20 Things You Didn’t Know About The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
4. Nobody Does It Better
Regular Bond composer, John Barry could not score the film for tax reasons, so American composer and conductor, Marvin Hamlisch came aboard.
Well-known for his distinctive movie scores to The Sting and The Way We Were (both 1973), Hamlisch injected a disco element into the music whilst still delivering a symphonic Bond soundtrack. He also revitalised Monty Norman’s The James Bond Theme as “Bond 77”, which was influenced by The Bee Gees’ song, “You Should Be Dancing”.
Hamlisch collaborated with his then-partner - lyricist Carole Bayer Sager - and singer-songwriter, Carly Simon on the main theme, “Nobody Does It Better”, which reached number two on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and number one on the Billboard Easy Listening chart whilst hitting number seven in the UK charts. It was nominated for that year's Academy Award for Best Original Song and has become a classic Bond theme.
Nevertheless, Hamlisch adapted Barry’s cue, “Stalking” from his score for the pre-credits sequence of From Russia With Love for the scene in which Bond and Anya are trailing Jaws through The Temple of Karnak.