Johnny Mathis title song for Moonraker exist?
justvisiting
Posts: 61MI6 Agent
I read a couple places (including the sometimes unreliable imdb) that Frank Sinatra and Johnny Mathis were approached to sing the title song to Moonraker. The song was "Think of Me" with lyrics by Paul Williams. Frank Sinatra reportedly turned it down, but a couple of sources state that Johnny Mathis did record the song, but it just didn't cut it.
Is this song available anywhere? I'd like to hear it.
Is this song available anywhere? I'd like to hear it.
Comments
What does this mean in regard to Moonraker?
Don't make me answer quesitons like this on public forums. Thanks.
Neither the Moonraker tapes nor the Mathis song are lost. They are currently unreleased.
Just wait for the next bunch of expanded soundtracks.
Apperently when BLue Eyes was to perform it, it had another title - something like think of me.
This issue is still under investigation. Some things just don't match up with that story...
In Will Friedwald's book on Sinatra, a very similar story is related but with some clashing details (eg, Ella Fitzgerald instead of Johnny Mathis). This might be a totally different story or not.
Interesting. Does the book talk about Sinatra turning down Broccoli's request to perform YOLT, saying he would never sing a Bond song, thus handling it over to Nancy?
Moonraker's probably my favourite Bond score- a crying shame there's no more available of the score; I'd love some more of it to turn up on disc.
Also, I wish it was a little bit better sound quality. Some really lovely pieces in there, though.
Yes, it was composed by JB: here's a quote from John Barry A Life In Music by Geoff Leonard, Pete Walker and Gareth Bramley-
"Frank Sinatra, it is rumoured, was originally approached to sing the theme song, then known as 'Think Of Me', with lyrics by Paul Williams, but turned it down. It was then recorded by Johnny Mathis, but eventually dropped from the film."
The final song, with lyrics by Hal David, is aka "Where Are You" (the first line of the song, which repeats later) and it's on the Themependium box under that title with "Moonraker" in brackets.
Two tracks not on the OST album are available in re-recorded form, these being "Freefall" (from the PTS) and "Arrival At Chateau Drax".
So the general consensus is that Think Of Me was recorded by Mathis? I'd heard of this vaguely before but I thought it hadn't happened- fascinating. Do we know if there was much time between this and the score being written? i.e. the finished score contains plenty of the final Moonraker song- presumably there was time to write that into the incidental music; unless Think of Me and Moonraker share a melody perhaps?