The first time I can recall knowing of Barry's music was for
Somewhere in Time, a film my mom fell in love with and viewed as often as possible in the early days of BetaMax! It's a wonderfully (and tragically) romantic score, which organically melds itself with the story. From that score, it was on to the early-to-mid 80s Bond films, and so on.
Here's a great two-part audio interview with Barry from the radio show "Spinning on Air" (WNYC), around the time that
Chaplin was released:
LINK.