The tracks on "Ready When You Are JB" were re-recorded exclusively for that recording and conducted by the composer.

victoravalentine, May 29, 2008; 7:04 PM

Thanks Knives so the tracks from 'Ready When You Are J.B.' have not materialised on a comp like 'The Music Of John Barry?

dljmann, May 29, 2008; 9:17 PM

Broadly speaking (without going back to the CDs and various literature I have), it is possible to break John Barry's early recording career down into segments:

Up to 1963: EMI (and various subsidiary labels) - so you will find his pre film score music, such as The John Barry Seven, Adam Faith recordings here
1963-65: Ember - there are numerous re-releases of material from this short period, often taking OST material from Zulu, Elizabeth Taylor in London and Four In The Morning, but there are some original recordings too (such as cover versions of From Russia With Love and 007 Theme)
1965-71: CBS (Columbia) - John Barry produced three albums in this period, though there were some duplications of tracks (such as the aforementioned Ready When You Are, J.B. (the third album) included Born Free from the first and second albums). All the album tracks and most of the 45rpm tracks have been released on CDs over the years with numerous duplications. You will need the 4CD collection Themependium for several of the very rare tracks. A further album was released in 1971 to capitalise on his theme from The Persuaders! but this was a compilation, albiet it did include the two themes from Vendetta not previously on album releases.
1971-76: Polydor under which he produced three albums and a few extra tracks. The first was The Concert John Barry (produced to capitalise on his appearance at the Filmharmonic 72 concert with the RPO) and so all the recordings were, once again, new; Play It Again which included a few well known themes (in completely new arrangements) but mostly newer material; and finally Americans - a non-film score album. Again, all of the Play-It-Again material has appeared on various compilations, along with a few of The Concert tracks; none of the Americans' material has appeared on legitimate CD - yet!

Now most CD compilations release material from one of the labels but there are exceptions, such as Themependium and Lounge Legends which licensed music from different labels.

As for OST v. rerecorded versions, basically you can assume that material released on any of these labels is different from the OST recordings - but there are exceptions.

For example, Wednesday's Child is a CBS/Columbia rerecording but it also found on the OST of The Quiller Memorandum as track 1, pushing the Main Title theme to track 6. Similarly the recent re-issue of The Chase OST now includes the CBS rerecorded versions as bonus tracks.

But to clarify, all of the 007 material recorded across all four labels (from The James Bond Theme under EMI to Diamonds Are Forever under Polydor) are different recordings to the OSTs. Similarly, the Alice suite on The Concert John Barry is a different recording to the OST tracks. The CBS rerecording of Theme from Romance For Guitar And Orchestra is exactly that, and is significantly different from the OST Romance.

I can assure you that there are no definitive releases of each label's releases but would point you in the direction of The Music Of John Barry (CBS) and The Best Of John Barry (Polydor) as good starting points for each of those two labels. The Polydor one does include all of the known Play-It-Again material.

I have avoided mentioning his post 1976 recordings and those issued by, say, Silva Screen which are rerecordings with new arrangements and conductors.

Mitch, May 30, 2008; 7:16 AM

On this specific point:
"... so the tracks from 'Ready When You Are J.B.' have not materialised on a comp like 'The Music Of John Barry?"

it is quite the opposite. Of the 12 tracks on the original vinyl album, 6 appear on the compilation CD The Music Of John Barry. WHATTITW, Fun City and The More Things Change can be found on other compliations but for WWBMY?, Try and Afternoon you will need either the rare CD release of the album or Themependium.

Mitch, May 30, 2008; 7:23 AM

Thanks for the very insightful statement, Mitch!

coma, May 30, 2008; 2:27 PM

Thank you Mitch for taking the time to detail my question in depth. It does seem that I have the bulk of these re-recordings spread across various comps I have picked up on both vinyl & Cd over the years. Recently I bought a comp called 'Very Best Of' (Polydor) on vinyl which I have submitted for inclusion on the data base and includes 'strip drive' & 'excerpt from yesternight suite'. The cover features a blonde model in pink dress pointing a gun. Once again, thank you Mitch.

Dominic



dljmann, May 30, 2008; 7:31 PM

Hi,

"...Recently I bought a comp called 'Very Best Of' (Polydor) on vinyl which I have submitted for inclusion on the data base and includes 'strip drive' & 'excerpt from yesternight suite'. The cover features a blonde model in pink dress pointing a gun...."

I know the album very well - I bought it on its release in the late 1970s and it may still be boxed away in the garage.

I remember that I particularly liked the Diamonds Are Forever and A Doll's House tracks which I had not heard previously.

Thank you for the kind replies - happy listening!

Mitch, May 31, 2008; 6:47 AM

Geoff Leonard's site surely has the answers you are looking for:-)

thomas.scallan, June 17, 2008; 8:24 PM

No, Thomas, unfortunately Geoff's site, which was the first place I visited, did not fully answer my query as his site does not contain a Discography only a Filmography.

Thanks
Dominic

dljmann, June 17, 2008; 10:12 PM

Yes, we saved the discography for the book, since it's about 40-pages long! Unfortunately hardly anybody has bought it!

geoff, February 7, 2009; 4:38 PM