Hit & Miss (Juke Box Jury), Beat Girl (Main Title), Beat for Beatniks (film - Never Let Go), The Challenge (album - Stringbeat), The Aggressor, Spinneree, Satin Smooth, The James Bond Theme (film - Dr. No), Human Jungle (TV theme - alternative version), Theme From The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, Tears, The Party's Over (from the film of the same name), Cutty Sark (TV theme - Dateline), March of the Mandarins (single B side), Onward Christian Spaceman (single B side), Human Jungle (TV theme), Goldfinger (title song - Shirley Bassey), Qublie Ca (single B side), Seven Faces, Séance on a Wet Afternoon (alternative version of main theme to the film of the same name), Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (song from Thunderball - Shirley Bassey), Born Free (title song - Matt Monro), Midnight Cowboy, Diamonds are Forever (title song - Shirley Bassey), That Fatal Kiss (film - A View to a Kill)   Along with John Williams and Ennio Morricone, John Barry must be the most currently anthologised film composer, so the question is, does this new collection have anything to particularly recommend it over the many other seemingly similar albums on the market. Well yes, it certainly does. The first thing one will notice is that this disc is very nicely packaged. The artwork is intelligently designed and particularly well printed, and the 12 page insert booklet comes with notes of a superior pedigree, being by Geoff Leonard and Pete Walker, co-authors of the excellent John Barry: A Life in Music. Additionally there are pristine reproductions of various photographs of Barry, and of several now rare original LP sleeves. Next comes a matter of the sound quality. It is generally superb, even on the earliest tracks, dating from 40 years ago. There is barely a hint of tape hiss, yet neither is there any sign of the top-end being 'rolled off' to clean-up the sound. The stereo images are strong, instruments richly detailed and clear with only the briefest most occasional hints of distortion. Ironically, 'Satin Smooth' sounds a little rough in comparison to the other tracks, but is still very good, while 'Qublie Ca' and 'Séance on a Wet Afternoon' are bold to the point of being harsh. 'Midnight Cowboy', one of the latest tracks, surprisingly has perhaps the poorest sound. The music consists of 25 tracks, from 'Hit & Miss' (1960), Barry's first hit single, and the theme to the hugely popular BBC TV show, Juke Box Jury, through to 'That Fatal Kiss', the love theme from Roger Moore's final James Bond film, A View to a Kill (1985). That said, this last track is rather out on a limb from the later years of Barry's career, the most recent of the remaining tracks being the title song from Diamonds are Forever (1971), performed by Shirley Bassey. For all but the most dedicated Barry fan, this disc will probably prove a mix of the familiar and unknown. Several of the usual compilation album suspects are present: 'The James Bond Theme', 'Goldfinger', 'Born Free' and 'Midnight Cowboy' being virtually guaranteed to appear on any Barry anthology. However, there are less of these famous standards than usual, much of the disc being devoted to John Barry Seven singles (A and B sides) and less familiar film tracks from such movies as Beat Girl (the first British film to have a soundtrack album release). The lush romantic sound of later John Barry is absent. This is jazzy John Barry, with track after track of quirky tunefulness and idiosyncratically brilliant band or orchestral arrangements fusing pop, rock and roll, MOR, swing and an ear for instantly catchy melody into a revolutionary new music. Whether or not, as the booklet claims, John Barry is Britain's greatest film composer, the evidence is here to convincingly argue that he is true genius of popular music. While the 'main title' from Beat Girl would have been at home in the world of Gerry Anderson, 'Beat for Beatniks' with it's menacing brass, repeated piano riff and bold jazz swagger, could easily have laid a groove for 007. 'The Challenge' sounds (as the booklet points out) like a theme in search of a film, and the following single and album tracks all display the invention which so characterised Barry's writing in the 60's. This is a vibrant, colourful album, full of fun, wit, and verve, just sometimes touched by the melancholy which would increasingly define Barry's later work. No matter how many times you have the more famous tracks, this disc is virtually essential for such striking rarities as 'Spinneree', 'The Party's Over' and 'Seven Faces'. This is Barry at his early best, and as good a Barry anthology as any currently available. Reviewer Gary S. Dalkin	Reviewer Gary S. Dalkin Reviews from previous months Reviews carry sales links but you can also purchase from:
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