The 5 Best and 5 Worst James Bond Theme Songs
Fans of the James Bond films look forward to the theme songs as much as anything else. There’s a thrill to hearing a new 007 theme over the movie’s creative, sexy title sequences. The theme songs have set the tone for Bond in 19 of the 22 films in the series.
We’ve seen 007 theme songs that range from the low-key (Nancy Sinatra’s “You Only Live Twice” in 1967) to the heavy-hitting (Chris Cornell’s “You Know My Name” in 2006) to the truly bizarre (I’m looking at you, Jack White & Alicia Keys). No matter how good or bad the song, a Bond theme is an integral part of the experience.
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the James Bond franchise, I present to you the five best theme songs of the series, followed by the five worst. A couple of years ago I shared my own personal favorites on my website, but with this list I’m looking at the songs with critical and historical eyes.
5. Louis Armstrong, “We Have All The Time In The World,” from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service stands as a bit of an anomaly among Bond movies. The film marked George Lazenby’s only appearance as 007, and the plot centered around eternal bachelor Bond getting married and becoming a widower. It’s also one of only three entries in the series not to have a song over the opening credits — the other ones were Dr. No and From Russia With Love. Instead, the beautiful “We Have All The Time In The World” plays during a romantic sequence later on in the film.
Composer John Barry chose Louis Armstrong to perform the ballad, and Barry later picked it as one of his two favorite Bond theme songs, both for the beauty of the music and the pleasure of working with the jazz legend.
“We Have All The Time In The World” has endured as a favorite, especially among the Brits. Artists as diverse as Iggy Pop, the Puppini Sisters, and Michael Ball have covered the song, and respondents to a 2005 poll ranked it as the third most popular wedding song in the United Kingdom. I even read a few years back where some British churches used the song in worship services. The song might not spring to mind as a classic Bond theme, but Armstrong still provided a rare moment of grace.
4. Tom Jones, “Thunderball,” from Thunderball (1965)
The second song to appear over the title sequence of a Bond film has an interesting history. Initially, Barry and lyricist Leslie Bricusse penned a song titled “Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” named for an Italian journalist’s nickname for 007. United Artists balked, insisting that the song have the same title as the movie. Barry teamed up with Don Black to rush out a new title song.
Johnny Cash also submitted a song but the studio rejected it. Check it out here.
Tom Jones gave one of his bravura performances on “Thunderball” but not without paying a price. Jones passed out after belting the climactic high note. Years later he said:
I closed my eyes and I held the note for so long when I opened my eyes the room was spinning.
“Thunderball” continued a new tradition: dramatic title songs that set the tone for the whole film.
Definitely Adele. She’s got the style for it.
Barry seems to have done for Bond what Williams did for Star Wars. The effect musical scores can have on a film’s credibility or affect the tone is interesting. Look at how Bernard Herrman’s scores worked in Hitchcock films and how smart they were to use him in Jason and the Argonauts and Mysterious Island, giving kids fantasy a rather more serious tone. Look at how Herrman’s music was used against type in Taxi Driver. For me it’s Thunderball: the amount of elegance the music lends to this womanizing spy can’t be overstated.
“Oddly enough, by 1987, the band’s U.S. chart career burned as hot as a Scandinavian winter”
Whether Living Daylights is a good song or not is a matter of opinion (I thought it was great, but then I was 12 when it came out!).
However, the success of the band is a matter of fact, and regardless of how well they sold in the US, it’s not the only country in the world. A-ha were hugely successful before 1987, and were hugely successful afterwards. They followed the movie release with a 74-city World Tour, and their 1988 album Stay On These Roads sold more than 4.2 million copies worldwide. Their next album sold 3.2 million copies worldwide. In 1991 they broke the world record for a paying concert audience, drawing 198,000 at Maracanã stadium.
They are a one hit wonder:” take on me”. More for the video than for the music. They are still cashing on it. Beside that nobody remenbeer them. I have not lived in the USA since 1972.
I agree with this list with one exception. I kinda like the Duran Duran tune, but it is one instance where I think the song is better than the movie. There once was a video on YouTube where someone took the opening credits to OCTOPUSSY, stripped out the Rita Coolidge song, and replaced it with Gino Vanelli’s “Nightwalker.” It synced up perfectly and worked quite well. I tried to find it, but it seems to have disappeared.
