The Bedside Bond & Number One Themes Des Champ, Syd Dale, Tony Newman etc.

The Bedside Bond (1966) & Number One Themes - Decca Singles Compilation (1965-1979) -- Tony Newman, Des Champ, Syd Dale, Neil Ardley, John Shakespeare Orcehestra, Patchwork, Force Ten etc.

The Bedside Bond is one of the strangest and most obscure albums to have emerged from Decca’s schedules during the 1960s. Released in 1966 and produced in association with legendary ‘girlie’ magazine Penthouse, it presented a musical picture of “James Bond as seen through the eyes of the Penthouse Magazine readers,” according to the original LP’s brief sleeve notes. Quite what Penthouse had to do with the big screen’s most famous secret agent, or indeed the Decca Record Company, is anyone’s guess. What is beyond question, though, is that the album comprises first class examples of modern big band jazz, which, as the original LP sleeve note informs us, is performed by “some of the finest jazz musicians in all of England.”

Making up the remainder of this CD is a selection of titles culled from rare and collectable Decca singles. They range from the quirky, synthesiser-laced grooves of jazz composer Neil Ardley’s "Summer Ice" (recorded at the sessions that yielded his 1979 ‘Harmony of the Spheres’ album) and guitarist Rhet Stoller’s "Sapporo" and "Mean" to the full-blooded big band sound of the Syd Dale Orchestra’s "The Hell Raisers". There’s also the straight-down-the-line funk of Tony Newman’s "Soul Thing" (arranged and composed by KPM legend Keith Mansfield) and Force Ten’s "Break a Leg", plus some real oddities such as "Patchwork’s Laughing Sam (on the phone)" that incorporates the rather sinister sound of the ‘Laugh Box’, a toy popular during the 1970s. Also featured are both sides of the John Shakespeare Orchestra’s 1969 Decca single, which contained the hard-hitting "Number One Theme", written for British European Airways’ cinema/TV advert.

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