The inspiration for Austin Powers arrived in Mike Myers head one night while driving home from ice hockey practice. On the radio came the Dusty Springfield song The Look of Love and listening to it had Myers reminiscing about the Sixties. In particular it got Myers wondering "what ever happened to the swingers?" A number of sixties songs could have provided inspiration for the swinger character of Austin Powers but the influence of this tune can be felt in even many more ways throughout the series. The Look of Love was most famous for being the theme of the famous James Bond parody Casino Royale. This was one of Myers' favourite films and hearing the song immediately gave him the idea to make a James Bond parody as well as a swingers movie. The lyricist of the song Hal David also had strong connections to the James Bond films himself having wrote the lyrics for the Bond songs We Have All the Time in the World, from On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and the titular song for Moonraker. The composer of The Look of Love was the great songwriter Burt Bacharach and the song's inspiration on the Austin Powers films can further be seen by Burt's appearances in the films. In International Man of Mystery Bacharach appears and plays his own song What the World Needs Now Is Love and then in The Spy Who Shagged Me he plays I'll Never Fall in Love Again with Elvis Costello. His footage from the first film is then re-used in the credits for Austin Powers in Goldmember. A lot of inspiration in the Austin Powers series came from this one piece of music. Imagine how different things would be if Myers heard another song that day.
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