Throw out one of the top five and replace with “Goldeneye”
Don’t dare bump Shirley’s GOLD-FEEN-GA!
And who could ever forget…..
“Diamonds are foreVAH, foreVAH, foreVAH…….”
…made my top five!!!
Gee, I thought I was the only one who was a fanatic of the opening titles and songs to the James Bond movies. I generally agree with your song evaluations: in my opinion however, Madonna’s song was absolutely, without any doubt whatsoever, the worst! It was a shame because the visual title was actually pretty interesting.
Despite what the songwriter said for the other song for Thunderball, I’ve listened to “Mr. kiss kiss bang bang” and it stinks! There were only a couple of artists brave enough to attempt the recording. Here I have to side with the producers and say they did the right thing with Tom Jone’s Thunderball!
Which brings me to my final point (and the most important in my opinion): what the heck has happened to the visual titles??!!! The visual titles to the last two James bond movies stink! A PLEA to the producers: come on guys the visual titles are part of the James Bond experience!!!!!
Put a little effort into it!!!!
I thought the poker-themed graphics in Casino Royale were great.
I think he was referring to light and shadow and incredibly flexible nude female bodies. Of course I could be wrong.
“Thanks For The Memories”.
I can hear the resounding “Goldfinger” music in my head again. I am one of the few that bought the theme song album on 7″ tape.
“Goodnight Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are”.
I can listen to Shirley Bassey belting out “Goldfinger” any time, to say nothing of her performances on “Diamonds Are Forever” and “Moonraker”. The same goes for Nancy Sinatra singing “You Only Live Twice”, probably the most evocative 007 theme in the entire series.
By comparison, when I watch my DVD of “Thunderball”, I hit “mute” during the titles to shield myself from Tom Jones’ godawful yowling. Matt Munro could have done a much better job with that song. He was the vocalist who did the theme song to “From Russia With Love” in ’63.
Other 007 themes I like include “Man With The Golden Gun” and “For Your Eyes Only”. My all-time favorite 007 theme, oddly enough, is Barry’s all-instrumental “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”, with no vocal.
But then, I’ve always thought that Barry’s scores were often the high points of any Bond movie. He seemed to have had an affinity for aircraft; listen to the theme in “Goldfinger” as Pussy Galore’s flight comes sweeping in over Fort Knox, or the Hercules takeoff from “The Living Daylights”.
Outside of the 007 films, I’ve always thought that the only good thing about the awful Disney sci-fi flick “The Black Hole” (1979) was Barry’s unique score. Sometimes triumphant but more often eerie, it came out on a 33 1/3 LP, which I have. So I can listen to it without having to sit through the movie itself, of which the less said the better.
“Serious” musicologists consider film scores a somehow inferior form of musical composition; I’ve heard some people refer to Jerry Goldsmith as “ersatz Wagner”. But after all, symphonies were originally written to entertain audiences before movies even existed, and opera is basically a stage play set to music. I think film scores are just as legitimate an area of music, especially orchestral music, as any other.
And in that area, along with Jerry Goldsmith, Ennio Morricone, and Maurice Jarre’, John Barry has to be considered one of the all-time masters.
cheers
eon
Sorry, but the Goldfinger theme is cheezy and severely dated. It just screams 1960s pastels and polyester bellbottoms and 60s style Big Hair; the real cheezy pop-jazz of the 60s comes out in that song. The only reason to like it is that you know a Bond film is going to begin after it’s over.
When ever I hear “Goldfinger” I think “Laugh-in” as far as style and fashion goes.
I’ll never forget a joke that was on the very old “America 2 Night” show with Martin Mull. They had a faux guest on their show that said he lost on “Name That Tune”. He said he could name the tune in 3 notes, but lost because he couldn’t tell the difference between “Goldfinger” and “Moon River”. Think about it!
I think you missed the theme for A Quantum of Solace as the absolute worst. Ever.
How could you leave out Dr. No?? The Dr. No theme song is the signature Bond song and bits of it and it’s memorable guitar riff have been in almost every bond film.
Sorry, there’s no such thing as “synthesizer overuse.” If anything in the world of music has been overused it’s the electric guitar. Synths have always been a nice change from the nonsense of “grind, grind, look at how cool I am playing this axe!”
