With royalty and rock, London opens its Olympics

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The Olympic rings are assembled above the stadium in a scene depicting the Industrial Revolution during the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Summer Games at the Olympic Stadium in London, Friday, July 27, 2012. (Pool,AP Photo/Ezra Shaw)

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(CBS/AP) LONDON - Britain opened its Olympics with a royal entrance like no other.

London greeted the world in a celebration of Old England that was stunning, imaginative, whimsical and dramatic - and cheeky, even featuring a stand-in for Queen Elizabeth II parachuting with James Bond into Olympic Stadium.

Moments later, the 86-year-old monarch herself stood solemnly while a children's choir serenaded her with "God Save the Queen," and members of the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force raised the Union Jack.

Much of the opening ceremony was an encyclopedic review of British music history, from a 1918 Broadway standard adopted by the West Ham football team to The Who's "My Generation" to "Bohemian Rhapsody," by still another Queen.

The evening started with fighter jets streaming red, white and blue smoke and roaring over the stadium, packed with a buzzing crowd of 60,000 people, at 8:12 p.m. - or 20:12 in the 24-hour time observed by Britons.

An explosion of fireworks against the London skyline and Paul McCartney leading a singalong were to wrap up the three-hour opening ceremony masterminded by one of Britain's most successful filmmakers, Oscar winner Danny Boyle.

The director of "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Trainspotting" had a ball with his favored medium, mixing filmed passages with live action in the stadium to hypnotic effect, with 15,000 volunteers taking part in the $42 million show.