Musical Montage: Dusty Springfield “The Look of Love”
One of the many contributions to the world of music and film from the late Burt Bacharach, who passed away last week, was “The Look of Love”, which was sung by Dusty Springfield and included on the soundtrack for 1967’s Casino Royale. Bacharach and Hal David composed the song and Bacharach originally wrote it to be an instrumental, with David adding lyrics a short time later. The song was written specifically for Casino Royale and Bacharach has said the melody was inspired by seeing Ursula Andress in an early cut of the movie. Andress appeared in the official Bond movies in Dr. No in 1962 and then as Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale with Peter Sellers’ 007. Dusty Springfield, famous for songs like “Son of a Preacher Man” and “Wishin and Hopin”, recorded the first version of the song with lyrics for the movie, and later artists like Claudine Longet and Sergio Mendes recorded versions. “The Look of Love” was nominated for a Best Original Song Oscar and Mike Myers has said the song inspired the first Austin Powers movie, which included both the song and a cameo from Burt Bacharach. You can listen to “The Look of Love” below.
