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Thunderball
Soundtrack by John Barry
Released	1965
Recorded	October 1965
Length	39:11
Label	Capitol Records
Producer	Frank Collura (Reissue)
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link
John Barry chronology
The Knack and How to Get It (1965) Thunderball (1965) Born Free (1966) James Bond soundtrack chronology Goldfinger (1964) Thunderball (1965) You Only Live Twice (1967) Alternate cover Re-release cover

Thunderball is the soundtrack for the 4th James Bond film of the same name.

The soundtrack was released by United Artists Records in 1965. The music was composed and conducted by John Barry, and performed by the John Barry Orchestra. This was Barry's third soundtrack for the series. The soundtrack was not finished by the time the film was released in theaters and only featured twelve tracks, roughly only the first half of the film; the last seven tracks were released for the first time when the soundtrack was issued on compact disc on February 25, 2003. Additionally, the music in the film was actually unfinished days before the release of the film in theaters due to a late change by EON Productions to use a title song with the same name as the film.

The original title credit theme to Thunderball was entitled "Mr. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang," which was written by John Barry and Leslie Bricusse. The title was taken from an Italian journalist who in 1962 dubbed agent 007 as Mr. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. The song was originally recorded by Shirley Bassey, but was later rerecorded by Dionne Warwick, whose version was not released until the 1990s. The song was removed from the title credits after producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman were worried that a theme song to a James Bond movie would not work well if the song did not have the title of the film in its lyrics. John Barry teamed up with lyricist Don Black and wrote "Thunderball" which was sung by Tom Jones who, according to Bond production legend, fainted in the recording booth when singing the song's final, high note. Jones said of the final note, "I closed my eyes and I held the note for so long when I opened my eyes the room was spinning." ^[1]

Country musician Johnny Cash also submitted a song to EON productions titled "Thunderball" but it wasn't used. ^[2]

1. "Thunderball" - Tom Jones
2. "Chateau Flight"
3. "The Spa"
4. "Switching the Body"
5. "The Bomb"
6. "Cafe Martinique"
7. "Thunderball"
8. "Death of Fiona"
9. "Bond Below Disco Volante"
10. "Search for the Vulcan"
11. "007"
12. "Mr. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang"
13. "Gunbarrel / Traction Table / Gassing the Plane / Car Chase"
14. "Bond Meets Domino /Shark Tank / Lights out for Paula / For King and Country"
15. "Street Chase"
16. "Finding the Plane / Underwater Ballet / Bond with SPECTRE Frogmen / Leiter to the Rescue / Bond Joins Underwater Battle"
17. "Underwater Mayhem / Death of Largo / End Titles"
18. "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Mono)" - Instrumental

• In 1996, "Weird Al" Yankovic parodied the famous ending of Thunderball in the spy comedy Spy Hard, however, instead of passing out like Jones allegedley did, Yankovic's head exploded at the end of the opening song.
• Tom Jones notably sang the theme during Sean Connery's AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony in 2006. He did not pass out on this occasion.
• Mr. Bungle recorded a cover of the theme song, however it was never released on any official albums.

1. ^ Tom Jones's comments on the Thunderball song. Interview with Singer Tom Jones. Retrieved on 10 September 2005.
2. ^ Bitter Cinema piece on Johnny Cash's Thunderball

• Thunderball
• James Bond music