Shirley Bassey - Our Time Is Now / John Barry (Tribute Medley)

1963-2009 (John Barry Medley - A Tribute to a Great Composer)

Message From Dame Shirley Bassey:
"I was very sorry to hear of the death of my old friend John Barry, who was responsible for me singing the Bond songs Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker. He most recently wrote a song for my latest CD The Performance -- it was a beautiful ballad, Our Time Is Now. The world has lost a most gifted man. My thoughts and my prayers are with his family"

This clip includes twelve songs which John Barry was either sole, or co-composer/writer, and they are just a small example of the wonderful songs he wrote. John collaborated with some of the best in the industry, including Leslie Bricusse, Anthony Newley, Don Black, Tim Rice, Hal David and many others.

The first song on this clip, Our Time Is Now, is the last song that John Barry wrote for Dame Shirley Bassey, and this track was included on her 2009 CD titled, 'The Performance.' It is a beautiful song and clearly shows the Barry and Bassey collaborative team, both in their 70's, are simply the best!

Some of these tracks sung by Bassey are extremely rare as only a few copies of the CD were released before she had the producers take the product off the market. Shirley, the perfectionist, was not happy with the electronic musical accompanyment, but I'm sure under these circumstances as a tribute she would not quibble when they are included in the form of a tribute medley to her good friend, John Barry. What also is crystal clear is that Bassey's huge, brassy, sassy, booming voice shines through regardless of any lack of good orchestrations anyway. And, when one of the greatest composers of the last 60 years meets one of the greatest vocalists of the last 60 years, it's a musical collaborative match made in heaven!

Songs Included:
Our Time is Now
Goldfinger
Diamonds Are Forever
Moonraker
From Russia With Love
My Love Has Two Faces (Deadfall)
You Only Live Twice
A View To A Kill
All Time High
We Have All The Love In The World
Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Thunderball

ABOUT John Barry:
John Barry Prendergast, OBE (3 November 1933 -- 30 January 2011) was an Oscar winning English film score composer. He was best known for composing 11 James Bond soundtracks and was hugely influential on the musical style of the 007 series, along with the general feeling of the films.

In a career spanning almost 50 years, Barry received numerous awards for his work, including five Academy Awards; two for Born Free, and one each for The Lion in Winter (for which he also won a BAFTA Award), Out of Africa and Dances with Wolves (for which he also won a Grammy Award) and the theme of Somewhere in Time (1980) (Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Original Score - Motion Picture)

Awards and nominationsFive Academy Awards

1966 Best Original Song for "Born Free" from Born Free1966 Best Original Music Score for Born Free
1968 Best Original Music Score for a Motion Picture (not a Musical) for The Lion in Winter
1985 Best Original Score for Out of Africa
1990 Best Original Score for Dances with Wolves

Academy Award nominations
1971 Best Original Dramatic Score for Mary, Queen of Scots
1992 Best Original Score for Chaplin

Grammy Award
1969 Best Instrumental Theme for Midnight Cowboy
1985 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band for The Cotton Club
1986 Best Instrumental Composition for Out of Africa
1991 Best Instrumental Composition Written For A Motion Picture Or For Television for Dances with Wolves
2008 - The song, Goldfinger Inducted into Grammy Hall of Fame

BAFTA Award
1968 Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music for The Lion in Winter

BAFTA Fellowship Award - 2005

BAFTA nominations
1986 Best Score for Out of Africa
1991 Best Original Score for Dances with Wolves

Emmy Award nominations
1964 Outstanding Achievement in Composing Original Music for Television for Elizabeth Taylor in London (a 1963 television special)
1977 Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition for a Special (Dramatic Underscore) for Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years
Max Steiner Lifetime Achievement Award (presented by the City of Vienna)

2009 - Lifetime Achievement Award from World Soundtrack Academy (presented at the Ghent Film Festival)

John Barry was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1998.