On Monday night I had the pleasure of seeing the new James Bond movie, Quantum Of Solace, a few days early, and I thought I’d talk about it. I’ve always considered myself a fan of the Bond movies, and whether it’s a good or bad thing, I’ve become something of an amateur expert over the years on the films, the books, the aura, etc. So I thought I’d do a few posts on the return of the franchise, but Commander Light suggested that the most interesting post would probably be one on the music of Bond, so for what could be the first of several posts dealing with the films, I’ll give you the six best Bond themes…
6. “Live And Let Die” by Paul McCartney & Wings.
This 1973 song was used as the introduction to the third official James Bond on film, Roger Moore (after Sean Connery and the criminally underrated George Lazenby), and with the 70s in full swing, it was time for a change along with the new leading man. To do this, the producers brought in George Martin, the Beatles’ producer, who then brought in McCartney to write the song (along with wife Linda), which was eventually nominated for an Oscar (but lost out to the theme from The Way We Were). The orchestral break in this song (written by Martin) is also used throughout the film diegetically, at point performed by a woman in a New Orleans club as a warning to Bond, and then later outside as part of a funeral dirge. And of course there’s all the covers of it, including Guns N’ Roses and certain well known glamorous trannies. This song is a weird standout on a James Bond playlist, but a fun one.
5. “You Only Live Twice” by Nancy Sinatra.
This song, written by John Barry (the man who pretty much championed how every Bond movie would sound musically up until the Brosnan years) with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, for the 5th Bond movie of the same name, has been covered by quite a few people, including Bjork, The Postmarks, and even Coldplay, which is just an interesting and very eclectic list. the opening 2 bars of the song are incredibly striking, lovely, and memorable, especially when you realize that they were sampled for Robbie William’s “Millennium.” This is just a lovely song, lush and dreamy, as it should be concerning it’s lyrical subject matter, and the soundtrack to You Only Live Twice is one of the few of the Bond films that I actually possess and much like the film and this title song, it’s perfect. You could put it on to fall asleep to or to have a nice, swinging party. Or maybe both, if you’re so inclined.
4. “The Living Daylights” by A-ha.
The Timothy Dalton movies are not highly regarded by most Bond purists, but they contained some excellent moments, and really are something of a blueprint for what you’r starting to see in the Daniel Craig years, both in style of storytelling and the level of anti-social brooding you’ll see in the main character. I wonder if the Daniel Craig films, which now are critically acclaimed, will be seen as underappreciated as Dalton’s tenure with the role was. This film in particular, before we even get to the song, is easily one of my favorites of the pre-title sequences in all the Bond films. Take a gander:
As for the title song itself… it’s not “Take On Me,” but honestly, how can you not be digging this song. This is a pure pop gem, if you ask me. The credits list it as written by John Barry and a-ha’s guitarist Peter Waaktaar-Savoy, and in addition to the version used for the film, there’s apparently different versions of the song out there, some re-done by Barry and some re-done by the band themselves, since there appears to have been some arguing and fighting amongst the band the producer. The band claims that Barry wasn’t involved in the creative process at all and therefore shouldn’t have his name on the song and Barry says that they were insolent little children who kept trying to push their vision on him. Also, he apparently compared them to the Hitlerjugend in a newspaper interview. Awesome.
3. “Diamonds Are Forever” by Shirley Bassey.
You’ll see her mentioned again, but Shirley Bassey just seems to kind of go hand in hand with the Bond franchise, her music and especially her amazing voice becoming so synonymous with the series. Since this was Connery’s one off return to the official series after the producers showed him that they had no problem going a different way in lieu of paying him a fortune (see below), it was decided to go back to a classic: Shirely Bassey. But then producers hated the song, and the especially the innuendo (Bassey was told in the studio by John Barry to imagine that she was singing about a penis), but they kept it in anyways. The song was later covered by the Arctic Monkeys and sampled by Kanye West.
2. “We Have All The Time In The World” by Louis Armstrong.
As a jazz trumpeteer, the fantastic Mr. Armstrong wins the award for least likely performer of a Bond song, I believe, but this is a beautiful song, not the theme song (which is also good, but is an instrumental, which is odd but understandable), but more of the tragic love theme of the movie, and if you’ve never seen On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, then you absolutely need to. Staring one off Bond George Lazenby, it has one of the best, most meta of openings (remember that Lazenby was the first to follow Connery), one of the best and most classy Bond girls in Diana Rigg, Telly Savalas as the most swingin’ of villains, and has the character development that all the rest of the Bond actors wanted (Brosnan famously tried to campaign the producers to remake this film with him). The song went on to be covered by artists such as My Bloody Valentine and Iggy Pop and the title track was remixed by the Propellerheads.
1. “Goldfinger” by Shirley Bassey.
