{"id":129619,"date":"2025-09-11T09:41:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T09:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/129619\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T09:41:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T09:41:13","slug":"soundtrack-watch-la-la-land-strikes-with-thunderball-williams-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/129619\/","title":{"rendered":"Soundtrack Watch: La-La Land Strikes with ‘Thunderball,’ Williams and More"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Thunderball<\/a><\/p>\n

BUY NOW FROM LA-LA LAND RECORDS<\/p>\n

Barely a week after\u00a0JAWS emerged from the sea for its 50th anniversary<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

With expanded or remastered presentations of\u00a0Goldfinger<\/a>,\u00a0On Her Majesty’s Secret Service<\/a>,\u00a0Live and Let Die<\/a>, The Man with the Golden Gun,\u00a0Moonraker<\/a>,\u00a0Octopussy<\/a>,\u00a0Licence to Kill<\/a>,\u00a0Tomorrow Never Dies,\u00a0The World is Not Enough\u00a0and\u00a0Die 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.<\/p>\n

If\u00a0Goldfinger further codified the formula of what makes the Bond films tick,\u00a0Thunderball 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.)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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!)\u00a0However…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,\u00a0Goldfinger) 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.<\/p>\n

\"Black<\/a><\/p>\n

BUY NOW FROM LA-LA LAND RECORDS<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Star Wars and\u00a0Close 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\u00a0Black Sunday, a taut political thriller directed by John Frankenheimer and based on the novel of the same name by\u00a0The 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\u00a0JAWS and\u00a0Family 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.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

BUY NOW FROM LA-LA LAND RECORDS<\/p>\n

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\u00a0The Texas Chainsaw Massacre\u00a0and\u00a0The Amityville Horror, his work on\u00a0The 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\u00a0Transformers 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\u00a0Trek 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 St\u00e9phane 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.<\/p>\n

Each of these can be ordered from La-La Land Records at the links below and will ship later this month.<\/p>\n

John Williams,\u00a0Black Sunday (Music from the Motion Picture – Remastered Limited Edition)<\/a>\u00a0(originally released as Film Score Monthly Vol. 12, No. 19, 2010 – reissued La-La Land Records LLLCD 1664, 2025; original film released 1977)<\/p>\n

Beirut
\nCommandos Arrive
\nCommando Raid
\nIt Was Good\/Dahlia Arrives\/The Unloading
\nSpeed Boat Chase
\nThe Telephone Man\/The Captain Returns
\nNurse Dahlia\/Kabakov’s Card\/The Hypodermic
\nMoshevsky’s Dead
\nThe Test
\nBuilding the Bomb
\nMiami\/Dahlia’s Call
\nThe Last Night
\nPreparations
\nPassed
\nThe Flight Check
\nAirborne\/Bomb Passes Stadium
\nFarley’s Dead
\nThe Blimp and the Bomb
\nThe Take Off
\nUnderway
\nAir Chase (Part 1)
\nAir Chase (Parts 2 and 3)\/The Blimp Hits
\nThe Explosion
\nThe End (Theme from Black Sunday)
\nHotel Lobby (Source)
\nFight Song No. 1 (Source)
\nFight Song No. 2 (Source)
\nThe End (Alternate Mix)
\nThe Explosion (Revised Ending)\/End Title (Film Edit)<\/p>\n

John Barry,\u00a0Thunderball (Music from the Motion Picture – 60th Anniversary Expanded Edition)<\/a>\u00a0(La-La Land Records LLLCD 1665B, 2025 – original film released 1965)<\/p>\n

Disc 1: Score presentation<\/p>\n

Gun Barrel (From Thunderball)
\nCh\u00e2teau Flight (Film Version)
\nMain Title – Thunderball – Tom Jones
\nThe Spa
\nThe Rack and Sweat Box
\nDouble Derval
\nSwitching the Body
\nGassing the Plane
\nThe Bomb (Film Version)
\nThe Execution Branch
\nCode Name: Thunderball
\nBond Meets Domino
\nCasino
\nCaf\u00e9 Martinique (Film Version)
\nShark Tank
\nBond Below Disco Volante (Extended Version)
\nSPECTRE Ring
\nSearch for Vulcan
\nLights Out for Paula
\nBathing Beauty
\nFor King and Country
\nStreet Chase and Kiss Kiss Club
\nDeath of Fiona
\nThe Golden Grotto
\nUnderwater Ballet
\nGot the Point
\nBond with SPECTRE Frogmen
\nThe Bombs Revealed
\nBond is Discovered
\nCaught<\/p>\n

