From the moment that a mysterious man holding sway at the baccarat table at Le Cercle lit acigarette and revealed himself to be “Bond. James Bond,” the film series based around Ian Fleming’s literary super spy has gone on to be the most successful film franchise in history (the Harry Potter franchise has raked in nearly 8 billion dollars worldwide [if you adjust for inflation, Bond’s total jumps from 5 for 12 billion]). Twenty–two films have been released over the course of fifty years. Six actors have played the iconic role including the first (and arguably the best) to play the role, Academy Award winning actor Sir Sean Connery. On November 9th, the twenty-third entry in the storied franchise (get it? because it’s based on stories) hits theaters as Daniel Craig makes his third outing as 007. Craig’s “Casino Royale” was the highest grossing film in the history of the franchise, so how will his new film, “Skyfall”,stack up against the other films? Over the course of the next few weeks, I will take a look at some of the facets of the Bond series that have made it so successful. First up? The Bond theme songs.
On October 5th, the highly anticipated theme song for the new film was released worldwide. The song, performed by Grammy pack mule and soccer mom favorite Adele, is already being regarded as one of the best Bond songs in the half century history of the franchise. It presents a definite return to the franchise’s roots (which is especially nice after Jack White and Alicia Keyes VERY tradition breaking theme from Quantum of Solace, “Another Way To Die” [The song was, however, very fitting for a film that didn’t quite know what it wanted to be. {Due to the 2007-2008 writer’s strike, the script for the film was a bare bones mess that Academy Award winning writer Paul Haggis wasn’t ALLOWED to touch up after turning it in literally two hours before the strike began}]) with its operatic overtones, its musical references to John Barry’s original theme, and more importantly, after a string of American artists like Madonna, Chris Cornell and the aforementioned duo of White and Keyes, an actual Brit performs the song. Because of the release of the new Bond song, I’ve decided to take a look back and bring you my top ten favorite songs from the previous Bond entries.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Alice Cooper – “The Man with the Golden Gun”
The infamous shock and roller performed a fantastic opening song for the 1974 film of the same name. He was later replaced by Lulu (a version that John Barry referred to as “the one I hate most”). Cooper’s song was the better choice, but during Roger Moore’s time as Bond, the series wasn’t too keen on taking creative risks.
Joss Stone – “I’ll Take It All”
I put this one on here because of the amazing leaps that the video gaming industry has made in the Bond franchise. It started when 2002’s “Nightfire”used Esthero’s “Nearly Civilized” in their brief opening credits sequence. It continued with Mya’s lackluster “Everything or Nothing” in a fantastic game that inexplicably featured Shannon Elizabeth and Heidi Klum as scientists (but it did have perpetual villain Willem Dafoe [except for that time that he played Jesus] as the game’s antagonist). In 2010’s “Blood Stone”, the Bond crew one upped themselves by getting the beautifully gritty voice of Grammy Award winning Joss Stone to belt out the theme song for the opening credits of a VIDEO GAME. Legit.
TOP TEN BOND SONGS(in no particular order [well, actually in chronological order {but not like in order of my favorite or anything}])
Tom Jones – “Thunderball”
It really is the quintessential Bond song. Tom Jones’s voice booms on top of a big and brassy musical arrangement. This song would set the tone for more than a few entries later in the series as well as on this top ten list. And to think that it almost didn’t happen. Several songs were offered up for the 1965 film including Dionne Warwick’s “Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” and surprisingly enough The Man In Black himself, Johnny Cash’s western inspired “
Thunderball”(you can all but hear a tumbleweed rolling by in the background [but the lone gunslinger that saves the day and gets the girl isn’t too big of a leap for the super spy’s character]). The song would later be parodied in not only Weird Al’s“
Spy Hard” but sounds eerily similar to the music in several scenes in the Austin Powers series.
Louis Armstrong – “We Have All the Time in the World”
Satchmo! The End! One of the greatest musicians in history did a Bond song. The beautiful tones of a song about hope paired with his signature raspy voice almost foreshadow the heartbreak that would follow this song. Not only in the closing moments of “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” but also in the fact that Louis Armstrong would pass away with this being the last song he ever recorded. It’s said that Armstrong nailed the song in one take.
