Goldfinger (James Bond Theme Song)

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“Goldfinger” is the title song from the 1964 James Bond film of the same name. Composed and arranged by John Barry and with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, the song was performed by Shirley Bassey for the film’s opening and closing title sequences, as well as the soundtrack album release. The single release of the song gave Bassey her only Billboard Hot 100 top forty hit, peaking in the Top 10 at No. 8 and No. 2 for four weeks on the Adult Contemporary chart, and in the United Kingdom the single reached No. 21 on the UK Singles Chart.

The song finished at No. 53 in AFI’s 100 Years…100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema. In 2008, the single was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Background

One source of inspiration was the song “Mack the Knife“, which Goldfinger director Guy Hamilton showed composer John Barry, thinking it was a “gritty and rough” song that could be a good model for what the film required. Lyricists Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley were not shown any film footage or script excerpts, but were advised of the fatal gilding suffered by the Jill Masterson character, played by Shirley Eaton. Bricusse later recalled that once he and Newley hit upon utilizing “the Midas touch” in the lyric, the pattern of the song became evident and the lyrics were completed within a couple of days at most.

The first recording of “Goldfinger” was made by Newley on 14 May 1964, with Barry as conductor, which produced two completed takes. Barry recalled that Newley gave a “very creepy” performance which he (Barry) considered “terrific”. Newley’s recording, however, was made purely as a demo for the film’s makers. According to Barry, Newley “didn’t want to sing it in the movie as they [Newley and Bricusse] thought the song was a bit weird”.

Shirley Bassey was Barry’s choice to record the song. He had been the conductor on Bassey’s national tour in December 1963 and the two had also been romantically involved. Barry had played Bassey an instrumental track of the song before its lyrics were written. The singer recalled that hearing the track had given her “goose bumps”. She agreed to sing the song whatever the lyrics might eventually be. Bassey recorded the track on 7 September 1964 at London’s EMI Recording Studios. The producer credit named Bassey’s regular producer George Martin, but the session was, in fact, overseen by Barry. Vic Flick, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Big Jim Sullivan are all said to have been at the sessions.

The song has been widely praised by modern critics: Variety called it the “gold standard of all movie music”, while Rolling Stone named it the best Bond theme song.

Page recalls attending the sessions, but session musicians on the James Bond films were separately relegated to the instrumental score versions of songs, while the main musicians (on Goldfinger: Vic Flick) were given the main theme song to solely record, to be featured at the beginning of the film,^[10] leaving Page as a background acoustic contributor to Flick on the instrumental version of the song.

The recording of “Goldfinger” lasted all night because Barry demanded repeated takes, not due to any shortcomings in Bassey’s vocal, but musical or technical glitches. Initially, Bassey had problems with the climactic final note, which necessitated her slipping behind a studio partition between takes to remove her bra. Bassey said of the final note: “I was holding it and holding it – I was looking at John Barry and I was going blue in the face and he’s going – hold it just one more second. When it finished, I nearly passed out.”

The iconic two-note phrase which is the basis for the song’s introduction was not in the original orchestration, but occurred to Barry during a tea-break, following an hour and a half of rehearsal. By the time the musicians returned, twenty minutes later, he had written the figure into the orchestration.

The single was released in mono, with the album stereo version (on the film soundtrack, Golden Hits Of Shirley Bassey and subsequent releases) using an alternate mix, in which the instrumentals are the same, but Bassey’s vocal is different, being a shade less intense and having a shorter final note. Newley’s version was released in 1992 to mark the 30th anniversary of James Bond on film, in a compilation collector’s edition, The Best of Bond… James Bond.

Bassey’s title theme was almost taken out of the film because producer Harry Saltzman hated it, saying, “That’s the worst ******* song I’ve ever heard in my ******* life”. Saltzman also disliked Bassey’s subsequent Bond theme for Diamonds Are Forever. However, there was not enough time for a replacement song to be written and recorded.

Release

The release on vinyl of Bassey’s (mono) version, peaked at No. 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in the United States and reached No. 1 in Japan, No. 4 in Australia, and Top 10 in many European countries including Austria (No. 7), Belgium (No. 9 on the Dutch charts), Germany (No. 8), Italy (No. 3), the Netherlands (No. 5), and Norway (No. 7). A No. 24 hit in France, Bassey’s “Goldfinger” was not one of Bassey’s biggest hits in her native UK, its No. 21 peak on the UK Singles Chart being far lower than that of the nine Top 10 hits she’d previously scored, but despite Bassey subsequently returning to the UK Top 10 three more times, “Goldfinger” would ultimately become her signature song in the UK as well as the rest of the world. In 2002 poll in which BBC Radio 2 solicited listeners’ favourite piece of popular music from the last fifty years performed by a British act, “Goldfinger” by Shirley Bassey ranked at No. 46.

Other versions and adaptations

Re-recordings

Bassey re-recorded “Goldfinger” for her 2014 album Hello Like Before. In doing so she addressed two notes that she thought “sounded wrong” in the original.

