As the guitarist for Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page saw some of the most passionate, self-sacrificing, and show-stopping performances of rock ‘n’ roll history—both from his own band and his many colleagues. But one of the most jaw-dropping performances he ever saw came long before Led Zeppelin played their first show. At the time, Page was still a session player for EMI in London, and the studio was cutting the music for the 1964 James Bond film, Goldfinger.
Per Bond tradition, Goldfinger had specific theme music meant to evoke that particular storyline’s sultry, dangerous, and cinematic mood. Composer John Barry and lyricists Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley settled on Shirley Bassey, a popular British singer of the day, as their ideal vocalist. Bassey heard an instrumental version of the Bond theme and was so taken by it that she immediately agreed to cut the record, regardless of what the lyrics ended up being.
Page was at the studio when Bassey came to track her vocals. And what happened over the next many, many hours was something that still impressed Page even decades later.
Jimmy Page Remembered Shirley Bassey Falling to the Floor
Through no fault of Shirley Bassey’s, EMI required an exhausting number of takes for the Goldfinger theme. Sometimes a take would be scrapped because of an instrumentalist’s error; other times, something went wonky in the control room. Each time, Bassey reset, starting her dramatic interpretations over from the beginning. The theme required Bassey to hold an exceptionally long note, and John Barry kept pushing the vocalist to hold it out for even longer. Eventually, Bassey took off her bra so that she could take bigger breaths.
“Then came the end with that note,” Bassey said, per Jon Burlingame’s book, The Music of James Bond. “I was holding it and holding it. I was looking at John, and I was going blue in the face. And he’s going, ‘Hold it just one more second.’ When it finished, I nearly passed out.”
In Jimmy Page’s memory, she all but did. Speaking to Classic Rock in 2007, Page remembered, “That was a phenomenal session. John Barry had been rehearsing this massive orchestra, and they were waiting for Shirley Bassey. When he arrived, she just took off her coat and went straight into the studio. John Barry counted it in, she sang, and then at the end, she just collapsed on the floor. I’ll tell you what—for a 17-year-old kid playing with an orchestra and watching all that happen was quite astonishing.”
The rest of the world thought so, too. Shirley Bassey’s rendition of “Goldfinger” became a worldwide hit, breaking into the Top 10 in the U.S., Norway, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands, Australia, and West Germany. It became Bassey’s signature song moving forward, though she was able to have better control over the duration of her notes (and whether she had to start disrobing just to sing it).
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