And speaking of overuse, the problem with “Live and Let Die” is that the damned tune is used for just about every scene in the film. My God! Make it stop!
Not only is Shirley Bassey’s magnificent redition of the “Goldfinger” theme one of the all-time great movie songs, the entire John Barry score qualifies fo the all-time Top 10. Barry’s use of subdued brass scoring gives a dark and sinister shading to all of the scenes with Auric Goldfiner. Whenever there is action; like the scene where Goldfinger and his associates blow the gates of Fort Know, the score leaps into thrilling life with blasts of woodwinds and crashing cymbals. I used to have the “Goldfinger” sountrack on vinyl and I wore it out during my grad student days as a source or inspiration. This piece inspires me to order it on CD.
Bruno Mars or something from Amy Winehouse..
“Live and Let Die” is by far the best Bond song–not only is it a great song performed by a music legend (and I’ve seen him do it twice in concert–amazing!) but the title perfectly sums up the Bond philosophy. (And one we should adopt regarding Islamists, but that’s another matter….)
I’d like to see U2 do the new Bond theme.
Sort of odd to me that no respondent has mentioned the lush John Barry tune from “From Russia With Love” as a favorite. It is mine, and it was perhaps odd that Matt Munro’s singing was reserved for the end of the film instead of leading it, but it worked. Barry was a master in creating a theme for the film; listen to the interview with him in the Out Of Africa DVD where he shares his thought process on this.
Agree with Mike in KC. Goldeneye is the best (and most Bond-ish) theme song there’s been in 30 years (it profited mightily by having been written by U2′s Bono and The Edge.) I quite like Garbage’s The World Is Not Enough, and Sheena Easton’s For Your Eyes Only is worth a mention.
“Sorry, but the Goldfinger theme is cheezy and severely dated. It just screams 1960s pastels and polyester bellbottoms and 60s style Big Hair; the real cheezy pop-jazz of the 60s comes out in that song.”
Right you are! No way Gold-Feen-Ga can live up to the classy OSCAR-WINNING theme “It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp.” When it comes to music, we’re definitely moving in the right direction.
That’s a bit of a bizarre response. What has the theme song from a 2005 movie got to do with Goldfinger, or any criticisms of Goldfinger? The merits or otherwise of the latter have nothing to do with the former.
While the movie wasn’t good, “The World is Not Enough” by Garbage was a GREAT Bond song.
Agreed. It’s one of my favorite songs from the band
I think “Moonraker” should have been in the Top 5 along with “We Have All the Time in the World.” Both were co-written by Hall of Fame lyricist Hal David.
I think they ought to use PeeWee Herman as vocalist for the “Skyfall” song. It’ll reinvigorate his career.
One of the best Bond closing songs, at least from the later-era films, was Chrissie Hynde’s “If There was a Man” from The Living Daylights. It was also one of her last gasps as an unadulterated pop star, before leftwing activism seemed to become more important to her than her music.
SKYFALL, . . . BILLY JOEL
At first, I thought you’d be overly generous in picking the top 5, since “Goldfinger” and “Live And Let Die” were the only decent tunes I could immediately remember. But the other three selections were decent filler.
For the next one, I’d like to suggest Ted Nugent.
Just wanted to chime in to second the vote above for Sheena Easton’s “For Your Eyes Only,” and to mildly chide that “You Know My Name” wasn’t given more than a mention. When I saw Casino Royale I wasn’t sure that Craig was going to make the cut as the new 007, but after the stunning opening and that song blasted out over the opening titles, neither I nor the rest of the audience in that theater had any doubts, and were hooked right up to the end, when the traditional Monty Norman music kicked in at just the right moment.
Can’t argue with the choices on all the great themes, but I confess that my favorite is, ahem, “A View to a Kill.” I never paid attention to the lyrics or the video. I guess none of us teenage girls in 1985 did. I just love that song. I have no taste.
It’s funny how Duran Duran has always been so hated, even though they’re actually pretty decent (speaking as someone who is not, and never has been a teen aged girl). Then again, I think the author of this article just didn’t like 80s music as evidenced by his ignorance of a-ha.
I think “A View to a Kill” is probably the 2nd best Bond song after “Live & Let Die”.