Recorded covers

• In 1964, Billy Strange recorded a version for his album The James Bond Theme / Walk Don’t Run ’64, which even charted along with Bassey’s original.
• In 1965, John Barry and His Orchestra hit #72 on the Billboard Hot 100 with the instrumental title song from the movie.
• In 1965, The Honeycombs did an instrumental cover of the song on their Japanese tour which also appeared on their album In Tokyo which was released in Japan only.
• In 1965, Count Basie did an instrumental version of the song on his album Basie Meets Bond.
• In 1965, Jimmy Smith did an instrumental jazz organ version of the song on his album Monster, released on the Verve Records label. The recording included a full big band arrangement by Oliver Nelson. It was also released as a two-sided single that same year as “Goldfinger (Part I)” and Goldfinger (Part II)”.
• In 1965, Ray Barretto did an instrumental version of the song on his album Señor 007.
• In 1965, Billy Preston did an instrumental version of the song on his album Early Hits of 1965.
• In 1965, Enoch Light and The Light Brigade did an instrumental version of the song on the album Discoteque Vol. 2: Dance, Dance, Dance.
• In 1965, Harry James recorded a version on the album Harry James Plays Green Onions & Other Great Hits. (Dot DLP 3634 and DLP 25634).
• In 1967, Eino Grön recorded the Finnish rendering “Hän Vaatii” (“He Required”) for his self-titled album.
• In 1967, Mantovani recorded an orchestral version on the album Mantovani/Hollywood.
• In 1978, the song was covered by Howard Devoto‘s post-punk band Magazine, as the B-side to their single “Touch and Go”, with both songs later being added to the 2007 reissue of their 1978 album Real Life.
• In 1996, Man or Astroman? did an instrumental version of the song on the various-artists compilation Secret Agent S.O.U.N.D.S..
• In 1998, Sexmob recorded an instrumental jazz version of the song on their album Din of Inequity.
• In 2000, Hank Marvin did an instrumental version of the song on his album Marvin at the Movies.
• In 2006, it was covered in a heavy metal fashion by Finnish rock group Leningrad Cowboys on their album Zombies Paradise.
• In 2008, Canadian author Mark Steyn released “Goldfinger” on an album of the same name.
• In 2012, for the James Bond video game 007 Legends, an instrumental version was written and composed by David Arnold for the main title sequence, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the film franchise.
• In 2016, Finnish singer, and former Nightwish vocalist Tarja Turunen released a cover of the song on her album The Brightest Void
• In 2017, guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Thomas Morgan made a live recording of the song which was released on their album Small Town for ECM.
• In 2017, “Goldfinger” was covered on Bob Kulick‘s solo album Skeletons in the Closet.

Live and televised performances

• In 1965, Connie Francis performed the song on The Ed Sullivan Show
• In 1980, Shirley Bassey performed the song on The Muppet Show.
• In 1997, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers covered the song (without vocals) in concert at The Fillmore,^[19] and it is featured on their 2009 career-spanning live set, The Live Anthology. It was again featured in 2022 on the album Live at the Fillmore 1997.
• In 2002, Shirley Bassey sang the song at the British pop/rock music concert Party at the Palace in of the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II held over the Golden Jubilee Weekend.
• In 2011, Céline Dion included the song as part of a “James Bond Medley” in her Las Vegas show Celine.
• In 2013, Shirley Bassey sang the song at the 85th Academy Awards in tribute to the 50 years of James Bond films.

Soundtrack appearances

• In 1998, the song was to feature prominently in the film Little Voice, appearing in much the manner of its first use – but with Ray Say (Michael Caine) slamming the door that becomes the song’s first chord blast, rather than, of course, James Bond actor Sean Connery.
• In 1999, in the sixth season “Shutout in Seattle” episode of US sitcom Frasier, the song is featured in the final scene, with Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer), Niles Crane (David Hyde Pierce) and Martin Crane (John Mahoney) singing along to a piano accompaniment.
• The song is performed onscreen by Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings at Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Naomi Lapaglia (Margot Robbie)’s wedding in the 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street.

Remixes and samples

• In 1999, the Mantovani version of the song was sampled by Smash Mouth for their song “Then the Morning Comes“, from the album Astro Lounge.
• In 2000, the song was remixed by Propellerheads for The Remix Album…Diamonds Are Forever.
• In 2007, it was interpolated by reggaeton artist Tego Calderón on his song “Alegría”, off of his album El Abayarde Contraataca.

Parodies

Parodies of the song include “Dr. Evil“, written and performed by They Might Be Giants for the 1999 film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, and “Max Power”, from The Simpsons season 10 episode “Homer to the Max“. The Simpsons 8th season episode “You Only Move Twice” features a Bond-like villain in Hank Scorpio (Albert Brooks), with an end credits song about him in the style of “Goldfinger”. A season 3 episode of the animated show ReBoot also featured a Bassey-style intro song and credits titled “Firewall”.

