It’s generally believed that the Hitchcock movie North By Northwest with Cary Grant influenced the development of the James Bond movies. After the first Bond movie Dr. No proved to be such a hugely successful hit, in 1963 Cary Grant, almost 60, was featured in a less physical spy movie called Charade.
Henry Mancini wrote the Charade score and Andy Williams sang the theme song. Compare this to Matt Monro singing the theme to From Russia With Love, also from 1963.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/MAR07/Charade.mp3]Nice, huh? Well, here’s a Russian duo performing a decidedly different version of “Charade” at a rowdy German club last year. That’s Zombie Girl playing bass.
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Mancini wrote so many famous theme songs in the 50s and 60s, he could have just have well written Ringo’s famous utterance at the end of “Helter Skelter:” “I got blisters on my fingers!” Where do we start? The lovely music for Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney in “Two for the Road,” “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” (oh, there’s Audrey again!), the “Days of Wine and Roses,” “The Pink Panther,” and the “Thorn Birds.” I had my friend Karen play that last right before I walked up the aisle to marry Tom, because my boss liked it, she was there, and I liked it, too! Of course, he wrote the theme to “Mr. Lucky,” the TV version, which starred our mother’s friend and mentor John Vivyan, but the show only lasted four episodes! Still, it’s a snappy tune. Mancini also wrote the love theme from Franco Zeffereli’s “Romeo and Juliet” back in 1968, not to mention, “The Molly Maguires,” which was a surprise to me, until I was searching Napster for the former tune! Best advice? Check out the old imdb.com or some other music website! The list probably goes on forever.