Entertainment For Lively Minds
Bond Themes
Posted by Con Coleman on 20 October 2008 - 3:49pm.
What with the new movie in the offing and the current Black/Keyes so-so number, what are the Word massive's favourite Bond themes? Do we prefer 1960s bombast, 70s MOR, 80s directionlessness or 90s hip?
Personally, my vote goes to Nancy Sinatra's hypnotic You Only Live Twice.
Someone's ideas are here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7623272.stm
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Should be 'White/Keyes'..
...got my Jacks mixed up.
The Black Keys
would have written a gorgeous ear-bleed of a theme tune as well!
Hmm...
...'On Her Majesty's Secret Service's two most famous tunes, the title track and 'We Have All The Time In The World' are hard to beat for me.
I like most of them up until the 1990s (though 'The Man With The Golden Gun' and 'The Living Daylights' are pretty lousy to my ears). I think there was decline in the quality of the theme tunes from the 90s onwards.
You Only Live Twice
for me too.
The maaaaaaaan. . .
with the Midas touchhhhhh!
Favourite Bond theme?
Robbie Williams - Millennium. Oh sorry, that should read favourite Bond rip-off...
Easy. My first Bond film at the cinema.
* croons * From Ru-sha With Luurve (Matt Munro)
It was my first too
And I'm still in love with Daniela Bianchi.
And while we're here...
...there is the related question of which movie has the best score.
For the classics, my money is on Barry's 'From Russia With Love'; for the moderns, Arnold's 'The World is Not Enough'.
Thunderball has great incidental music
Really out there circus music for the chase scenes. Brilliant. I've even considered buying the score, but then that's just going way too far.
Best Theme
Living Daylights by Aha is up there. Diamonds Are Forever - Shirley Bassey probably wins - what a voice.
Big shout for OHMSS by The Propellerheads though - not an official theme but it's a great version.
Just for the bit where the bass comes in...
Shirley Bassey's 'Diamonds Are Forever':
But it's neck and neck with 'Nobody Does It Better' from The Spy Who Loved Me:
Goldfinger
Shirley every time......
i always liked this version of goldfinger
(another one of those episodes of frasier that had oodles of 'heart')
Mrs Path bought me last years compendium CD of Bond themes...
And she then bought me Chris Cornells solo LP as she liked his Bond one.
You can't actually beat the original dumdiddleumderder dumdididdleumderder, dumdiddleumderder dumdiddleumderder, derr derr, der de derr......
I don't even like James Bond, but I will admit to enjoying a martini and an alcohol rub.
(I remember I used to read that page furtively at school, and I'm still not entirely sure what it is, but it still sounds rude)
Astonishing!
Someone liked (and I assume can remmember) Chris Cornell's song. I can't hum it or repeat a single lyric as it was so bland.
I own it twice, as stated, Bond and solo LP.
I neither like nor can remember it either.
(Don't tell the missus)
Dr Nowt
Here are my two favourite Bond covers, to be played loudly:
"007, A Fantasy Bond Theme" by Barry Adamson
http://www.divshare.com/download/5630437-508
"Goldfinger" by Man...or Astroman?
http://www.divshare.com/download/5630442-9b1
My favourites
1. Tom Jones hollering Thunderball
2. Paul McCartney and, of course, Wings with Live And Let Die
3. Call me what you like, but I also like Lulu doing The Man With The Golden Gun
Die Another Day must surely be the worst.
"All Time High"
was the title of the Octopussy theme song, for reasons that should probably be obvious. It was sung by Rita Coolidge.
"I don't want to waste a waking moment; I don't want to sleep.
I'm in so strong and so deep, and so are you.
In my time I've said these words before, but now I realize
My heart was telling me lies, for you they're true."
Tim Rice won a knighthood for writing stuff like that, you know.
Shirley Bassey. No contest.
Goldfinger and Diamonds Are Forever.
Like Live & Let Die too.
Best song: We Have All The Time In The World, but it wasn’t the actual “theme”.
What Richard said...
Our Shirl every time.
Have to disagree about Live and Let Die though. Another of those songs with a 'bit in the middle' that has nothing to do with the song surrounding it (and that always left you looking a plonker at the tennis club disco in your teens). But enough. I've ranted about this subject before, I know.
The middle bit is a bit ropey I suppose
But I thought it was a good new take on the Bond theme. A modern flashy rock/pop song more in tune with the tone of the ’70s Bond films. And, of course, it’s Macca so I’m going to stick up for it.
Shirley Bassey
Her theme toMoonraker's utterly forgettable, though, isn't it?
Yes
So forgettable I’d forgotten all about it. Looked it up on youtube. And now I’ve forgotten it again already. The other two are magnificent though.
Love...
...Live And Let Die, one of the best songs for me. I have a lot of time for 'All Time High' as well, just as I do the film 'Octopussy'.
'Moonraker' is very ho-hum indeed, I agree. The melody is pretty but fairly unmemorable. The film itself wasn't too hot either though!
Was watching a documentary on Bond themes yesterday funnily enough, and I'd forgotten how good Gladys Knight's vocal performance on 'Licence To Kill' was.
