The Spy Who Love Me Theme

While “the spy who loved me” was written into the song, “Nobody Does It Better” was the first James Bond theme with lyrics to not have the same title as the film it was paired with.  “Nobody Does It Better” was composed by Marvin Hamlisch with lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager and performed by Carly Simon.

 

 

“Nobody Does It Better” became a great success spending three weeks at number two on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and reaching the top spot on the Easy Listening chart.  It reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart.  It has since landed on several publications’ lists as one of the best Bond themes of all time.  Numerous cover versions have been recorded over the years and the single has also been featured in other films, including Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Lost in Translation, and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.

 

Receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Song, but lost out to “You Light Up My Life.”  In 2004, the American Film Institute included “Nobody Does It Better” at 67 on its 100 Years … 100 Songs list, which catalogued the greatest songs from film of all time.

Marvin Hamlisch, born June 2, 1944, and died August 6, 2012, was an American composer and conductor who was child prodigy, who at the age of 5 began mimicking piano music he heard on the radio.  A few months before his seventh birthday, Hamlisch was accepted into what would is now the Julliard School Pre-College Division.

 

Hamlisch is one of the 12 people to ever win the EGOT, which is an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony.  He is one of only two people, the other being Richard Rogers, to win the EGOT and a Pulitzer Prize.  He is also one of only 10 people to win three or more Oscars in one night and the only one other than a director or screenwriter to do so.  In total, Hamlisch won two Golden Globes, four Emmys, three Oscars, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Soundtrack Awards.  He was also inducted into the Long Island Music and American Theatre halls of fame in 2008.

 

Hamlisch began his musical career as a rehearsal pianist for Funny Girl with Barbra Streisand and was hired to play piano at parties for producer Sam Spiegel.  Early film scores included working with Woody Allen on Take the Money and Run and Bananas.  With a few chart hits in the 1960s, Hamlisch really hit it big in the 1970s after adapting Scott Joplin’s ragtime music for the Paul Newman, Robert Redford Academy Award winning Best Picture The Sting.  Hamlisch’s score included the theme song “The Entertainer,” which hit number one on the Billboards Adult Contemporary chart and number three on the Hot 100.

 

Along with The Sting and The Spy Who Loved Me, other successful film scores included the Academy Award winning The Way We Were, which beat out Paul McCartney and Wings Bond theme song “Live and Let Die,” Ordinary People, Sophie’s Choice, A Chorus Line, Three Men and a Baby, The Informant, and the HBO film Behind the Candelabra.

 

His stage work included playing piano for Groucho Marx in 1972, the 1975 Broadway musical A Chorus Line, for which he won his Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize, and the 1978 musical They’re Playing Our Song, which was loosely based on his relationship with “Nobody Does It Better” lyricist Carole Bayer Sager.

 

Hamlisch was Musical Director and arranger of Barbra Streisand’s 1994 concert tour of the United States and England, as well as of the television special, Barbra Streisand: The Concert, resulting in two Emmy wins.  He also conducted several tours of Linda Ronstadt.  He held the position of Principal Pops Conductor for several orchestras, including the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and Seattle Symphony.  At the time of his death he was preparing to lead the Philadelphia Orchestra.

 

Hamlisch married Terre Blair, a weather and news anchor in Columbus, Ohio, in 1989 and the two remained married until his death.

Carole Bayer Sager (pictured with Hamlisch) is an American lyricist, singer, songwriter, and painter, who was born March 8, 1947.  While still a student at the New York City High School of Music and Art, she wrote “A Groovy Kind of Love” with Toni Wine, which was recorded by the Mindbenders and hit number two on the Billboard magazine Hot 100 chart.  The song was later recorded by Sonny & Cher, Petula Clark, and Phil Collins.

 

Sager wrote many of her 1980s songs with her former husband, composer Burt Bacharach.  She won an Academy Award, Grammy, two Golden Globes, and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame for her contributions to music.  Her songwriting has been recorded by a variety of artists that includes Bette Midler, Dolly Parton, the Doobie Brothers, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, Rod Stewart, Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross, Shirley Bassey, Aretha Franklin, Neil Diamond, Kenny Rogers, and Michael Jackson.

 

Her relationships include a marriage to record-producer Andrew Sager in 1970, but the two were divorced eight years later, a romantic affiliation that never resulted in marriage with Hamlisch, marriage to Bacharach in 1982.  The two adopted a son in 1985, but were divorced in 1991.  Since 1996, Sager has been married to former Warner Brothers chairman and Dodgers CEO Robert Daly.

 

Carly Elisabeth Simon, born June 25, 1945, became famous after recording a string of hit records in the 1970s, but since then she has become a successful children’s author as well.  She started as part of a sister act in the Simon Sisters throughout the 1960s, reaching mild success.  However, after her sister went off to get married and start a family, Simon signed with Elektra Records in 1970.

 

Her self-titled debut solo album won her the Grammy Award for Best New Artists, but it was her album No Secrets in 1972 that made her an international star.  The record sat at number one for five weeks on the Billboard 200.

 

In 1988, Simon became the first artist to win a Grammy, Academy Award, and Golden Globe for a song both written and performed entirely by a single artist, winning with “Let the River Run” from Working Girl.  The only artist to do so since was Bruce Springsteen for “Streets of Philadelphia,” from 1993’s Philadelphia.

 

Throughout Simon’s career, she has had 13 Top 40 U.S. hits, including “You Belong to Me,” “Jesse,” “Mockingbird,” and “You’re So Vain,” 24 Billboard Hot 100 charting singles, and 28 Billboard Adult Contemporary charting singles. She has had four gold-certified singles, three gold-certified albums, four platinum-certified albums and The Best of Carly Simon has been certified three times platinum.

 

Simon was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994, the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2004, and awarded the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers Founders Award in 2012.  She received the Boston Music Awards Lifetime Achievement and an Honorary Doctor of Music Degree from Berklee College of Music.

 

Simon had highly publicized relationships with Cat Stevens, Warren Beatty, Mick Jagger, Kris Kristofferson, and James Taylor, whom she married, throughout her career.  Simon and Taylor had two children, both of whom are now musicians.  She was also engaged, but never wed, to satirist William Donaldson and musician Russ Kunkel.  Simon married poet James Hart in 1987, but the couple divorced in 2007.