John Barry and Monty Norman
James Bond Theme

Board said on Sunday, 28 April 2013:
The dispute with the James Bond theme is that Monty Norman claims that he wrote ALL of it. John Barry has always said that they used part of "Bad sign, good sign" and combined it with other things.
If you listen to the rest of the "Dr. No" soundtrack, written by Monty Norman, there's not a single song that sounds remotely like "James Bond theme". Yes, Norman wrote the melody for the famous guitar riff, but he claims that he wrote the ENTIRE song, and that John Barry was just hired to arrange it. Except for the famous guitar riff, the rest of the song, the style, and the arrangement is definitely Barry's.
If you listen to Barry's music from 2-4 years earlier, as well as 5 years later, it ALL sounds like "James Bond theme". Read more about one of the lawsuits here:
http://www.jollinger.com/barry/lawsuit.htm

Then have a listen to the style of for instance "Bee's Knees" by Barry (from 1958, four years before "James Bond theme"):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_IF2JBhwPE


Also give this one a listen. It's a comparison of Barry's and Norman's work in "James Bond theme":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jjywVmz2EI

My opinion, based on what I've read, is the same as many others: Monty Norman is infatuated with himself and cannot accept that he wasn't able to write a proper theme and had to be replaced by Barry. He's claiming he wrote the ENTIRE theme (Barry has never claimed that he didn't use "Bad sign, good sign), which seems to be simply untrue.

Chris Read said on Wednesday, 26 September 2012:
I thought it would be useful to give a little background on this track to put the entry in context. Commentary on these releases indicates that Norman originally wrote 'Bad Sign, Good Sign' for a stage musical some years before the first James Bond movie. The musical was ultimately shelved and the melody re-used for the James Bond theme, arranged by John Barry (Writing credit for the James Bond theme has been the subject of legal action, courts ruling that Norman wrote the melody despite testimony from Barry to the contrary). Years later Norman made a recording of his original track 'Bad Sign, Good Sign' available.