And c’mon, “Dance into the fire”? Isn’t that one of the most evocative phrases you’ve heard in a song?
Certainly Adele. But I think Toni Braxton or Gladys Knight can land a major hit on the chart with no effort. But likely they’ll chase Beyonce first. Or Carrie Underwood. It’s about time a country act like Lady Anrebellum had a shot at the title.
While Madonna deserves a good trashing, I think some of the recent James Bond themes deserve more attention too.
I throutfully enjoyed Casino Royale (You know my name) and The World Is Not Enough theme songs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg5lI6NCBxE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C5NLfYdZaE
I also think that since this is a British copyright and story, they should stick to British artists/composers.
James Bond movie fanatic Warren Zevon REALLY should have been offered the chance to do a Bond theme.
you know my name and that title sequence absolutely catapulted the Bond franchise right into the 21st century. A-ma-zing.
I tend to like all of the sequences, though. They are such perfect artifacts of what is cool- the opening- what causes anxiety- the villainous plots- what we want- the girls- how rough we are- the bond’s experience- what authority looks like- MMMMs and QQQQs. They aren’t severable, if you will.
Billy Joel…yes, that would be correct for the new movie.
Does anyone have a you tube of Joel singing the National Anthem, Game 1 of the World Series in 1988 at Dodger Stadium?
Acapela in the finest..still gives me goosebumps when I hear it in my memories of that game..oh, and Kirk Gibson’s homer in the ninth while knee was barely functioning..
Watched that game. remember Gibson’s swat, knew it was coming and my patience was rewarded. On the anthem…who? what? Sorry, I’m a fan of late 60′s early 70′s prog rockers.
1. Guilty pleasure: I like “All Time High” by Coolidge. Of course, I could listen to Rita’s voice reading a cake recipe and enjoy it.
2. Adele would be a knockout choice for the next one.
“Nobody Does It Better”, Carly Simon from “The Spy Who Loved Me” is my favorite Bond tune, and my choice for artist would be Nora Jones.
“Goldfinger” rates high, but my favorite Bond song is the haunting “For Your Eyes Only” by Sheena Easton. Beautiful melody, great performance.
“Yes, considerably.” With just those two words, Daniel Craig BECAME James Bond. The slam-bang theme that followed should have erased any doubts: “You Know My Name.” Perfect. Brilliant. (Let’s just forget all of the shaky-cammed hyper-edited nonsense from “Quantum of Solace” — except for the last 5 minutes — and look forward to “Skyfall”, shall we? Thank you.) “Casino Royale” was as near to perfect as a Bond movie could get, due in no small part to the music. It managed to be classic, modern, familiar, and unique all at the same time. And it’s a crying shame that it didn’t make the list.
Before I read even one sentence of this article, I knew that Gohhhhhhld-Feen-Gah and Live And Let Die would be battling for top spots. <> The latter has three verses, two of which are identical. Of course, I’m being generous here. If that’s the chorus, the song only has one verse. (One verse for a Bond theme? Rubbish!) And the former? Let’s just say it hasn’t aged well and neither has the movie. Seriously. Watch it the next time it’s on TNT. Doesn’t it seem supremely silly? The “action”? The “romance”? And don’t even get me started on the blatantly visible strings holding the planes up. The only reason “Goldfinger” is still ranked so high is due to one clever line of dialogue: “No, Mister Bond, I expect you to die!” It’s the only time you really believe the villain means what he says.
In the top five, I would replace them with “You Know My Name” for the aforementioned reasons, as well as the overlooked “For Your Eyes Only”, the song and the movie that rescued the Bond franchise after the disaster that was “Moonraker”, and the movie that saved United Artists after the disaster that was “Heaven’s Gate”.
“You Only Live Twice” should definitely have been in the five best.
Nancy Sinatra couldn’t sing for squat, but still, that terrific John Barry/Leslie Bricusse tune has been much covered, and deservedly so. Lovely song.
The music made the Bond films and the music was the original theme.
The songs were distractions capitalising on the original genius.
But why is it attributed to Monty Norman? I know there was a dispute, but if you take another Barry theme, Beat Girl, which came out some time before Dr No, the similarities are fairly clear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF0PRzi5vRk&feature=related .