Disc 2: Score presentation continued\u00a0(1-5), additional music\u00a0(6-12)\u00a0and original soundtrack album\u00a0(13-24)<\/p>\n

Leiter to the Rescue
\nThe Underwater Battle Begins
\nUnderwater Mayhem
\nDeath of Largo
\nWhen Arrows Meet and End Title
\nMr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – Dionne Warwick
\nBond Meets Domino (Take 1)
\nStreet Chase (Early Version)
\nMr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Alternate Instrumental)
\nDo You Fly Here Often? (Mono Stem)
\nThe One That Got Away (Mono Stem)
\nMr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – Shirley Bassey
\nMain Title – Thunderball – Tom Jones
\nCh\u00e2teau Flight 2:31
\nThe Spa
\nSwitching the Body
\nThe Bomb
\nCaf\u00e9 Martinique
\nThunderball
\nDeath of Fiona
\nBond Below Disco Volante
\nSearch for Vulcan
\n007
\nMr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang<\/p>\n

Portions of score on Discs 1-2 and Disc 2, Tracks 6 and 12 released on\u00a0The 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<\/p>\n

Steve Jablonsky,\u00a0The Island (Music from the Motion Picture – 20th Anniversary Expanded Edition)<\/a>\u00a0(La-La Land Records LLLCD 1674, 2025 – original film released 2005)<\/p>\n

Disc 1: Score presentation<\/p>\n

The Island Awaits You
\nMissing a Shoe
\nStarkweather Lottery
\nI’m Such a Loser
\nHealth Club
\nCafeteria
\nNice Tests
\nGoing to Work – What If It’s Rigged? – Messing with Foxtrot
\nLima in Labor\/My Chip Fried – Lincoln Discovers a Moth
\nBooze
\nAgnate Ukuleles
\nHome for a Moth – Fight Simulator
\nStim Bar
\nGood Things Do Happen – Another Lincoln Nightmare
\nYou Have a Special Purpose in Life
\nStarkweather’s Demise
\nThe Craziest Mess I’ve Ever Seen
\nCensor Chase
\nSector 6
\nSelling Agnates\/Laurent Arrives
\nSecurity Breach – Briefing Laurent
\nRoute 39
\nEat the Burger, Meet the Cow
\nHelicopters
\nThese Are Mail Order
\nSend in the Clones
\nRenovatio<\/p>\n

Disc 2: Score presentation continued\u00a0(1-13)\u00a0and additional material\u00a0(14-31)<\/p>\n

Shootout – On Foot – Train Wheels – Enter Wasps – Wasp Chase
\nThe Big R
\nGandu’s Demise – Rain Scene
\nLincoln Meets Lincoln – Genetic Memory
\nTom Sells Out His Clone
\nWorth Every Penny
\nNot Ready to Die
\nReady to Die, Apparently – Laurent is Fooled
\nThis Tongue Thing is Amazing
\nMass Winnings
\nBusting Some Ass – Rendezvous – Laurent Questions Merrick
\nShe Said, “Open the Door” – Better Call Maintenance
\nMy Name Is Lincoln
\nMass Vehicular Carnage
\nStarkweather Lottery (Alternate Version 1)
\nStarkweather Lottery (Alternate Version 2)
\nHealth Club (Alternate)
\nCafeteria (Alternate Version 1)
\nCafeteria (Alternate Version 2)
\nNice Tests (Alternate)
\nGood Things Do Happen (Alternate)
\nYou Have a Special Purpose in Life (Alternate Ending)
\nEat the Burger, Meet the Cow (Alternate)
\nThese Are Mail Order (Alternate)
\nSend in the Clones (Alternate Ending)
\nTrain Wheels (Alternate Version 1)
\nTrain Wheels (Alternate Version 2)
\nWasp Chase (Alternate)
\nMass Winnings (Alternate Ending)
\nBetter Call Maintenance (Alternate Ending)
\nMy Name is Lincoln (Alternate Mix)<\/p>\n

Portions previously released on Milan M2-36132, 2005<\/p>\n

Categories: News<\/a> Formats: CD<\/a> Genre: Pop<\/a>, Soundtracks<\/a> Tags: Dionne Warwick<\/a>, John Barry<\/a>, John Williams<\/a>, Shirley Bassey<\/a>, Steve Jablonsky<\/a>, Tom Jones<\/a><\/p>\n

\"AvatarMike Duquette<\/p>\n

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.’<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUY NOW FROM LA-LA LAND RECORDS Barely a week after\u00a0JAWS emerged from the sea for its 50th anniversary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-129619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}