Various Come Spy With Us - The Secret Agent Songbook (CD)

These days the cinema is full of rubbish action movies where things blow up improbably and frequently and unfunny romantic comedies that are forgotten as soon as the credits roll. The telly’s not much better, full of “celebrities” whose only real celebrity is that they are famous for … well, you tell us. But it wasn’t always like that.

Once you could take your seat in the one-and-nines and see intelligently plotted thrillers in which a suave hero strove to keep the world safe without blowing half of it up. Or you could switch on the box and watch the exploits of an equally worthy hero for 60 gripping minutes in a series that established many fictitious espionage experts as true celebrities.

“Come Spy With Us” salutes the period in question by bringing together songs and themes from the televisual and cinematic worlds of espionage, paying homage to some of the best – and, we admit, one or two of the worst – TV shows and films of the genre’s golden era. Bulldog Drummond, Boysie Oakes, Harry Palmer, Napoleon Solo, Illya Kuryakin, Matt Helm, Modesty Blaise, John Drake, Maxwell Smart, Amos Burke, Derek Flint and, of course, James Bond are among those whose adventures lit up our lives during the 60s and beyond, usually to a soundtrack that remains as memorable as those adventures. Purchase of this compact disc will allow you to relive, if not their adventures, then certainly their theme tunes – many of which have taken on lives of their own outside of the films and TV shows for which they were commissioned.

The 25 individual episodes in our musical mission run the gamut of popular music, from Motown icons (Miracles, Supremes), jazz instrumental maestros (Wynton Kelly, Jimmy Smith), vocal stylists (Cleo Laine, Sarah Vaughan) and twangy guitar kings (Challengers, Al Caiola, Billy Strange) to emperors of honk (Red Price, Johnny Paris and the Hurricanes), 60s pop goddesses (Nancy, Dusty, Maughan and Bassey) and ace orchestrators (John Barry, Roland Shaw, Brian Fahey).

You don’t have to be a member of any secret organisation in order to “Come Spy With Us”.  Your license to thrill to the 25 selections you will encounter on this mission – should you choose to accept it – will never be revoked. And we absolutely guarantee this CD will NOT self-destruct within 10 seconds of your playing it.

By Tony Rounce