Inspired songs

In 1989, after the release of Gladys Knight‘s James Bond theme song “Licence to Kill“, from the film of the same title, it was felt to significantly reuse important elements of “Goldfinger”, and so the songwriting credits for the former were adapted for all subsequent releases.

Charts

Goldfinger Theme Song Covers

• OldGuitarMonkey

• Vintage Boombox

• Q The Music Show

• The Danish National Symphony Orchestra

Goldfinger (Film)

Goldfinger is a 1964 British spy film and the third installment in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, starring Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It is based on the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming. The film also stars Honor Blackman as Bond girl Pussy Galore and Gert Fröbe as the title character Auric Goldfinger, along with Shirley Eaton as the iconic Bond girl Jill Masterson. Goldfinger was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman and was the first of four Bond films directed by Guy Hamilton.

In 1999, it was ranked #70 on the BFI Top 100 British films list compiled by the British Film Institute.

Plot

By John Coffman – Combined Military Service Digital Photographic Files, Public Domain, Link, 

Aerial view of the U.S. Gold Bullion Depository at Fort Knox

After destroying a drug laboratory in Latin America, MI6 agent James Bond vacations in Miami Beach. His superior, M, via CIA agent Felix Leiter, directs Bond to observe bullion dealer Auric Goldfinger at the hotel there. Bond discovers Goldfinger cheating at a high-stakes gin rummy game, aided remotely by his employee, Jill Masterson, who prompts him using binoculars and a one-way radio. Bond interrupts Jill and then blackmails Goldfinger into losing. After a night with Jill, Bond is knocked out by Goldfinger’s Korean manservant Oddjob. Bond comes round to find Jill dead, covered in gold paint, having died from “skin suffocation”.

In London, the governor of the Bank of England and M tell Bond that varying gold prices are allowing someone to profit by selling bullion internationally. Bond’s objective is determining how Goldfinger smuggles gold across countries’ borders. Q supplies Bond with a modified Aston Martin DB5 and two tracking devices. Bond meets Goldfinger at his country club in Kent and plays a round of golf with him, wagering a bar of recovered Nazi gold (provided by MI6) against £5,000 of Goldfinger’s money. Goldfinger attempts to cheat, but Bond tricks him into losing the last hole and the match. Goldfinger warns Bond against interfering in his affairs, and Oddjob demonstrates his own formidable strength and the lethality of the steel-rimmed hat he wears. Bond trails Goldfinger to Switzerland. There, Bond meets Jill’s sister, Tilly, who attempts and fails to assassinate Goldfinger.

Bond sneaks into Goldfinger’s refinery and overhears him telling a Chinese nuclear physicist, Ling, that he incorporates gold into the bodywork of his Rolls-Royce Phantom III in order to smuggle it out of England. Bond also overhears Goldfinger mention “Operation Grand Slam.” Leaving, Bond encounters Tilly, who again tries to kill Goldfinger. An alarm is tripped and Oddjob kills Tilly with his lethal hat. Bond is captured and strapped to a table with an overhead industrial laser, the beam slicing through the surface toward him. Bond lies to Goldfinger, saying that MI6 knows about Operation Grand Slam. Goldfinger spares Bond’s life so the MI6 agents surveilling the compound can see him and think 007 is safe.

Pilot Pussy Galore flies the captive Bond to Goldfinger’s stud farm near Louisville, Kentucky in a private jet. Once there, Bond escapes his cell and witnesses Goldfinger’s meeting with American mafiosi, who are supplying materials needed for Operation Grand Slam. Goldfinger plans to breach the U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox by releasing delta-9 nerve gas into the atmosphere, killing the personnel. The mobsters ridicule Goldfinger’s scheme, particularly a Mr Solo who demands to be paid immediately before the others are gassed to death by Goldfinger. Bond is captured by Pussy Galore, but attempts to alert the CIA by planting a homing device in Solo’s pocket as he leaves. Unfortunately, Solo is killed by Oddjob and his body destroyed in a car crusher along with the homing device.

Bond tells Goldfinger it would be impossible to move that much gold before American military forces intervened. Goldfinger hints he is not intending to steal it, and Bond deduces that Goldfinger plans to detonate a dirty bomb inside the vault to irradiate the gold, contaminating it with radiation for over half a century. Goldfinger’s own gold will then increase in value and the Chinese gain an advantage from the resulting economic chaos. Goldfinger warns that any attempt to locate the bomb or interfere will result in the bomb being detonated at another vital U.S. location.

Operation Grand Slam launches with Pussy Galore’s Flying Circus spraying gas over Fort Knox, seemingly killing the military guards and government personnel, including Felix Leiter. Goldfinger’s private army breaks into Fort Knox and accesses the vault as Goldfinger arrives in a helicopter with the bomb. In the vault, Goldfinger’s henchman, Kisch, handcuffs Bond to the bomb. Unbeknownst to Goldfinger, Bond seduced Pussy and convinced her to alert the American authorities, after which the gas was replaced with a harmless substance. As the troops attack Goldfinger’s men, he locks the vault. He removes his coat to reveal a U.S. Army colonel’s uniform and escapes.

