(SOUNDBITE OF MONTY NORMAN AND JOHN BARRY'S "DR. NO - JAMES BOND THEME")
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
A British spy might order his martini shaken, not stirred, but he isn't Bond, James Bond, without the music.
(SOUNDBITE OF MONTY NORMAN AND JOHN BARRY'S "DR. NO - JAMES BOND THEME")
CHANG: That twangy surf rock guitar floating over the orchestra - well, that is the work of Vic Flick. He died last week at the age of 87.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Back in 1962, he was 25 years old, a studio musician brought in by film composer John Barry. Vic Flick's job was to punch up the 007 theme - you know, give it some edge. So he modified his acoustic guitar and really dug into the strings, as he told NPR's Morning Edition in 2012.
VIC FLICK: To play it normally - suppose it was just a tune - you'd go (playing guitar). But to give it some urgency and dynamicism (ph) or whatever the word is, you know, you'd just do (playing guitar). Did you notice the difference?
CHANG: For his contribution, Flick says he didn't get a whole lot of money at the time.
FLICK: I got $15 for recording it.
CHANG: Well, he did eventually earn some royalties a few decades later.
SUMMERS: Meanwhile, Vic Flick had a long career as a session player, backing artists like Tom Jones, Nancy Sinatra and Dusty Springfield. He even plays lead guitar on the soundtrack for the Beatles movie "A Hard Day's Night."
(SOUNDBITE OF GEORGE MARTIN ORCHESTRA'S "RINGO'S THEME (THIS BOY)")
CHANG: He'd later work with Paul McCartney, too. But Flick was best known for that one day in the studio where he brought a secret agent to life. In 2012, he told NPR, it's followed me down for 50 years, so it couldn't have been too bad.
(SOUNDBITE OF MONTY NORMAN AND JOHN BARRY'S "DR. NO - JAMES BOND THEME") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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