1992 Shirley Bassey recorded a full CD of James Bond songs back in 1992, and this is one of the tracks. It's unfortunate, but the synthesized musical arrangements were of poor quality, and Shirley decided to pull some musical muscle after only a few CDs were sold and she was able to stop the producers from selling any more of this CD.
Most all of Bassey's recordings are recorded with full quality orchestra accompanyment. The way most tracks are nowadays recorded is that the artist records the vocals at a separate time and the actual music is added at a later date. This works most of the time, but after Shirley listened to the completed package, she was shocked at the results. Whether she originally understood what the producers had intended we will never know, but in the end Shirley won the arguement and the CD was taken off the market. With that said, Shirley's vocals come shining through on this cover that her good friend, Tom Jones, recorded for the movie, 'Thunderball'. I hope that the listeners will get past what Shirley is already aware of regarding the poor musical accompanyment, and just listen to her great vocals on one of the greatest John Barry Bond songs, ever.
Special Thanks to Pieter and Astrid from the Shirley Bassey blog and all those who have provided wonderful pictures of Shirley!