Bond, Oddjob, and Kisch are trapped inside the vault. When the U.S. army attacks his troops, Goldfinger kills Red Chinese nuclear expert Mr. Ling. Kisch attempts to disarm the bomb, but Oddjob, loyal to Goldfinger, throws him over a rail to his death. Bond frees himself, but the physically stronger Oddjob batters him before he can stop the bomb. Bond electrocutes Oddjob to death, then forces open the cabinet containing the bomb but he is unable to disarm the complex mechanism. After killing Goldfinger’s men, U.S. troops open the vault. An atomic specialist rushes in and, with seven seconds left on the countdown clock, simply turns off the device.

Later, Bond is being flown to the White House for lunch with the president. En route with Pussy, Goldfinger hijacks the plane. In a struggle for Goldfinger’s revolver, the gun discharges through a window and creates an explosive decompression. Goldfinger is blown out through the ruptured window. With the plane out of control, Bond and Pussy parachute safely from the aircraft before it crashes. Some time after, Leiter’s search helicopter passes over the pair, who have landed in a wood. Bond declares: “this is no time to be rescued”, and draws the parachute over himself and Galore.

Production

Development

While From Russia With Love was in production, Richard Maibaum began working on the script for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service as the intended next film in the series, but with the release date set for September 1964 there was not enough time to prepare for location shooting in Switzerland and that adaptation was put on hold. With the court case between Kevin McClory and Fleming surrounding Thunderball still in the High Court, producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman turned to Goldfinger as the third Bond film. Goldfinger had what was then considered a large budget of $3 million (US$26 million in 2021 dollars), the equivalent of the budgets of Dr. No and From Russia with Love combined, and was the first Bond film classified as a box-office blockbuster. Goldfinger was chosen with the North American cinema market in mind, as the previous films had concentrated on the Caribbean and Europe.

Terence Young, who directed the previous two films, chose to film The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders instead, after a pay dispute that saw him denied a percentage of the film’s profits. Broccoli and Saltzman turned instead to Guy Hamilton to direct. Hamilton, who had turned down directing Dr. No, felt that he needed to make Bond less of a “superman” by making the villains seem more powerful. Hamilton knew Fleming, as both were involved during intelligence matters in the Royal Navy during World War II. Goldfinger saw the return of two crew members who were not involved with From Russia with Love: stunt coordinator Bob Simmons and production designer Ken Adam. Both played crucial roles in the development of Goldfinger, with Simmons choreographing the fight sequence between Bond and Oddjob in the vault of Fort Knox, which was not just seen as one of the best Bond fights, but also “must stand as one of the great cinematic combats” whilst Adam’s efforts on Goldfinger were “luxuriantly baroque” and have resulted in the film being called “one of his finest pieces of work”.

Writing

Principal photography commenced on 20 January 1964 in Miami Beach, Florida, at the Fontainebleau Hotel; the crew was small, consisting only of Hamilton, Broccoli, Adam and cinematographer Ted Moore. Connery never travelled to Florida to film because he was shooting Marnie elsewhere in the United States. On the DVD audio commentary, director Hamilton states that other than Linder, who played Felix Leiter, none of the main actors in the Miami sequence were actually there. Connery, Fröbe, Eaton, Nolan, who played Dink, and Willis, who played Goldfinger’s card victim, all filmed their parts on a soundstage at Pinewood Studios when filming moved. Miami also served as location to the scenes involving Leiter’s pursuit of Oddjob.

After five days in the US, production returned to England. The primary location was Pinewood Studios, home to, among other sets, a recreation of the Fontainebleau, the South American city of the pre-title sequence and both Goldfinger’s estate and factory. Three places near the studio were used: Black Park for the car chase involving Bond’s Aston Martin and Goldfinger’s henchmen inside the factory complex, RAF Northolt for the American airports and Stoke Park Club for the golf club scene.

The end of the chase, when Bond’s Aston Martin crashes into a wall because of the mirror, as well as the chase immediately preceding it, were filmed on the road at the rear of Pinewood Studios Sound Stages A and E and the Prop Store. The road is now called Goldfinger Avenue.

Southend Airport was used for the scene where Goldfinger flies to Switzerland. Ian Fleming visited the set of Goldfinger in April 1964; he died a few months later in August 1964, shortly before the film’s release. The second unit filmed in Kentucky, and these shots were edited into scenes filmed at Pinewood.

By ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv / Fotograf: Comet Photo AG (Zürich) / Com_C13-035-007 / CC BY-SA 4.0, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link, Connery with co-star Tania Mallet during filming in Switzerland

Principal photography then moved to Switzerland, with the car chase being filmed at the small curved roads near Realp, the exterior of the Pilatus Aircraft factory in Stans serving as Goldfinger’s factory, and Tilly Masterson’s attempt to snipe Goldfinger being shot in the Furka Pass.

