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March 28, 2024, 09:46:13 PM

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Best ever Bond tunes

Started by beanheadmcginty, October 05, 2021, 03:37:12 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

lipsink

I'm sure they must've tried to get Bjork or Massive Attack for the late 90s Bond themes as both would've been just absolutely perfect.

Noodle Lizard

Quote from: lipsink on October 06, 2021, 08:58:34 PM
I'm sure they must've tried to get Bjork or Massive Attack for the late 90s Bond themes as both would've been just absolutely perfect.

And when neither of them were available ... Garbage!

It's a good one, though, I'll defend it. One of the few times where they managed to successfully fuse "contemporary" with the Bond theme essence. Compare and contrast Madonna's dreadful entry for Die Another Day.

lipsink

Yeah, the Garbage one was pretty decent. Probably second best to Tina Turner's 'GoldenEye' (which sounds painfully 90s now) from Brosnan's era.

I kinda wished they'd take more chances with the Bond theme over the last few films cos it really paid off with Chris Cornell's 'You Know My Name' which is just excellent.

Noodle Lizard

Quote from: lipsink on October 06, 2021, 09:10:14 PM
Yeah, the Garbage one was pretty decent. Probably second best to Tina Turner's 'GoldenEye' (which sounds painfully 90s now) from Brosnan's era.

I kinda wished they'd take more chances with the Bond theme over the last few films cos it really paid off with Chris Cornell's 'You Know My Name' which is just excellent.

Perhaps I need to give that one another listen. I remember it being "fine enough", but not much more than that. They've all been a bit moody lately, but I suppose that fits in with the Craig era in general. Not one of them would I want to listen to on their own steam, whereas I still find myself playing some of the older ones for fun.

The Man With The Golden Gun has been stuck in my head for the past two days thanks to this thread.

mothman

The Cornell one is a banger. Unquestionably the best from the Craig era. Adele is second, but only because of the sheer mediocrity of the others. I can't even remember how the latest one goes. I guess I'll find out - tomorrow night!

Catalogue Trousers

Obligatory mention that Muse's Supremacy is a much more kick-arse track than Skyfall and would have given some much-needed welly to the opening of that film.

Dusty Substance


I don't dig the Chris Cornell song as much as others do. It's still way better than Jack White/Alicia Keys and Sam Smith but the songs from the Craig era goes....

1. Adele
2. Billie
(gap)
3. Cornell
(big gap)
4. Jack White/Alicia Keys
(gap the size of the universe)
5. Sam Smith

mothman

Over time I've come to appreciate QoS (the film) a lot more - it's simply lacking a lot of scenes that couldn't be written because of the strike. The song, however, is irredeemable.

neov1974

some fine work in this thread, I wanted to contribute but it was basically nailed inside the first three posts

Capsule in space / 007 and counting an unbelievably good duo for me

lipsink

I'd rate the Bond themes for each actor as follows (too difficult to rate overall):

Connery:

1. Dr No (it's just the James Bond theme isn't it? Not including Three Blind Mice)
2. Goldfinger
3. You Only Live Twice
4. Diamonds Are Forever
5. From Russia With Love
6. Thunderball

Lazenby:

1. We Have All The Time In The World
2.OHMSS

Moore:
1. Live And Let Die
2. Nobody Does It Better
3. A View To A Kill
4. For Your Eyes Only
5. Moonraker
6. The Man With The Golden Gun
7. All Time High

Dalton:
1. The Living Daylights ( I must be alone in really liking this)
2. Licence To Kill

Brosnan:
1. GoldenEye
2. The World Is Not Enough
3. Tomorrow Never Dies
4. Die Another Day

Craig:
1. You Know My Name (also think it has the best title sequence of all the Bond films)
2. Skyfall
3. No Time To Die
4. Writing's On The Wall (I actually don't mind this as much as most people. The big main string bit it opens with is pretty decent)
5. Another Way To Die

Dusty Substance

Quote from: lipsink on October 06, 2021, 10:01:55 PM
1. The Living Daylights ( I must be alone in really liking this)

I bloody love it.

lipsink

Quote from: Dusty Substance on October 06, 2021, 10:09:25 PM
I bloody love it.

Aye, it's bloody marvellous. I love how 80s it sounds too.

non capisco

Quote from: lipsink on October 06, 2021, 10:01:55 PM
1. The Living Daylights ( I must be alone in really liking this)

You're not, it's one of my favourites. A View To A Kill and The Living Daylights are a double bill of ultra-80s, brash whistles and bells bangers. Then it was back to Gladys Knight doing a pretty boring Goldfinger clone. I think John Barry resented having these youngsters foisted on him, he and the members of A-Ha apparently couldn't stand each other.


Old Nehamkin


mothman

I really like All Time High. It's a rubbish choice for a Bond theme, regularly chosen as the worst (after Die Another Day anyway), but I like it as a song. It's just completely unsuitable for what it's meant to represent.

The entire run of theme songs looked at as s as whole presents some really quite perplexing anomalies. You do wonder what they were thinking half the time.

Captain Z

Quote from: lipsink on October 06, 2021, 08:58:34 PM
I'm sure they must've tried to get Bjork or Massive Attack for the late 90s Bond themes as both would've been just absolutely perfect.

Bjork and David Arnold's Play Dead basically sounds like the theme to a non-existent Bond film.