Shirley Bassey – “Diamonds are Forever”
After the box office failure that was the George Lazenby experiment of “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, the Bond producers went back to basics. They shelled out a considerable amount of money to get Sean Connery for one more film, and they went back to the most memorable artist to sing a theme for the series. Shirley Bassey’s “Goldfinger” is a hallmark for the series, so the studio brought her in to record the title track. While “Goldfinger”is the more popular choice, I feel that “Diamonds” is the more nuanced and lesson-the-nose than the former. Also, “Goldfinger” didn’t get sampled in a Kanye West song.
Paul McCartney and Wings – “Live and Let Die”
After Connery left the role (for good this time [and before you say anything “Never Say Never Again” never existed {that’s right never. I said NEVER. I’ll say never however many times I want to! Don’t tell me what to do, non-canon Bond film!}]), the series went with a new Bond in Roger Moore and attempted to use this time to hip up the series. And what better way to do that than to add good ole fashioned racism set in the American South. Also a Beatle.Yeah! We’ll use a Beatle! McCartney’s song is a wonderfully frantic offering.Light and melodic. Hard rocking. Random reggae breakdown. WHAT THE HELL DRUGS WERE YOU ON!?! But this song will stick with you.
Carly Simon – “Nobody Does It Better”
The theme song from “The Spy Who Loved Me” is just perfect.It works on several different levels. The most important of which is that it works both with the film (popping up musically throughout the score of the film) and completely separate of the film (if you didn’t know this was a Bond song, you’d have a hard time pegging it as such [except for that whole line in the song about a spy loving you]). In my opinion, this film is one of, if not the best all-around offering in the Bond series. Simon’s song plays a large part in that.
Duran Duran – “A View to a Kill”
This film….is just one of the best worst movie in the history of the world. Roger Moore is 58 year old hero battling it out with a wonderfully over acting Christopher Walken (That’s right! Christopher Walken plays a bond villain [a villain that was based on Sting and was originally offered to David Bowie!{these are all true statements!}]) whose means of transportation is a BLIMP! A GIANT BLIMP! And Duran Duran did the theme song!And it’s awesome! Exclamation points!! But seriously, the song holds the distinction of being the only Bond song to make it to #1 on the US charts.
Tina Turner – “Goldeneye”
My personal favorite Bond song. But honestly, it’s because of several reasons. In my household, Tina Turner always holds a special place. Goldeneye was my first Bond movie I ever saw, so I had never witnessed the wonder of the opening credits sequence. Tina’s amazingly powerful voice harkens back to Shirley Bassey three trips to the studio for the series. Funny side note: It was almost Ace of Bass. Oh the 90’s. They recorded the song before the studio got Turner to perform the song. You can still listen to it after a name change to “The Juvenile”
kd Lang – “Surrender”
Here’s one of the songs that was HEAVILY inspired by the Tom Jones “Thunderball” performance. Wonderfully brassy. Lang’s song was originally intended to be the opening credits song for “Tomorrow Never Dies”, but the studio beat out composer David Arnold in the argument and selected Sheryl Crow.Lang’s offering is the better of the two songs but was relegated to the closing credits.
Garbage – “The World Is Not Enough”
Finally! A British artist! The first since Duran Duran (and that includes Norwegian band a-ha’s awful “The Living Daylights”). Shirley Manson’s voice is sensual over music that is reminiscent of the songs of old,but with a decidedly modern twist (which is what David Arnold has been so good at bringing to the series as the composer [a position he held from “Tomorrow Never Dies” through “Quantum of Solace]). And I love the fact that it’s attributed to Garbage and not just Shirley Manson. Before “For Your Eyes Only”,producers approached Debbie Harry to write and perform the theme, but Harry declined the job after the studio refused to let her entire band, Blondie, take credit.
Chris Cornell – “You Know My Name”
A lot of people may disagree with this selection. I personally thought it was inspired. The Bond series, with the selection of Daniel Craig, was heading in a decidedly different direction with "Casino Royale". A direction that was more harsh, and what better way to interpret that change than with the orchestral yet rough around the edges approach of the former front man for Soundgarden and Audioslave? A similar approach was used successfully when Sir Paul McCartney made a rock song for Roger Moore’s first film. It helped to set the tone for a Bond that was still a diamond in the rough. A Bond that needed to be refined over the course of Quantum of Solace where he was searching for his identity. A Bond that has now come into his own in Skyfall.
What do you all think? Pop into the comments section and let me know why you think I’m awesome or (the more likely) why I’m stupid and wrong.