Filming wrapped on 11 July at Andermatt, after nineteen weeks of shooting. Just three weeks prior to the film’s release, Hamilton and a small team, which included Broccoli’s stepson and future producer Michael G. Wilson as assistant director, went for last-minute shoots in Kentucky. Extra people were hired for post-production issues such as dubbing so the film could be finished in time.

Broccoli earned permission to film in the Fort Knox area with the help of his friend, Lt. Colonel Charles Russhon. To shoot Pussy Galore’s Flying Circus gassing the soldiers, the pilots were only allowed to fly above 3,000 feet. Hamilton recalled this was “hopeless”, so they flew at about 500 feet, and “the military went absolutely ape”. The scenes of people fainting involved the same set of soldiers moving to different locations.

For security reasons, filming and photography were not allowed near or inside the United States Bullion Depository. All sets for the interiors of the building were designed and built from scratch at Pinewood Studios. The filmmakers had no clue as to what the interior of the depository looked like, so Ken Adam‘s imagination provided the idea of gold stacked upon gold behind iron bars.

Adam later told UK daily newspaper The Guardian: “No one was allowed in Fort Knox but because [producer] Cubby Broccoli had some good connections and the Kennedys loved Ian Fleming’s books I was allowed to fly over it once. It was quite frightening – they had machine guns on the roof. I was also allowed to drive around the perimeter but if you got out of the car there was a loudspeaker warning you to keep away. There was not a chance of going in it, and I was delighted because I knew from going to the Bank of England vaults that gold isn’t stacked very high and it’s all underwhelming. It gave me the chance to show the biggest gold repository in the world as I imagined it, with gold going up to heaven. I came up with this cathedral-type design. I had a big job to persuade Cubby and the director Guy Hamilton at first.”

Saltzman disliked the design’s resemblance to a prison, but Hamilton liked it enough that it was built. The comptroller of Fort Knox later sent a letter to Adam and the production team, complimenting them on their imaginative depiction of the vault. United Artists even had irate letters from people wondering “how could a British film unit be allowed inside Fort Knox?” Adam recalled, “In the end I was pleased that I wasn’t allowed into Fort Knox, because it allowed me to do whatever I wanted.” In fact, the set was deemed so realistic that Pinewood Studios had to post a 24-hour guard to keep the gold bar props from being stolen. Another element which was original was the atomic device, for which Hamilton requested the special effects crew get inventive instead of realistic. Technician Bert Luxford described the end result as looking like an “engineering work”, with a spinning engine, a chronometer and other decorative pieces.

Effects

Two Aston Martin DB5s were built for production, one of which had no gadgets.

“Before [Goldfinger], gadgets were not really a part of Bond’s world,” Hamilton remarked. Production designer Ken Adam chose the DB5 because it was the latest version of the Aston Martin (in the novel Bond drove a DB Mark III, which he considered England’s most sophisticated car). The company was initially reluctant, but was finally convinced to make a product placement deal. In the script, the car was armed only with a smoke screen, but every crew member began suggesting gadgets to install in it: Hamilton conceived the revolving license plate because he had been getting many parking tickets, while his stepson suggested the ejector seat (which he saw on television). A gadget near the lights that would drop sharp nails was replaced with an oil dispenser because the producers thought the original could be easily copied by viewers. Adam and engineer John Stears overhauled the prototype of the Aston Martin DB5 coupe, installing these and other features into a car over six weeks. The scene where the DB5 crashes was filmed twice, with the second take being used in the film. The first take, in which the car drives through the fake wall, can be seen in the trailer. Two of the gadgets were not installed in the car: the wheel-destroying spikes, inspired by Ben-Hur‘s scythed chariots, were entirely made in-studio; and the ejector seat used a seat thrown by compressed air, with a dummy sitting atop it. Another car without the gadgets was created, which was eventually furnished for publicity purposes. It was reused for Thunderball.

Lasers did not exist in 1959 when the book was written, nor did high-power industrial lasers at the time the film was made, making them a novelty. In the novel, Goldfinger uses a circular saw to try to kill Bond, but the filmmakers changed it to a laser to make the film feel fresher. Hamilton immediately thought of giving the laser a place in the film’s story as Goldfinger’s weapon of choice. Ken Adam was advised on the laser’s design by two Harvard scientists who helped design the water reactor in Dr No. The laser beam itself was an optical effect added in post-production. For close-ups where the flame cuts through metal, technician Bert Luxford heated the metal with a blowtorch from underneath the table to which Bond was strapped.

The model jet used for wide shots of Goldfinger’s Lockheed JetStar was painted differently on the right side to be used as the presidential plane that crashes at the film’s end. Several cars were provided by the Ford Motor Company including a Mustang that Tilly Masterson drives, a Ford Country Squire station wagon used to transport Bond from the airport to the stud ranch, a Ford Thunderbird driven by Felix Leiter, and a Lincoln Continental in which Oddjob kills Solo. The Continental had its engine removed before being placed in a car crusher, and the destroyed car had to be partially cut so that the bed of the Ford Falcon Ranchero in which it was deposited could support the weight.

Opening sequence

Shirley Eaton as the murdered Jill Masterson—”one of the most enduring images in cinematic history”.