SweetPomPom

https://youtu.be/fZewG-NUJ7M
Not a main theme but JB's "Do You Know How Christmas Trees Are Born?" from OHMSS should have been a proper Xmas hit.

George White

I think it would appear on variety shows.
I remember seeing a clip of children singing it on CITV's Matthew Kelly vehicle MadAbout.
Nina does it on a Morecambe and Wise.

As for Bond incidentals, I love the 'sitcom movie goes to Spain' majesty of Bill Conti's For Your Eyes Only soundtrack's San Martin - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gcd-YxrfXx0

George White

Quote from: Captain Z on October 07, 2021, 12:57:30 AM
Bjork and David Arnold's Play Dead basically sounds like the theme to a non-existent Bond film.
Well, yes.Though the Young Americans is a strange aul film.

buzby

Quote from: non capisco on October 06, 2021, 10:23:26 PM
You're not, it's one of my favourites. A View To A Kill and The Living Daylights are a double bill of ultra-80s, brash whistles and bells bangers. Then it was back to Gladys Knight doing a pretty boring Goldfinger clone. I think John Barry resented having these youngsters foisted on him, he and the members of A-Ha apparently couldn't stand each other.
Same here. The band and Barry indeed did not get along well.  Pal wrote the song and Barry then tried to do his usual thing and add the typical Bond orchestral elements into it, which the band objected to, and could only be coerced into accepting them after being allowed to make some changes to them, a cardinal sin in Barry's eyes (apparently he compared them to Hitler Youth members in a subsequent press interview). Pal also objected to Barry getting a songwriting credit, as he was only adding orchestration based on the original backing (duran duran also made a similar complaint over A View to A Kill). They were in the middle of recording their second album at the time and the song was eventually included on their third album, but it was their original version with most of of Barry's additions stripped out.

I'm also a fan of the Garbage Bond theme (despite my dislike of the band in general) and bought it as a single. I think it was the best thing they did.

Jerzy Bondov

Never heard that album version of Living Daylights. It's even better than the one in the film! What a smash.

I really like Another Way to Die but it would suit a slightly wackier Bond a bit better. It's a shame that Skyfall was such a success because then they just chased that for Spectre and No Time To Die.

colacentral

I just worked out why Skyfall is so shit. If you've seen the Shirley Bassey episode of Rock Profiles, it's exactly how Matt Lucas would sing his piss take version if you gave him the word "Skyfall," ie the most cliche, half arsed first attempt at what Adele thinks a Bond theme should sound like, being only vaguely familiar with them.

Johnny Textface

Tell you what, the Madonna one was gash wasn't it?

studpuppet

Quote from: Captain Z on October 07, 2021, 12:57:30 AM
Bjork and David Arnold's Play Dead basically sounds like the theme to a non-existent Bond film.

I think Bjork did this for that David Arnold album, and it's by far the best Bond theme that never was:

You Only Live Twice

bgmnts

Quote from: colacentral on October 07, 2021, 10:51:40 AM
I just worked out why Skyfall is so shit. If you've seen the Shirley Bassey episode of Rock Profiles, it's exactly how Matt Lucas would sing his piss take version if you gave him the word "Skyfall," ie the most cliche, half arsed first attempt at what Adele thinks a Bond theme should sound like, being only vaguely familiar with them.

Funny you say this as that is literally how i say Skyfall. It works so well.

Bad Ambassador

Quote from: bgmnts on October 07, 2021, 12:52:29 PM
Funny you say this as that is literally how i say Skyfall. It works so well.

It works even better as a club singer.

"When the sky fowww, see a cumbowww..."

beanheadmcginty

Quote from: Captain Z on October 07, 2021, 12:57:30 AM
Bjork and David Arnold's Play Dead basically sounds like the theme to a non-existent Bond film.

"Pay attention 007. This is your new Vauxhall Vectra"

Ant Farm Keyboard

Quote from: studpuppet on October 07, 2021, 12:35:21 PM
I think Bjork did this for that David Arnold album, and it's by far the best Bond theme that never was:

You Only Live Twice

She did this for the Arnold project, but it wasn't on the album, as she thought it didn't offer anything compared to the original.

buzby

Quote from: colacentral on October 07, 2021, 10:51:40 AM
I just worked out why Skyfall is so shit. If you've seen the Shirley Bassey episode of Rock Profiles, it's exactly how Matt Lucas would sing his piss take version if you gave him the word "Skyfall," ie the most cliche, half arsed first attempt at what Adele thinks a Bond theme should sound like, being only vaguely familiar with them.
Indeed, and like Bad Ambassador it always morphs into club singer style whenever the song comes to mind.

When the insipid Sam Smith number was chosen for SPECTRE I was rooting for Sia to get the gig based on Kill And Run, the extremely Bond-esque Bassey homage she wrote with frequent collaborator Chris Braide for the closing titles of The Great Gatsby.

Harry Badger

#59
Quote from: Bad Ambassador on October 07, 2021, 01:26:59 PM
It works even better as a club singer.

"When the sky fowww, see a cumbowww..."

I remember being drunk chatting to a busker outside a pub not long after the film came out. Jokingly I said, 'go on then, how about Skyfall?'. We both began singing it in the club style without any prompting. Clearly this is a widely recognised phenomenon with that song.