In September 1964, the Bond movie of all Bond movies made its world premiere in London. Regarded these days as the best of the bunch, 007: Goldfinger was first to home in on the franchise’s now-familiar formula, offering more gadgets, flashier spectacle, smarter humor, and a killer theme song.
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Directed by Guy Hamilton, Goldfinger boasts an unshakable 99% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the highest-rated movie in the 27-film series that spans more than six decades, a dozen directors, and several Bonds. More broadly, it’s also been named one of the greatest thrillers of all time, landing at No. 71 on the American Film Institute’s definitive list. That’s good. Really good.
View this post on InstagramMuch of the film’s success is owed to its dapper star.
Riding the momentum of the global praise spawned by 1962’s Dr. No and 1963’s From Russia With Love, Sean Connery hit peak charm, confidence, and physical presence in Goldfinger. As the man behind the wheel of the newly introduced Aston Martin DB5, Connery transformed Bond from Ian Fleming‘s standard literary spy into a tech-forward cultural icon, all while masterfully delivering witty one-liners and sporting Conduit Cut three-piece suits.
The film’s music was another major player.
The title track for Goldfinger, performed by Dame Shirley Bassey, helped set the template for the modern James Bond theme song, shifting from previous instrumental motifs to bombastic pop theatricality that artists from Tina Turner and Adele to Duran Duran and Billie Eilish would later follow.
Composed by John Barry, “Goldfinger” is a massive orchestral masterpiece with an oxygen-depriving final note only someone with Bassey’s vocals could pull off. Hamilton initially instructed him to come up with a “dirty and gritty” theme song.
“It’s a song about a villain,” Barry told NPR’s Fresh Air in 1999. “Songs about villains are very rare. And then I thought of Kurt Weill’s ‘Mack the Knife,’ which is the definitive song about a villain. So I got my head on right, sat down, and wrote this rather strange melody based on the word Goldfinger as the opening line. And then I thought, Well, who can write the lyrics to this?”
He called on Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse, the duo behind the songbook of the 1961 musical Stop the World, I Want to Get Off, to pen the lyrics and Bassey to sing them: “Shirley has this one thing,” he said, “she has such conviction about what she does.”
According to Abbey Road, Bassey’s recording session went all night, with the singer reportedly having to sing the song repeatedly to get the performance Barry wanted. Reports also shared that the famously gigantic final note nearly did her in.
“There was a funny moment when J.B. told her, ’That last note isn’t long enough. You’ve got to keep going on it,’” guitarist Vic Flick told Guitar Player. “So Shirley slipped behind a studio partition, took her bra off, and threw it over the top of the partition. She said, ‘OK, let’s take this last note again.’”
But it was all worth it. The theme song was a hit.
Earning both awards recognition and chart success, the song reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1965, with the soundtrack climbing all the way to No. 1 on the Billboard 200. It spent three weeks at the top and 70 total weeks on the chart.
The song also earned Barry his first Grammy nomination for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media (Includes Film and Television). He’d later win for his musical contributions to films including Midnight Cowboy, Out of Africa, and Dances With Wolves.
“Goldfinger” also went on to inspire more than 20 cover versions, with notable renditions from Blondie in 1977 and Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers in 2009. More importantly, though, Bassey and Barry’s signature hit set the template for the huge, brassy Bond themes that followed, essentially making the Bond song almost as important as Bond himself.
Revisiting Goldfinger is more poignant now than ever, as the franchise is preparing to write its next chapter. Following Daniel Craig’s tenure as Bond, the identity of the next 007 has yet to be officially announced. However, recent comments from Slow Horses star Gary Oldman suggest the decision may already have been made.
Whoever eventually inherits the role will have a daunting task of stepping into a character whose cinematic legacy was forever changed when Connery arrived in Goldfinger.
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