Review
First the generalities and then I'll talk about the remastered edition. La-la Land's 2025 release follows afterward.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (OHMSS) presented everyone with a problem—it was the first time James Bond
was going to be played by another actor (David Niven/Peter Sellers et al don't count). Even Barry felt the pressure, and decided
to score the film big to make up for what might be lacking on-screen. The result was a departure for the Bond movies up to now—
the energy is higher and the pulse pounding, and synthesizers are used for the first time. In retrospect, Barry thought he went
overboard with the score, but fans typically rate it among the best.
The initial album and the movie both had the problem with what to do with the love song, "We Have All the Time in the World."
Stylistically it wasn't right for the main title and ended up buried in the movie and reprised over the end credits. On the LP
it was bumped up to Band 1, Side 1 and the title theme was placed at Band 1, Side 2. On the subsequent CD the order was never
changed, so the "Main Title" ended up in the middle of the disc at Track 6. Go figure. As an album, OHMSS was
representative of the musical score, but it left out a lot of stuff—"Gumbold's Safe" for instance.
Now normally I'm against "remastered" editions because usually it's just a way to get fools like me to buy the same music over
and over again, but these releases promised extra music to boot, so I laid out my money again. The remastering really did make
a difference. When I ripped them as MP3s and played them on the computer, I could not tell much difference at all. When I
played them on my big stereo with the good headphones, then the differences came through. The remastered CD sounds much better.
So that leaves the extra music. That's worth it. If you liked OHMSS before you'll love it moreso with the
extra music. There are two levels of extra music on this CD. The first level is comprised of the bonus tracks that were not
available on the earlier releases—this includes "Gumbold's Safe," "Blofeld's Plot" and the "Bobsled Chase," among others. Great
stuff if you've seen the movie many times and wished for the music where Bond gets konked and fades in and out of consciousness,
or the music Blofeld plays in the background while he "treats" the girls, and so.
The other level is subtler and pays off for people like me who played the LP until the needle cut through or burned holes in
their CDs—little additions and changes to the original ques so make them conform to the movie. Some of these are mentioned and
some are not. The back cover clearly mentions that "Journey to Blofeld's Hideaway" has additional material, and indeed it does.
Nowhere is it mentioned (that I saw) that "Over and Out" has also been changed to conform to the film. On the original CD "Over
and Out" fades away at the end—on the new CD it has the rousing finish as shown on the film. A tiny difference, but if you've
heard the music so often you know it by heart, it's quite a difference.
Attentive listeners may have recognized "Escape from Piz Gloria," the newly added Track 20, on the very early trailers for the
movie The Incredibles. Barry had been announced as the composer but that fell through, so
Michael Giacchino got the gig (I wanted to hate it but he did a good job).
The only beef I have with this release is the cover, which is identical to the previous release so that the only way you can tell
it's the new edition is by the horizontal strip on the left side of the jewel case—something I did not notice in the
record store when I was thumbing through the albums. The back of the CD is different—but how many people look at the back?
Regardless—if you're going to buy the remastered editions—take care that you get the remastered editions. |