The opening credit sequence was designed by graphic artist Robert Brownjohn, featuring clips of all James Bond films thus far projected on Margaret Nolan‘s body. Its design was inspired by seeing light projecting on people’s bodies as they got up and left a cinema.

Visually, the film uses many golden motifs, reflecting the novel’s treatment of Goldfinger’s obsession with the metal. All of Goldfinger’s female henchwomen in the film except his private jet’s co-pilot (black hair) and stewardess (who is Korean) are red-blonde, or blonde, including Pussy Galore and her Flying Circus crew (both the characters Tilly Masterson and Pussy specifically have black hair in the novel). Goldfinger has a yellow-painted Rolls-Royce with number plate “AU 1” (Au being the chemical symbol for gold), and also sports yellow or golden items or clothing in every film scene, including a golden pistol, when disguised as a colonel. Jill Masterson is famously killed by being painted with gold, which according to Bond causes her to die of “skin suffocation”. (An entirely fictional cause of death, but the iconic scene caused much of the public to accept it as a medical fact. An urban legend circulated that the scene was inspired by a Swiss model who accidentally died the same way, while preparing for a photo shoot.) Bond is bound to a cutting bench with a sheet of gold on it (as Goldfinger points out to him) before nearly being lasered. Goldfinger’s factory henchmen in the film wear yellow sashes, Pussy Galore twice wears a metallic gold vest, and Pussy’s pilots all wear yellow sunburst insignia on their uniforms. Goldfinger’s Jetstar hostess, Mei-Lei, wears a golden bodice and gold-accented sarong. The concept of the recurring gold theme running through the film was a design aspect conceived and executed by Ken Adam and art director Peter Murton.

Music

Since the release date for the film had been pre-determined and filming had finished close to that date, John Barry scored some sequences to rough, non-final versions of the sequences. Barry described his work in Goldfinger as a favourite of his, saying it was “the first time I had complete control, writing the score and the song”. The musical tracks, in keeping with the film’s theme of gold and metal, make heavy use of brass, and also metallic chimes. The film’s score is described as “brassy and raunchy” with “a sassy sexiness to it”.

Goldfinger began the tradition of Bond theme songs introduced over the opening title sequence, the style of the song from the pop genre and using popular artists. (Although the title song, sung by Matt Monro, in From Russia with Love was introduced in a few phrases on Bond’s first appearance, a full rendition on the soundtrack only commenced for the final scene on the waters at Venice and through the following end titles.) Shirley Bassey established the opening title tradition giving her distinguished style to “Goldfinger“, and would sing the theme songs for two future Bond films, Diamonds are Forever and Moonraker. The song Goldfinger was composed by John Barry, with lyrics by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse. The track features a young Jimmy Page, who was doing many sessions at the time. The lyrics were described in one contemporary newspaper as “puerile”, but what remained undisturbed was the Shirley Bassey interpretation world impact. Like the score, the arrangement makes heavy use of brass, meeting well Miss Bassey’s signature belting, and incorporates the Bond theme from Dr. No. Newley recorded the early versions, which were even considered for inclusion in the film. The soundtrack album topped the Billboard 200 chart, and reached 14th place in the UK Albums Chart. The single for “Goldfinger” was also successful, reaching 8th in the Billboard Hot 100 and 21st in the UK charts.

Release and reception

Goldfinger premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on 17 September 1964, with general release in the United Kingdom the following day. Leicester Square was packed with sightseers and fans and police were unable to control the crowd. A set of glass doors to the cinema was accidentally broken and the premiere was shown ten minutes late because of the confusion. The United States premiere occurred on 21 December 1964, at the DeMille Theatre in New York. The film opened in 64 cinemas across 41 cities and eventually peaked at 485 screens. Goldfinger was temporarily banned in Israel because of Gert Fröbe’s connections with the Nazi Party. The ban, however, was lifted many years later when a Jewish family publicly thanked Fröbe for protecting them from persecution during World War II.

Promotion

1964 Aston Martin DB5, produced by Corgi Toys as a tie-in to the film

The film’s marketing campaign began as soon as filming started in Florida, with Eon allowing photographers to enter the set to take pictures of Shirley Eaton painted in gold. Robert Brown john, who designed the opening credits, was responsible for the posters for the advertising campaign, which also used actress Margaret Nolan. To promote the film, the two Aston Martin DB5s were showcased at the 1964 New York World’s Fair and it was dubbed “the most famous car in the world”; consequently, sales of the car rose. Corgi Toys began its decades-long relationship with the Bond franchise, producing a toy of the car, which became the biggest selling toy of 1964. The film’s success also led to licensed tie-in clothing, dress shoes, action figures, board games, jigsaw puzzles, lunch boxes, toys, record albums, trading cards and slot cars.

Critical response

Derek Prouse of The Sunday Times said of Goldfinger that it was “superbly engineered. It is fast, it is most entertainingly preposterous and it is exciting.”

