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In Praise of Herb Alpert's Kick-Ass Theme Song

posted 13 years ago by ecarle
11 replies | jump to latest

Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass are a classic relic of the 60's...almost all their hits were instrumental and driven by the handsome Alpert's trumpet playing(save Alpert's strained but sweet rendition of Bacharach's "This Guy's In Love With You.") Thanks to "The Dating Game" and "The Newlywed Game" and every spoof of them ever since, songs like "Tijuana Taxi" and "Whipped Cream" -- however jaunty and saucy in their time -- are camp jokes now.

But not "Casino Royale."

Herb Alpert's instrumental of "Casino Royale" was written by Burt Bacharach, played by Alpert and his band, but backed with (I think) a bigger orchestra and orchestrated by Bacharach and Alpert to make sure that the song could "legitimately" be considered part of the James Bond experience(even if, famously, "Casino Royale" was a one-off not made off the Saltzman-Broccoli Assembly line.)

I love everything about Herb Alpert's "Casino Royale":

The way it kicks off with an explosion of trumpets...and then quiets down to a slow, slinky, "Pink Panther" like build up...back to excitement.

The way how, in about the middle, it takes the earlier "slinky" section and pushes it hard into a kind of back-and-forth, back-and-forth, back-and-forth rhythm that just gets more and more exciting and "muscular"...as how any great big action movie should feel.

And then it just about goes berserk with excitement in the final third, Herb and the brass put everything into it and then...

...it slows back down and most of the brass goes away and only Herb's lonely trumpet is there to take the excitement level down, quietly down, almost over...and out, on a final note.

(I daresay, the effect is rather like the "comedown" after sexual climax, yes?And this "Casino Royale" is a very sexual movie for its time.)

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There are lyrics to Casino Royale and some guy sings them over the end credits and they're not that good:

"They're fighting for their lives...with guns...and knives...at Casino Royale."

Nope. Go for the instrumental or go for nothing at all.

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Herb Alpert's "Casino Royale" is a kick-ass trumpet-rocker of movie credit music, but even it hasn't survived a certain "camp" quality, if only for the sheer crazy exuberance of the piece.

A few years back on "Saturday Night Live," with guest host NFL Quarterback Peyton Manning, they had a sketch about a football coach at halftime in the dressing room trying to get his downcast team motivated...by playing "Herb Alpert's Casino Royale" on a tape player. One by one...led by Manning..the players got up and shimmied and shaked and finger wagged to Alpert's infection brass...until the team members practically conga-lined out of the dressing room together to "Casino Royale."

And I recently saw a comedian -- live -- whose warm-up music before he came out was "Herb Alpert's Casino Royale."

Not bad...45 years after the song came out, "Herb Alpert's Casino Royale" is still a played tune.

And a lot better than the movie it is in!

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] Blueghost 12 years ago

It's a great piece of music.

[–] oscarunger 12 years ago

although I find that song, "The Look Of Love", to be rather insipid.

sacrilege! that song is a classic! as well as most of burts 60's output...the 70's might not hold up to that level but still, the man is a genius

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] [email protected] 12 years ago

I was surprised to find a vocal version of the bluesy tune at the beginning of the movie's Berlin scene, on a YouTube clip from the 'Adam Adamant Lives!' tv series...of course now I can't find it to link to it.

[–] spookyrat1 12 years ago

IMO still the best part of the movie, along with the prologue in the pissoir (with the convent girls in the background) and the credits themselves. I don't know which of the "6" directors was responsible for contracting Herb...but his music complemented the chaotic nature of the film perfectly.

[–] domester82 9 years ago

The music is by far the best thing about this film (especially The Look of Love)

[–] kevin-bergin 9 years ago

The version WITHOUT the lyrics only.

"It's the system, Lara. People will be different after the Revolution."

[–] HugeDaiCottermee 9 years ago

I love this music and the song is good too.

[–] thbryn (231) 3 years ago

Alpert did a great job. Casino Royale is a classic.

[–] christomacin (4676) 3 years ago

"Casino Royale" is a very sexual movie for its time.

Only in the '60s could you get away with starting a movie in a children's playground with two grown men showing each other their "credentials". Also, there was a sly reference to the carpet beater ball spanking scene that was in Fleming's novel and eventually made it into the version with Daniel Craig. Sellers (if I remember correctly) leaps up from a chair he's sitting in and another character says something like, "Don't worry, there's no hole in the chair!". I suspect both of those moments went right by a lot of people back in 1967.

I agree the theme and the song "The Look of Love" are both excellent. The film, of course, is a train wreck. The ONLY part of the film that works for me is the Mata Hari/East Berlin sequence. It should have been a film in it's own right.