"The More Things Change: Film, TV & Studio Work 1968-1972" by JOHN BARRY - Including All But One-Track of the February 1970 LP "Ready When You Are, J.B. - John Barry Plays His Great Movie Hits" on CD for the first time Plus Eleven Other Rare 45 and LP Sides (March 2022 UK Ace Records CD Compilation of Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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"...Ready When You Are..."

 

Be still my beating heart and calm down you nincompoop of yesteryear.

 

When I saw this compilation on the advance schedules of Ace Records, I knew I had to own it. I've been a lifetime fan of Mr. Prendergast and his fantastic Soundtrack/TV Music (John Barry to you) and this is the kind of CD and archival release that gets me weak in my already knackered knees.

 

And I am thrilled to say that "The More Things Change: Film, TV & Studio Work 1968-1972" by JOHN BARRY has kept up its side of the lustful digital bargain – great tracks, gorgeous sound and world-class annotation from BOB STANLEY – friend to the common man and recently contacted by The Vatican to fill in a Sainthood Application Form. To the sinful details...

 

UK released Friday 25 March 2022 - "The More Things Change: Film, TV & Studio Work 1968-1972" by JOHN BARRY on Ace Records CDTOP 1615 (Barcode 029667105323) is a 22-Track CD Compilation of Remasters that plays out as follows (65:56 minutes):

 

Side 1:

1. Midnight Cowboy [Side 1]

2. We Have All The Time in The World

3. Theme From 'Romance For Guitar And Orchestra' from "Deadfall"

4. Who Will Buy My Yesterdays

5. Fun City

6. The Lion In Winter – Part 1

7. On Her Majesty's Secret Service

8. Theme From "The Appointment"

9. Try

10. The More Things Change

11. Afternoon

NOTES on the LP:

Tracks 1 to 11 make up all but the last track of the February 1970 UK LP "Ready When You Are, J.B. - John Barry Plays His Great Movie Hits" on CBS Records 63592 (Columbia CS 1003 in the USA). The missing last song on Side 2 was his re-recording of "Born Free" from the 1967 CBS LP "John Barry Conducts His Greatest Movie Hits", but Ace have excluded it as the song is readily available elsewhere – overdone even. 

 

Tracks 3, 4, 8, 10 and 11 were exclusive to the "Ready When... " LP, the other cuts being previously issued 45-single sides. Details as follows:

Track 1 is an August 1969 UK 45-single on CBS Records 4468, A-side, Instrumental – see also Track 5 for the B-side

Track 2 is a November 1969 UK 45-single on CBS Records 4680, Instrumental B-side of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service") – see also Track 7 for the A-side

Track 5 is an August 1969 UK 45-single on CBS Records 4468, Instrumental B-side of "Midnight Cowboy") – for A-side see Track 1

Track 6 is January 1969 UK 45-single on CBS Records 3935, A-side

Track 7 a November 1969 UK 45-single on CBS Records 4680, Instrumental A-side  – see also Track 2 for the B-side

Track 9 is from the November 1969 Original Soundtrack Recording LP to "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" on United Artists UAS 29020 in Stereo

 

BONUSES: 

12. A Little Old-Fashioned Nostalgia

13. Theme From "The Persuaders"

14. Petulia

15. Theme From "Walkabout"

16. Follow Follow

17. Diamonds Are Forever [1972 Instrumental Remake]

18. Highway 101

19. The Adventurer (Theme From The TV Series)

20. This Way Mary

21. The Children

22. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland Suite

NOTES

Tracks 12, 14 and 18 are from the 1968 US LP "Petulia – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" on Warner Brothers/Seven Arts Records WS 1755 in Stereo (no UK issue)

Track 13 is a September 1971 UK 45-single on CBS Records 7469, A-side – the B-side is "The Girl With The Sun In Her Hair" (1971 Version) and is not on this compilation

Tracks 15 and 21 recorded 1970, but the October 1971 film soundtrack to "Walkabout" was never released on vinyl anywhere. Original mastertapes found and reissued December 2016 in Australia onto CD by Roundtable Records on The Roundtable PM001CD

Tracks 19 and 16 are the A&B-sides of a September 1972 UK 45-single on Polydor 2058-275 (note, 19 is the A-side, 16 the B)

Tracks 20 and 17 are the A&B-sides of a May 1972 UK 45-single on Polydor 2058-216 (note, 20 is the A-side, 17 the B)

Track 22 is a Suite of 7:05 minutes exclusive to the 1972 UK LP "The Concert John Barry" on Polydor 2383 156

 

Ace has smartly centred this CD around the brilliant and completely forgotten February 1970 compilation LP "Ready When You Are, J.B. - John Barry Plays His Great Movie Hits" (pictured on the last page of the booklet). As explained above in the NOTES, it had 12 tracks and all except "Born Free" are here.

 

When I reviewed the October 2016 Sony/Legacy budget-priced 3CD compilation "The Real…John Barry", I outlined in the review that it contains all of that album barring one song "We Have All The Time In The World" – which Ace has included here for the first time (a real highlight it is too, probably the best on the entire disc). Not so smartly in my opinion – they have left off the last song on Side 2 – the remake of "Born Free" which frustratingly is on "The Real…John Barry" 3CD set.

 

But back to the album - "Ready When You Are, J.B...." is a forgotten and lost nugget from the decade's first year that rarely ever gets mentioned outside of Soundtrack circles. But as a musical and evocative listen, it's practically flawless and along with its new 1969 re-recordings of film themes, it also offers other exclusive JB tracks like "The More Things Change" and "Afternoon" that aren't on anything else. "Fun City" and the organ-driven Part 1 of "Lion In Winter" will also thrill smoking-jacket lounge-music lizards as they shimmy across the lush pile to that air stewardess they met on the Rothmans advert shoot.

 

There was a US-Only CD release of the album in 1998 on Columbia Special Products/Peg Recordings PEG043 (Barcode 706404004322) but it's been deleted decades now and was at times attracting prices in excess of $150. So Ace Records of the UK has done well here in March 2022. Tracks like "Theme From Romance For Guitar And Orchestra" literally swoop and preen across your living room with all that John Barry soundscape gorgeousness - Remastered beautifully by Audio Engineer NICK ROBBINS - the chunes accompanied by truly superb liner notes (20-pages of them) from big-time fan BOB STANLEY. Loving those foreign picture sleeves too for "Midnight Cowboy" with Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman and "The Persuaders" TV show with Roger Moore and Tony Curtis. Very cool.

 

Smart choices go to the inclusion of the A&B-sides of two rare 45s from 1972 on Polydor that are very hard-to-find and pricey JB rarities – the Mary Queen Of Scots based "This Way Mary" with the re-recorded synth-punching version of "Diamonds Are Forever" on the flipside. The other is the ITC TV show theme "The Adventurer" with its exclusive "Follow Follow" B-side. There are also three from the underrepresented "Petulia – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" and those two cuts from the uber-rare "Walkabout" Soundtrack will be new to anyone who didn’t invest in The Roundtable CD put out exclusively in Australia.

 

I love this CD and if ever an artist deserved a pronto Volumes 2 and 3, then John Barry Prendergast is that dapper chap. Fantastically good and one of my Reissues of the Year 2022 – in with a bullet from an Ipcress File...