From Russia with Love (film) Love" is the first Bond film in the series with John Barry as the primary soundtrack composer. The theme song was composed by Lionel Bart of "Oliver!" fame and sung by Matt Monro, although the title credit music is a lively instrumental version of the tune beginning with Barry's brief "James Bond is Back" then segueing into Monty Norman's "James Bond Theme". Monro's vocal version is later played during the film (as source music on a radio) and properly over the film's end titles. Barry travelled with the crew to Turkey to try getting influences of the local music, but
From Russia, with Love (novel) 642,000 in 1963 and 600,000 in 1964. "From Russia, with Love" received mainly positive reviews from critics. Julian Symons, in "The Times Literary Supplement", considered that it was Fleming's "tautest, most exciting and most brilliant tale", that the author "brings the thriller in line with modern emotional needs", and that Bond "is the intellectual's Mike Hammer: a killer with a keen eye and a soft heart for a woman". The critic for "The Times" was less persuaded by the story, suggesting that "the general tautness and brutality of the story leave the reader uneasily hovering between fact and fiction". Although