Tuesday 7 August 2012

Marvin Hamlisch 1944-2012

Marvin Hamlisch composed, among many other film scores, the music for one James Bond film: The Spy Who Loved Me. A departure from John Barry's timeless style of Bond music, Hamlisch's score is as much a product of the late seventies as the film itself; his Bond '77 theme is the sound of Roger Moore having sex with a hundred barely-legal girls in a New York disco while John Travolta watches.

Hamlisch also co-wrote Carly Simon's exquisite title song Nobody Does It Better, no doubt knowing full well that 25 years later it would be the first song that an obsessed Bond fan would dance to with his new bride. He probably didn't expect the Alan Partridge version, but I like to think he's watching it with John Barry right now on some kind of heavenly TV-on-demand service.

Thanks Marv. The Incredible Suit salutes you.

3 comments :

  1. Nobody Does it Better is still the best Bond Song. Fair play.

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  2. Truly a Marv not a Ham

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  3. My favourite of his songs is 'The Way We Were' sung by Barbra Streisand in the film of the same name (1973). The song is made all the more poignant for me now because I saw the film when it was released and nearly 40 years have vanished sine then. I am a feeble old irrelevant fart now. The song reduces me to tears as I recall 'The Way We Were'.

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