The reviewer from The Times said “All the devices are infinitely sophisticated, and so is the film: the tradition of self-mockery continues, though at times it over-reaches itself”, also saying that “It is the mixture as before, only more so: it is superb hokum.” Connery’s acting efforts were overlooked by this reviewer, who did say: “There is some excellent bit-part playing by Mr. Bernard Lee and Mr. Harold Sakata: Mr. Gert Fröbe is astonishingly well cast in the difficult part of Goldfinger.” Donald Zec, writing for the Daily Mirror, said of the film that “Ken Adam’s set designs are brilliant; the direction of Guy Hamilton tautly exciting; Connery is better than ever, and the titles superimposed on the gleaming body of the girl in gold are inspired.”

Penelope Gilliatt, writing in The Observer, said that the film had “a spoofing callousness” and that it was “absurd, funny and vile”. The Guardian said that Goldfinger was “two hours of unmissable fantasy”, also saying that the film was “the most exciting, the most extravagant of the Bond films: garbage from the gods”, adding that Connery was “better than ever as Bond”. Alan Dent, writing for The Illustrated London News, thought Goldfinger “even tenser, louder, wittier, more ingenious and more impossible than ‘From Russia with Love‘… [a] brilliant farrago”, adding that Connery “is ineffable”.

Philip Oakes of The Sunday Telegraph said that the film was “dazzling in its technical ingenuity”, while Time said that “this picture is a thriller exuberantly travestied.” Bosley Crowther, writing in The New York Times was less enthusiastic about the film, saying that it was “tediously apparent” that Bond was becoming increasingly reliant on gadgets with less emphasis on “the lush temptations of voluptuous females”, although he did admit that “Connery plays the hero with an insultingly cool, commanding air.” He saved his praises for other actors in the film, saying that “Gert Fröbe is aptly fat and feral as the villainous financier, and Honor Blackman is forbiddingly frigid and flashy as the latter’s aeronautical accomplice.”

In Guide for the Film Fanatic, Danny Peary wrote that Goldfinger is “the best of the James Bond films starring Sean Connery … There’s lots of humor, gimmicks, excitement, an amusing yet tense golf contest between Bond and Goldfinger, thrilling fights to the death between Bond and Oddjob and Bond and Goldfinger, and a fascinating central crime … Most enjoyable, but too bad Eaton’s part isn’t longer and that Fröbe’s Goldfinger, a heavy but nimble intellectual in the Sydney Greenstreet tradition, never appeared in another Bond film.” Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times declared this to be his favourite Bond film and later added it to his “Great Movies” list.

The film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives a 99% rating and an average score of 8.6/10 based on 69 reviews. The website’s consensus reads, “Goldfinger is where James Bond as we know him comes into focus – it features one of 007’s most famous lines (‘A martini. Shaken, not stirred’) and a wide range of gadgets that would become the series’ trademark”. Goldfinger is the highest-rated Bond film on the site.

Box office

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times declared this to be his favourite Bond film and later added it to his “Great Movies” list.

Goldfinger‘s $3 million budget was recouped in two weeks, and it broke box office records in multiple countries around the world. The Guinness Book of World Records went on to list Goldfinger as the fastest grossing film of all time. Demand for the film was so high that the DeMille cinema in New York City had to stay open twenty-four hours a day. The film closed its original box office run having grossed $23 million in the United States and $46 million worldwide. After reissues, the first being as a double feature with Dr. No in 1966, Goldfinger grossed a total of $51,081,062 in the United States and $73,800,000 elsewhere, for a total worldwide gross of $124,900,000. At the 1965 Academy Awards, Norman Wanstall won the Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing for his work, making Goldfinger the first Bond film to receive an Academy Award. John Barry was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Score for a Motion Picture, and Ken Adam was nominated for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) for Best British Art Direction (Colour), where he also won the award for Best British Art Direction (Black and White) forDr. Strangelove. The American Film Institute has honoured the film four times: ranking it No. 90 for best movie quote (“A martini. Shaken, not stirred“), No. 53 for best song (“Goldfinger”), No. 49 for best villain (Auric Goldfinger), and No. 71 for most thrilling film. In 2006, Entertainment Weekly and IGN both namedGoldfinger as the best Bond film, while MSN named it as the second best, behind its predecessor. IGN and EW also named Pussy Galore as the second bestBond girl. In 2008, Total Film named Goldfinger as the best film in the series. The Times placed Goldfinger and Oddjob second and third on their list of the best Bond villains in 2008. They also named the Aston Martin DB5 as the best car in the films.

The success of the film led to Ian Fleming’s Bond novels receiving an increase of popularity and nearly 6 million books were sold in the United Kingdom in 1964, including 964,000 copies of Goldfinger alone. Between the years 1962 to 1967 a total of 22,792,000 Bond novels were sold

American Film Institute lists

• AFI’s 100 Years…100 Thrills: #71
• AFI’s 100 Years…100 Heroes and Villains:
  • Auric Goldfinger: #49 Villain
• AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movie Quotes:
  • “A Martini. Shaken, not stirred.”: #90
• AFI’s 100 Years…100 Songs:
  • “Goldfinger“: #53
• AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – Nominated

Goldfinger (Soundtrack)

Goldfinger is the soundtrack of the 1964 film of the same name. The album was composed by John Barry and distributed by EMI. Two versions were released initially, one in the United States and the United Kingdom, which varied in terms of length and which tracks were within the soundtrack. In 2003, Capitol-EMI records released a remastered version that contained all the tracks from both releases.

