Atanas

Artist: Atanas

LP: Shadows

Song: "Shoot the Gun"
[ listen ]
Song: "Talk to Me Like the Rain"
[ listen ]

It was August of 1985 and the final U.S. box office totals for A VIEW TO A KILL were in... and they did not look good. The James Bond franchise was desperately in need of an overhaul and both Albert and Barbara Broccoli knew it. Roger Moore had announced that he would not be renewing his license to kill, and the fiasco known as NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN just a few years earlier had only confirmed what critics had been saying all along: Sean Connery was simply too old to continue playing the globe-trotting sex maniac/spy known affectionately as Secret Agent 007.

With the bigwigs at MGM unwilling to deviate from the same old formula that had brought the studio so much success in the past, the Broccolis realized it was up to them to come up with a plan that would give James Bond the modern makeover he needed and deserved. After lots of brainstorming and two arguments, a few basic things were finally decided: For the roles of James Bond and his arch nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld of SPECTRE, actors with no previous film experience would need to be found. Also, the next Bond film would be a musical.

Albert had Barbara arrange several dozen auditions at locations all around the globe. Hopeful applicants were instructed to bring several things with them in order to try out for the roles. First, they should have a photo of themselves pictured in character for the part they wanted to play. The Bond photo, they were told, should illustrate what the secret agent would look like when entering a glitzy Monte Carlo casino. For the role of Blofeld, applicants should be pictured stroking a cat—while simultaneously giving the impression that they would like to destroy the world.

The Broccolis required audition participants to prepare a 3-minute monologue which would be presented to a panel of judges, who would then determine each actor's dramatic range. Applicants were also instructed to write, record and hand over two songs that could be used in the new Bond film. One should be an upbeat number that would serve as the film's opening credits theme song; the other, a tender ballad that the Bond actor would actually perform on-screen at some point in the story—with orchestral variations to then be used during 007's passionate liaisons and romantic interludes—or whenever there was a slow spot in the film.

To make a long story short, after only three audition sessions (Dallas, Buenos Aires, Duluth), the studio heads got wind of what the Broccolis were up to and put a stop to it—pronto. They gathered and destroyed all audition photos and tapes, hired a few reliable hacks to knock out a new Bond script, stuffed an unknown British actor into the lead role and the 007 series lumbered on exactly as it had before.

Of course, the details from the Broccolis' three secretive musical Bond auditions have been lost in the mists of time—yet there is one bizarre artifact that remains to bear testimony to this fascinating turn of events. A young man known only by the name Atanas had participated in the Duluth auditions, trying out for the roles of both Blofeld and James Bond. A wiry, sandy-haired man named Ricky Glomwood who was on the panel of judges was so taken with Atanas' talent that he had tucked the actor's photos into his personal briefcase—along with his two musical recordings and a black-and-white photo he'd secretly snapped of the swarthy Bond hopeful presenting his monologue from the police station scene of A REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE.

Several months after production on MGM's new Bond film, THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, got underway, Ricky Glomwood tracked down Atanas and convinced him to record several additional tracks with a producer named Pat Hand who had a studio on the outskirts of Detroit. Atanas' original Bond opening credits theme song, "Shoot the Gun," was reworked slightly and some breathy backing vocals were added to "Talk to Me Like the Rain," the Bond love theme Atanas had penned for his audition. Then, using the three photos from Glomwood's personal briefcase for the LP artwork, Atanas' only record album, "Shadows," was released in September of 1986 to lackluster reviews and a largely disinterested public.