Everybody knows the James Bond theme music, right? Well, did you know that the tune was originally written for a musical based on a VS Naipaul story?

Norman first wrote the classic tune … for a musical version of VS Naipaul’s novel A House for Mr Biswas. After he was hired to provide music for the first Bond film, Dr No, he reworked the song as a theme tune. [BBC]

The tune was then given its distinctive, big band orchestration by composer James Barry. Monty Norman (the composer of the original tune) is now going to record it, with its original lyrics intact. The song was called “Good Sign, Bad Sign” and the lyrics are as follows:

I was born with this unlucky sneeze

And what is worse I came into the world the wrong way round

Pundits all agree I am the reason why

My father fell into the village pond and drowned. [BBC]

Kinda bollywood actually …

p.s. am I the only one who finds the idea of a VS Naipaul musical in 1961 (?) really bizarre?