‘Run James Run’: The Beach Boys track Brian Wilson intended as a James Bond theme
Film and music have gone hand-in-hand since the very early days of the silver screen, but some of cinema’s most iconic musical moments have come from the James Bond franchise. From the beginning of the beloved series back in the 1960s, the Bond themes have been almost as important to the franchise as the films themselves, leading countless artists to develop dreams of recording their own James Bond themes. One such artist was Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys, who tried their hand at a Bond theme during their creative peak.
The Beach Boys helped to define the sounds of the 1960s, thanks largely to the groundbreaking songwriting stylings of Brian Wilson. Their early days evoking the rock and roll of Chuck Berry and the blossoming world of California surfing soon gave way to profound explorations of pop, with 1966’s Pet Sounds being the band’s magnum opus. One of the most iconic albums of all time, Pet Sounds forever changed the lineage of pop and rock, paving the way for virtually all future concept albums and experimental pop efforts, which continued throughout the rest of the 1960s and beyond.
At the same time that The Beach Boys were dominating the pop landscape, James Bond was dominating the silver screen. It was in 1962 that audiences were first introduced to Sean Connery as James Bond in Dr. No, and the stylish, womanising spy quickly became one of the decade’s defining cultural trends. Subsequent films like Goldfinger and Thunderball only reaffirmed that position, bringing Bond onto the radar of audiences everywhere, including songwriter Brian Wilson.
As a musician, Wilson became infatuated with the music of Bond, and those influences quickly bled into his own work. In fact, Pet Sounds originated as a failed attempt at a Bond theme. The album’s title track, an instrumental song evoking the influence of exotica and easy listening music, began its life as a potential Bond theme entitled ‘Run James Run’.
“It was supposed to be a James Bond theme type of song,” Wilson shared in the 1996 book The Making of Pet Sounds. “We were gonna try to get it to the James Bond people. But we thought it would never happen, so we put it on the album.” The instrumental then formed the basis of Pet Sounds, and went on to alter the musical landscape forever. However, Wilson retained his love of the James Bond franchise and its ever-expanding musical repertoire.
During his 2016 memoir, Wilson recalled developing ‘Run James Run’, “I loved Thunderball, which had come out the year before, and I loved listening to composers like Henry Mancini, who did these cool themes for shows like Peter Gunn, and Les Baxter, who did all these big productions that sounded sort of like Phil Spector productions.”
The Bond film, which followed Thunderball, which might have featured ‘Run James Run’ if Wilson and The Beach Boys had submitted it to the filmmakers, was You Only Live Twice. Instead of Wilson, the film was one of the multiple early Bond films to have its soundtracked composed by veteran film composer John Barry, and featured Nancy Sinatra as its key vocalist.
It is fair to say that the experimental genius of ‘Pet Sounds’ probably would not have fit in seamlessly with the final film, but the inspiration of those classic spy films seems to have been a key influence on one of the greatest albums of all time.
