPECTRE’s plot to set off a pair of atomic bombs they stole.
If Goldfinger further codified the formula of what makes the Bond films tick, Thunderball filled in even more details, particularly the exotic location shoots (mostly in The Bahamas, with about a quarter of the filming taking place with underwater units) and the fantastical spy tech, notably a functioning jet pack that Bond uses in a key sequence. The film – one of the biggest financial successes in the series – has an unusual place in Bond canon: Fleming based the book on a screenplay by producer Kevin McClory, who was approached to help bring 007 to the big screen before Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman of Eon Productions. (Years of subsequent legal entanglements meant McClory retained certain cinematic rights for decades, resulting in 1981’s Never Say Never Again – not produced by Eon but starring a returning Connery more than a decade after he vacated the role – and a lengthy inability to use SPECTRE or even its shadowy leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld onscreen from the ’70s until the 2015 Bond flick named after the fictional terrorist organization.)
Once again, John Barry was back on the podium to conduct a rousing score, and he and lyricist Don Black delivered a powerful opening title theme, named after the movie and sung with brio by Welsh crooner Tom Jones. (Rumors persist as to how close Sir Tom got to fainting after the soaring high note at the end of the song!) However…it’s since become well-known among Bond fans that Barry initially had a different song in mind. “Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, was an slinky descriptor of 007 as a character, named after an Italian journalist’s nickname for Bond. Versions by both Shirley Bassey (who sang the theme to the prior film, Goldfinger) and Dionne Warwick both went unused, though select portions of the score retained the theme tune. (A 1992 compilation of Bond themes and rarities would premiere both versions of the song, and they’re included here as well.) All in all, this set is a perfect tribute to another classic James Bond score: produced, like the others, by Neil S. Bulk, mixed by Chris Malone (almost entirely from three and two-track stereo tapes, save for two cues pulled from the mono film stem and processed into stereo) and mastered by Doug Schwartz. Dan Goldwasser designs the package with a brand-new cover by Jim Titus, and Bond music authority Jon Burlingame pens the liner notes. It’s limited to 5000 copies and will be sold exclusively at La-La Land’s web store for 90 days, after which point it’ll also be available on the official 007 online store.
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Bond isn’t the only heavy hitter stepping up to the plate at La-La Land: another John Williams classic has been revisited on CD! In 1977, the Maestro composed three film scores – and you’d be forgiven for not remembering the third, compared to the other two. While Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind made him one of Hollywood’s heaviest hitters (earning an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Golden Globe and five Grammys between both scores), his first offering that year was the suspenseful music to Black Sunday, a taut political thriller directed by John Frankenheimer and based on the novel of the same name by The Silence of the Lambs author Thomas Harris. In it, Robert Shaw plays an agent of Mossad in a race to stop a crazed blimp pilot (Bruce Dern) and a Black September operative (Marthe Keller) from detonating a bomb in the air above the Super Bowl. Featuring stunning footage of actual Goodyear blimps and Super Bowl X (which took place between the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers at Miami’s Orange Bowl in 1976), the film recalled the suspenseful moments of JAWS and Family Plot, two films recently scored by Williams – and he delivered, as always. First released on CD by Film Score Monthly in 2010, this new reissue features a fresh remix and remaster of the score by Williams’ archivist Mike Matessino, sourced from high-resolution transfers of the original, first-generation, 16-track scoring elements. (A revised version of the ending cue, recorded after the main sessions, is sourced from a mono dubbing stem and processed for stereo.) Jeff Bond pens new liner notes in a package designed by Jim Titus; the set is limited to 3000 copies.
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Finally, La-La Land has prepped a winning mid-’00s action score from composer Steve Jablonsky. An alumnus of Hans Zimmer’s Remote Control Productions studio who’d composed scores to early ’00s remakes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Amityville Horror, his work on The Island would be his first time joining forces with music video director-turned-action filmmaker Michael Bay; the pair would collaborate on five films in the Transformers series of blockbusters based on the ’80s toy franchise. The Island (also the screenwriting debut of the late Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who’d write J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek film reboot and its sequel before Kurtzman created an additional four Trek shows in the 2010s and 2020s) starred Ewan MacGregor and Scarlett Johansson as inhabitants of a dystopian colony who, unsurprisingly, discover that all is not what it seems. The score was a perfect calling card for Jablonsky’s sweeping action style, and it sounds better than ever here, with a fully restored and expanded presentation on two CDs alongside more than a dozen bonus tracks. The 2CD set is produced by Stéphane Humez and edited and mastered by Maxime Marion. Kaya Savas pens new liner notes featuring new interviews with Jablonsky; they’re featured in a package designed by Dan Goldwasser. The set tops out at 3000 copies.
Each of these can be ordered from La-La Land Records at the links below and will ship later this month.