This song, sung by the ridiculously talented Bassey, and written by Bond’s super composer John Barry with lyrics by Anthony Newly and Leslie Bricusse, is basically what we think of when we think of a Bond theme. Lush and orchestral, something that you can easily imagine sung by a woman with an amazing voice in an evening dress in front of a full symphony before a rousing action thriller. This song is perfect in so many ways. Making heavy use of brass and metallic chimes, it’s loud and epic, boisterous in it’s power, and Bassey’s voice is completely unrestrained, and not surprisingly, it won her a gold record in America. So revered is her performance here that they asked her back for Diamonds Are Forever, Moonraker, and to record a song for Thunderball that was never used. She’s in her 70s, but Jesus, I wish they’d bring her back for the new films. Dare I even go so far as to say that it’s set the gold standard by which we measure all Bond songs?
Honorable mentions/runner ups include:
“A View To A Kill” by Duran Duran. This is easily one of my favorite of the Bond songs because of how perfectly it fits in with the film, which is such a subject of the 80s. Roger Moore is running around bedding Grace Jones and women who look like they could be his great-granddaughters and fighting of Christopher Walken as a nazi test tube baby hellbent on sinking Silicon Valley. It doesn’t get much better or crazier than than that. Oh, and did I mention that they have their final battle on the Golden Gate bridge after their zeppelin crashes into it? Pure sweaty genius.
“Nobody Does It Better” by Carly Simon from The Spy Who Loved Me. Do I even need to qualify this? It’s a super power ballad and was even called “the sexiest song that was ever written” by Thom Yorke. Makes me feel sad for the rest.
“The Look Of Love” by Dusty Springfield. The song, with music by Burt Bacharach and lyrics by Hal David, was written for the original 1967 James Bond film “spoof” Casino Royale, staring David Niven, William Holden, John Huston, Woody Allen, Orson Welles, and quite a few other stars (I could write about this movie forever, honestly). According to Wikipedia, the song has become synonymous with loung and easy listening music, ha ha. The song was originally intended to be just an instrumental, inspired by the lusty feelings Bacharach felt when looking at star Ursula Andress in an early cut of the movie. Andress, I hope somebody out there remembers, was the original gorgeous babe crawling out of the ocean for Bond’s eyes to feast on (before Halle Berry and later Craig himself occupied that role). Anyways, the song is lovely and you know we love us some Dusty here at Counterforce.
And just for Commander Light, I’ll end this with “The World Is Not Enough” by Garbage. The title of the song and film comes from a reference to the Bond family coat of arms from way back when, and Garbage was the perfect choice for a new artist to dabble in that classic Bond vibe. The song is not great, but it has a lovely lush vibe that floats on the pure sex waves of Shirley Manson herself. Tomorrow I plan to do a post on the songs that didn’t make the cut for whatever reason in Bond films and will probably use the original version of this song by the band Straw. (And, you’ll of course notice that the theme song from Quantum Of Solace is no where on this list, and not even close to it.) Until then…
Great article… glad to see interest in the Bond history is still strong, even with the bad reviews coming in for Quantum. Also great to know someone else has an appreciation for George Lazenby’s Bond, whether he was a drunken dickhead on the set or not.
I also think Martin did an amazing job on Live And Let Die… one of my non-Barry favorites.
As for “Nobody Does It Better”, it was written by celebrated Broadway/Hollywood composer Marvin Hamlisch, with lyrics by Brill Building alum Carol Sager. The rest of Hamlisch’s music in the movie is cringworthy late-’70s electro pop suitable for a disco scene in Buck Rogers In The 21st Century.
Would love to hear what Amy Winehouse did with Mark Ronson for Quantum… she’s the next “Bassey” for the series… anything would be better than Alicia Keyes’ out-of-tune rock yodeling.
Yeah, as much as I kind of fear what the Winehouse/Ronson addition would’ve/could’ve and perhaps should’ve been, I’m still on the fairly curious side. While I know that their song was never recorded past the demo stage and so wasn’t really in serious competition to be the song used in the movie, I’m fascinated by the songs that don’t make the cut for these films.
Lazenby himself was solid in the film, but he was benefitted by just a really great script and some decent direction.
As for Quantum… have you seen it yet? I’m curious to see what the reaction of a real hardcore fan is. I’m hesistant to say a whole lot for fear of spoiling or ruining anything for anyone, not that this is a movie filled with twists and shocking reveals.
But thanks for the comment!
Really dug Casino Royal… a return to a Bond that has some serious toughness. Haven’t seen Solace but will check it out.
Always wanted to do the book version of The Spy Who Loved Me as a short film… in fact, most of Flemming’s books could be re-made and not resemble anything that has come before.
Of course, the ultimate thing would be to do a Bond score… I think all The Postmarks’ records are simply our audition tapes for the franchise.
As for Winehouse, Love Is A Losing Game is an instant Bond theme… complete with Barry strings and a classic 007 film title.
i saw this tonight! a whole day early! i feel so special! it was pretty good though. not really a huge bond fan but i do consider myself a daniel craig fan.