And yes, 'Die Another Day' has to be seen as the worst. It's the law. ;) They claimed they were trying to be 'radical' but to me it's just a fairly bland R & B track that doesn't fit...not that I like the film a lot anyway.
Die Another Day
Worst song. Worst film? Possibly. I do have a soft spot for it, but it's not very good.
You've been rumbled, matey
I've been to IMDB so I know why you've got a soft spot for it. But your secret's safe with me. (Usual price.)
Ah
Righto.
Gladys wins
I'm sticking up for Licence To Kill. The last 'proper' Bond theme and a belting performance from our Glad. Great key change, too.
Which reminds me of my favourite Viz cartoon ever (you'll have to imagine it) : Three velvet jacketed black guys are walking along in step singing 'She's leaving, leaving...on a midnight train', and a chap in a phone box is saying, "Well, there go The Pips...."
"Stop getting Bond wrong!"
Matt Monro, the singing bus driver, with a classic John Barry/Lionel Bart song, "From Russia With Love":
Alan Partridge re-enacts the opening of "The Spy Who Loved Me", including "Nobody Does It Better" (at 2m40s):
Aha's contribution to The
Aha's contribution to The Living Daylights was a bit meh, in my opinion, but they tucked in this little gem, a John Barry/Chrissie Hynde collaboration, right at the end:
You Only Live Twice gets my vote, also. There's something about Nancy Sinatra's voice - technically, it's not very good, but somehow she manages to sound fantastic. I suppose a modern equivalent is Charlotte Gainsbourg (a Gainsbourg/Cocker Bond theme would be something mighty to behold, although the producers would probably never allow it).
"Nobody Does It Better" by Carly Simon for me......
And I believe the only theme not sharing the title of the film.
Radiohead have covered this live
and can be found on YouTube.
All Time High
As mentioned above.
The definitive theme
The best Bond theme has to meet the following criteria as far as I'm concerned:
1. It sounds HUGE, knocking you back in your seat.
2. The lyrics (if there are any) have something to do with the film, or at least with Bond himself, or should be so mad that you can't help loving them.
3. It goes so far over the top that it's practically in the next trench.
4. It has that indefinable Bond sound and style.
So:
Diamonds Are Forever, Goldfinger, OHMSS, View To A Kill, Living Daylights, Goldeneye - perfection.
Die Another Day (and almost all of the Goldeneye score by Eric Serra) - inexcusable.
That said, by far the worst theme has to be Jack White and Alicia Keys' so-called "effort". OK, so the few lyrics I can make out seem to have something to do with espionage/danger/Bond, but as for the tune... Hello, melody? Rhythm? Anybody?
God...
...yes, Eric Serra's score for 'Goldeneye' was abominable! That aforementioned documentary on the Bond themes played his original planned score for the car/tank chase scene, it was genuinely hideous. The producers agreed and drafted in someone else to score that scene. The theme tune was probably the best of the post-80s efforts, I felt.
Surrender
On the subject of themes that got rejected, KD Lang recorded a theme for Tomorrow Never Dies called 'Surrender' which is absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately, the CORPORATION wanted a hitmaker type and so drafted in Sheryl Frickin' Crowe to honk a bunch of rubbish whose tune, lyrics and delivery are the definition of 'will this do?'
Lang's theme (music by David Arnold, lyric by Don Black, bless him) is miles better but ended up on the tail end of the soundtrack CD.
Tomorrow Never Dies
I like both the Sheryl Crow and KD Lang themes for 'Tomorrow Never Dies', but I think they ultimately made the right decision. 'Surrender' is good, but it also feels like a stereotypical Bond theme - it's trying too hard. A bit like Tina Turner's 'GoldenEye'.
Nobody does it Better
than Aimee Mann.. well at any rate I like her version on the Dave Arnold "Shaken & Stirred" CD
The David Arnold
is great, isn't it? I really love David McAlmont's version of Diamonds Are Forever and Iggy's rendition of We Have All The Time...
Extraordinarily surprised
that no-one's mentioned Duran Duran yet ;o)
You Only Live Twice
You Only Live Twice for me too. We saw it when on holiday when I was little and it reminds me of summer holidays staring out to sea through the wet car windows whilst eating a tongue and tomato sandwich and waiting for the rain to stop.
That classic sixties string sound
I agree with neil, You Only Live Twice has all the right ingredients - the captivating voice of Nancy Sinatra, the air of the exotic (easy to criticise the cliche-d marimba signifying 'eastern promise' but it really was the 'far' east in those days). The thing I love the most about it is the strings - when they come in after Nancy sings, "or so they say", it still gives me goosebumps. It's so evocative of the 60s.
Golden GunFinger
For me it's probably Goldfinger or The Man With The Golden Gun. Lulu's in underated. I think "You Know My Name" is one of the few real stinkers they've done.
The Killing Moon
By Echo & the Bunnymen would have made a terrific Bond theme. And it would've been a better title for a Bond film than 'Quantum of Solace', at that.