John Williams, Black Sunday (Music from the Motion Picture – Remastered Limited Edition) (originally released as Film Score Monthly Vol. 12, No. 19, 2010 – reissued La-La Land Records LLLCD 1664, 2025; original film released 1977)
Beirut
Commandos Arrive
Commando Raid
It Was Good/Dahlia Arrives/The Unloading
Speed Boat Chase
The Telephone Man/The Captain Returns
Nurse Dahlia/Kabakov’s Card/The Hypodermic
Moshevsky’s Dead
The Test
Building the Bomb
Miami/Dahlia’s Call
The Last Night
Preparations
Passed
The Flight Check
Airborne/Bomb Passes Stadium
Farley’s Dead
The Blimp and the Bomb
The Take Off
Underway
Air Chase (Part 1)
Air Chase (Parts 2 and 3)/The Blimp Hits
The Explosion
The End (Theme from Black Sunday)
Hotel Lobby (Source)
Fight Song No. 1 (Source)
Fight Song No. 2 (Source)
The End (Alternate Mix)
The Explosion (Revised Ending)/End Title (Film Edit)
John Barry, Thunderball (Music from the Motion Picture – 60th Anniversary Expanded Edition) (La-La Land Records LLLCD 1665B, 2025 – original film released 1965)
Disc 1: Score presentation
Gun Barrel (From Thunderball)
Château Flight (Film Version)
Main Title – Thunderball – Tom Jones
The Spa
The Rack and Sweat Box
Double Derval
Switching the Body
Gassing the Plane
The Bomb (Film Version)
The Execution Branch
Code Name: Thunderball
Bond Meets Domino
Casino
Café Martinique (Film Version)
Shark Tank
Bond Below Disco Volante (Extended Version)
SPECTRE Ring
Search for Vulcan
Lights Out for Paula
Bathing Beauty
For King and Country
Street Chase and Kiss Kiss Club
Death of Fiona
The Golden Grotto
Underwater Ballet
Got the Point
Bond with SPECTRE Frogmen
The Bombs Revealed
Bond is Discovered
Caught
Disc 2: Score presentation continued (1-5), additional music (6-12) and original soundtrack album (13-24)
Leiter to the Rescue
The Underwater Battle Begins
Underwater Mayhem
Death of Largo
When Arrows Meet and End Title
Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – Dionne Warwick
Bond Meets Domino (Take 1)
Street Chase (Early Version)
Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Alternate Instrumental)
Do You Fly Here Often? (Mono Stem)
The One That Got Away (Mono Stem)
Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – Shirley Bassey
Main Title – Thunderball – Tom Jones
Château Flight 2:31
The Spa
Switching the Body
The Bomb
Café Martinique
Thunderball
Death of Fiona
Bond Below Disco Volante
Search for Vulcan
007
Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Portions of score on Discs 1-2 and Disc 2, Tracks 6 and 12 released on The Best of James Bond (30th Anniversary Collection) – EMI 07777 98560 2 2, 1992
Disc 2, Track 9 released on Capitol/EMI 72435 80589 2 5, 2003
Disc 2, Tracks 13-24 released as United Artists SULP 1110 (U.K.)/UAS 5132 (U.S.), 1965
Steve Jablonsky, The Island (Music from the Motion Picture – 20th Anniversary Expanded Edition) (La-La Land Records LLLCD 1674, 2025 – original film released 2005)
Disc 1: Score presentation
The Island Awaits You
Missing a Shoe
Starkweather Lottery
I’m Such a Loser
Health Club
Cafeteria
Nice Tests
Going to Work – What If It’s Rigged? – Messing with Foxtrot
Lima in Labor/My Chip Fried – Lincoln Discovers a Moth
Booze
Agnate Ukuleles
Home for a Moth – Fight Simulator
Stim Bar
Good Things Do Happen – Another Lincoln Nightmare
You Have a Special Purpose in Life
Starkweather’s Demise
The Craziest Mess I’ve Ever Seen
Censor Chase
Sector 6
Selling Agnates/Laurent Arrives
Security Breach – Briefing Laurent
Route 39
Eat the Burger, Meet the Cow
Helicopters
These Are Mail Order
Send in the Clones
Renovatio
Disc 2: Score presentation continued (1-13) and additional material (14-31)
Shootout – On Foot – Train Wheels – Enter Wasps – Wasp Chase
The Big R
Gandu’s Demise – Rain Scene
Lincoln Meets Lincoln – Genetic Memory
Tom Sells Out His Clone
Worth Every Penny
Not Ready to Die
Ready to Die, Apparently – Laurent is Fooled
This Tongue Thing is Amazing
Mass Winnings
Busting Some Ass – Rendezvous – Laurent Questions Merrick
She Said, “Open the Door” – Better Call Maintenance
My Name Is Lincoln
Mass Vehicular Carnage
Starkweather Lottery (Alternate Version 1)
Starkweather Lottery (Alternate Version 2)
Health Club (Alternate)
Cafeteria (Alternate Version 1)
Cafeteria (Alternate Version 2)
Nice Tests (Alternate)
Good Things Do Happen (Alternate)
You Have a Special Purpose in Life (Alternate Ending)
Eat the Burger, Meet the Cow (Alternate)
These Are Mail Order (Alternate)
Send in the Clones (Alternate Ending)
Train Wheels (Alternate Version 1)
Train Wheels (Alternate Version 2)
Wasp Chase (Alternate)
Mass Winnings (Alternate Ending)
Better Call Maintenance (Alternate Ending)
My Name is Lincoln (Alternate Mix)
Portions previously released on Milan M2-36132, 2005
Mike Duquette
Mike Duquette (Founder) was fascinated with catalog music ever since he was a teenager. A 2009 graduate of Seton Hall University with a B.A. in journalism, Mike paired his profession with his passion through The Second Disc, one of the first sites to focus on all reissue labels great and small. His passion for reissues turned into a career, holding positions at Legacy Recordings and Rhino Records and contributing to Allmusic, Discogs, City Pages, Ultimate Classic Rock and Mondo Records, for whom he penned liner notes for his favorite piece of music: John Williams’ Oscar-winning score to ‘E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.’
Born and raised in New Jersey, Mike lives in Astoria, Queens with his wife, a cat named Ravioli, twin daughters and a large yet tasteful collection of music.