Daniel Craig will be a great Bond, no doubt… though, I must be the only person in the world who didn’t like Layer Cake.
I think you guys would do a very good Bond song if ever given the chance. I’ve only heard a little of what you guys have done, but I’ve enjoyed all of it.
Another group, and I apologize for moving away from you, that I think would be excellent if given the chance, would be Blonde Redhead. I mean, listen to their last two albums and tell you wouldn’t want some of that playing over one of those beautifully trippy Bond credits sequences.
But the best Bond scores, as we were saying, are the ones where you have a really active producer (like Martin was, it seems) and the score is really worked into the beast, a la Live And Let Die. I’m not crazy about Quantum Of Solace‘s theme song (I think Alicia Keyes would’ve been wonderful on her own maybe minus the lesbian witch) and once the credits sequence was over, I never thought about it again. Did finally listen to the Winehouse demo this morning. Not bad, but not great. I was never a huge Winehouse fan, but I did like this more than I like a good deal of her stuff.
As for Craig in the role, I have to say that I was very adamantly was against him when he was first announced for the role. I couldn’t have been more full of vitriol on the subject, but honestly, the other potential candidates weren’t blowing me away either. I know that supposedly Bale wanted it and there was talk that he only took on Batman because he knew that he wasn’t going to get Bond, but who knows.
Layer Cake is decent, but not great. It made me like Craig a little more, because I just never really liked him, and remembered him from stuff like Tomb Raider, which I know, I know, that film probably shouldn’t be held against anyone. But you have to admit that he’s really changed up from his usual acting style for this part. He’s brought a very raw, very testosterone heavy bite to the role and he’s proven strong enough that these films can rest soley on his back. I like that he plays Bond as just a really messed up guy, even before he falls for Vesper and gets his heart broken. He’s kind of a monster, which… well, to me, that’s the kind of guy that would be doing this job. I’d like to see him slowly morph into a Sean Connery style in these films. I remember reading an interview with Lois Maxwell where she talked about what a brute thug Sean Connery was before Terence Young forced a little bit of erudite mannerisms upon him and…
Well, I’m against remaking the Bond films at this point (Every time they get a new actor in the role, someone starts going on about how they should remake On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and it drives me nuts), I would actually like to see Craig’s list film in the series perhaps be a remake of Dr. No. Jeffrey Wright’s no Jack Lord, but I like what he’s done with the Leiter character so far (it’ll be a shame to see him potentially fed to the sharks, ha ha).
I’d love to see Dr. No remade, as long as Dario Argento directed and Goblin did the score.
But seriously… wait… I was serious…
Blonde Redhead would be great, Portishead, Goldfrapp, some of the Candie Payne stuff is decent, at least for a theme, or better yet, The Coral with Portishead producing… where did you find the Winehouse Bond demo?
Who is your favorite Bond villain(s)… hands down I love Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd from Diamonds Are Forever… the gay assassins who look like Paul Lynn and David Crosby. They would have been great as guest stars on TV… maybe the strange uncles of Ricky Stratton.
Wint and Kidd were good when you looked past any metatextual notions about the evil gays and just saw them as two perversely evil guys who were probably a little homosexual. They had to be the most blue collar looking Bond villains ever.
Hmm. Best Bond villain… Or, at least, my favorite… That’s an excellent question. I may have to get back to you on that.
The Coral would be interesting, but I think you mentioned wisely that they do need a good producer to back them up. Portishead would be good, and that’s what To Kill A Dead Man was about, right? Goldfrapp… perhaps. Hmm.
This is where I got the Winehouse song. That’s the right one, yes?
Dario Argento and Goblin and Dr. No… That’s a majestically bizarre idea that I need to go ponder for a while…
Now that I think about it, Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd probably weren’t gay… maybe they worked so closely for so long that they were each other’s only friend and confidente… Brokeback Forever? I dug the way they would refer to each other so formally and the flute riff that Barry wrote for them is brilliant.
My favorite Coral record is the one that Portishead produced, The Invisible Invasion. Incredible textures and great songs.
The Silver Seas would be interesting… apart from their ’70s AM stuff, they do a good job with an Ennio Morriconne influence.
The danger with some bands is that they’re too loungy or “spy” driven… too cliche. There’s a fine line in genre movies that once you cross, you find yourself in a Mike Myers film. Barry had some of those “secret agent” moments, but he always tempered it with hints of jazz, big band and pop. He also wasn’t afraid to mix synths with the orchestral elements.
Ok… how about Dr. No directed by Wes Anderson with music by The Divine Comedy?
I’m a little late to this party, but I want to add that you let Jack White and Alicia Keys off far too easy for their horrendous Bond theme. You could literally feel the energy being sucked from the theater during the credit sequence. I didn’t think anyone would be able to sink lower than Madonna’s Die Another Day, but White and Keys managed to.
Doubly egregious, Jack White also had the stones to demand a “written and produced by” credit for the song in the title sequence. What a prick.