John Barry, who had worked on the previous five themes and orchestrated the “James Bond Theme”, was unavailable during production. Broccoli and Saltzman instead asked Paul McCartney to write the theme song. Since McCartney’s salary was high and another composer could not be hired with the remainder of the music budget, George Martin, who had been McCartney’s producer while with The Beatles, was chosen to write the score for the film.
“Live and Let Die”, written by McCartney along with his wife Linda and performed by their group Wings, was the first true rock and roll song used to open a Bond film, and became a major success in the UK (where it reached number nine in the charts) and the US (where it reached number 2, for three weeks). It was nominated for an Academy Award but lost to “The Way We Were”. Producers hired B. J. Arnau to record and perform the title song, not realising McCartney intended to perform it himself. Arnau’s version was featured in the film itself, when the singer performed it in a night club which Bond attends.
The Olympia Brass Band has a notable part in “Live and Let Die”, where they lead a funeral march for a (soon to be) assassination victim. Trumpeter Alvin Alcorn plays the killer. The piece of music the band plays at the beginning of the funeral march is “Just a Closer Walk with Thee”. After the agent is stabbed, the band starts playing the more lively “Joe Avery’s Piece” (aka “New Second Line”).
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