Background

John Barry had composed the previous James Bond soundtrack for From Russia with Love. Due to Barry’s increased “compositional depth” as seen through the soundtracks he produced since From Russia with Love, movie producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman allowed him to write the theme song for Goldfinger in addition to the soundtrack. Barry created the melody of the song before drafting the lyrics with the help of Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse. The theme was first sung by Newley at a demo session on 14 May 1964. At the behest of Barry, Shirley Bassey was chosen to sing the track. On Bassey, Barry was quoted saying “Nobody could have sung it like her; she had that great dramatic sense.” The theme was recorded on 20 August 1964 after an all-night session in the recording studio. The session was produced by EMI in-house producer George Martin, who also was the Beatles‘ producer at the time. Guitarist Vic Flick, who played on the track, recalled at a 2012 Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences salute to the music of James Bond that Bassey was having difficulty getting a proper take. Martin spoke to her and then over the recording baffle her brassiere came flying. She nailed it on the next take.

Session musicians on the Bond films were separately relegated to the instrumental score versions of songs, while the main musicians (on Goldfinger: Vic Flick) were given the main film theme song to solely record, to be featured at the beginning of the film. Notably, two of the session musicians were John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page, who together would be the founding members of Led Zeppelin.

Co-producer Harry Saltzman is said to have hated the song as too old fashioned for 1960s youth culture and only agreed to use it when persuaded by Albert Broccoli

Originally, Newley recorded a version of the theme song, but it was later re-recorded with Bassey’s voice for the film and soundtrack album. In 1992, Newley’s version was released for the 30th Anniversary of James Bond on film, in the compilation collectors edition The Best of Bond… James Bond.

The score was composed by Barry, making this his second, credited Bond score. The score makes regular use of instrumental arrangements of the title theme, as well as the “James Bond Theme” from Dr. No used in the gun barrel sequence. The score makes heavy use of brass. The distinctive music for Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe)’s henchman, Oddjob (Harold Sakata), makes use of repeated strokes on a metallic anvil. Metallic chimes are also heard in many scenes associated with Oddjob or gold, notably that in which the dead golden girl Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton) is discovered. The very effective use of music and various sound effects in the film won it an Academy Award for Best Sound Effects at the 37th Academy Awards. The album reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 – the first James Bond soundtrack to do so, and spent 70 total weeks on the chart, but for reasons that remain unclear, received no RIAA certification.

Versions

Two versions of the soundtrack were released. The American version lasted close to 30 minutes and contained 11 tracks. It lacked four tracks (“Golden Girl”, “Death of Tilley”, “The Laser Beam”, “Pussy Galore‘s Flying Circus”) but contained the instrumental rock guitar version of the title theme song not found on the British LP. The instrumental was in the style of the John Barry Seven‘s instrumental hits in Britain. The British record contained 14 tracks and lasted around 38 minutes. In 2003, the soundtrack was remastered and all the tracks originally released were compiled onto one album that contained fifteen tracks and over 41 minutes of music. The remastered version was released through Capitol-EMI records.

Muppet Songs: Shirley Bassey – Goldfinger

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic

Gillian Garr, a writer for Goldmine reflecting on the album in 2013, found the album to be “less satisfying today”, but stated the theme song was one of the “best-ever Bond theme songs.” Film Score Monthly writer Darren MacDonald found the remastered edition to be the best score of the James Bond series, giving it five out of five stars. MacDonald wrote that the score was “big and ballsy, mainly jazz and orchestral fusion, with Shirley Bassey belting out the fantastic title song.” He added that the remastered edition’s sound quality was “impeccable”.

Chart positions

Track listing

Side one

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Side two

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Credits

From the record page at AllMusic:

• Project manager: Herb Agner
• Creative director: Michelle Azzopardi
• Composer, conductor, primary artist: John Barry
• Primary artist, vocals: Shirley Bassey
• Liner notes: Jeff Bond
• Composer, lyricist: Leslie Bricusse
• Project manager: Wendy Brueder
• Producer, reissue producer: Frank Collura
• Remastering: Bob Fisher
• Guitar, soloist: Vic Flick
• Art direction, design: Peter Grant
• Orchestra contractor: Sid Margo
• Lyricist: Anthony Newley
• A&R: Gregg Ogorzelec
• Engineer: John Richards
• Saxophone, soloist: John Scott

Aftermath

Following the success of her performance on the title track, Shirley Bassey sang the title songs for two later Bond films, Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and Moonraker (1979). John Barry used the Goldfinger theme on his 1965 John Barry Plays Goldfinger album that featured Robert Brownjohn artwork.

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