For Your Eyes Only (soundtrack)

Infobox Album
Name = For Your Eyes Only
Type = soundtrack
Artist = Bill Conti


Released = 1981
Recorded =
Genre =
Length =
Label = EMI
Producer = Frank Collura (Reissue)
Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|3|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=10:4al67ub070jw link]
Last album = "The Formula"
(1980)
This album = "For Your Eyes Only"
(1981)
Next album = "Victory"
(1981)Extra chronology 2
Artist = James Bond soundtrack
Type = Soundtrack
Last album = "Moonraker"
(1979)
This album = "For Your Eyes Only"
(1981)
Next album = "Octopussy"
(1983)

"For Your Eyes Only" is the soundtrack for the 12th James Bond film of the same name.

The theme song was written by Bill Conti (music) and Michael Leeson (lyrics), and performed by Sheena Easton. The song was later nominated for both an Academy Award and Golden Globe in 1982. Easton also made Bond film history as the first (and, to date, only) artist to perform the theme song on-screen during the opening title sequence. Madonna would later one-up Easton by not only singing a Bond film theme song, but also taking a cameo role, in the film "Die Another Day" in 2002, though she remained uncredited. The popularity of the song "For Your Eyes Only", and Easton's film appearance, are credited with establishing the artist as a star in North America; she had already been popular in her native UK for at least a year prior to the film's release.

Originally, the band Blondie was approached to write and perform the theme song for the film. They produced a song also called "For Your Eyes Only" that they turned in to the producers, however, this was never used and Easton and Conti were subsequently asked to record an entirely new theme. Blondie eventually released their song on the 1982 album "The Hunter". The track "Make It Last All Night", performed by Rage and used for the scene at hitman Gonzales' Spanish poolside, is notable for lyrics more suggestive even than the raunchiest Bond title track (arguably, "The Man with the Golden Gun").

The soundtrack was composed by Bill Conti, since the series' regular composer, John Barry, was unable to work in the UK for tax reasons (he, like many high earning Britons, had become a tax exile in the 1970s). Barry had recommended Conti as a possible alternative. Conti's score is notable for its use of disco elements. The main ski chase sequence (the track "Runaway"), Conti showed that he had versed himself in the previous Bond films' music, as his manages to evoke memories of the music from previous ski action in both "OHMSS" and "The Spy Who Loved Me". This, Conti's only contribution to the series to date, was released as an album concurrent with the film's release and later on a bootleg compact disc in combination with John Barry's music from "Octopussy". When the soundtrack was officially released on CD in the year 2000, six bonus tracks were added that further showed Conti's versatile approach to the film, aiding the production in its return to a tougher, more realistic James Bond. Not released but also heard in the film is a brief homage to John Williams' familiar theme from "Jaws", when an unseen underwater horror (it is revealed to be an attacker in a J.I.M. diving suit) approaches within the sunken ship. This was the third Bond film in a row to wittily include familiar music from a classic film.

Track listing

#"For Your Eyes Only" – Sheena Easton
#"A Drive in the Country"
#"Take Me Home" – Flügelhorn solo: Eddie Blair
#"Melina's Revenge"
#"Gonzales Takes a Dive" [In the remastered version, the track is misspelled "Gonzales Takes a Drive".]
#"St. Cyril's Monastery"
#"Make It Last All Night" – Rage
#"Runaway"
#"Submarine"
#"For Your Eyes Only (Instrumental)" – Flügelhorn solo: Derek Watkins
#"Cortina"
#"The P.M. Gets the Bird/For Your Eyes Only – Reprise" – Sheena Easton
#"Gunbarrel/Flowers for Teresa/Sinking the St. Georges"
#"Unfinished Business/Bond Meets Kristatos"
#"Ski...Shoot...Jump..."
#"Goodbye, Countess/No Head for Heights/Dining Alone"
#"Recovering the ATAC"
#"Sub vs. Sub"
#"Run Them Down/The Climb"

References