Time's Best and Worst Bond Songs

[gherman]

FYI

The boys hit the best list.

Goldeneye, Tina Turner
Composed by Bono and the Edge and sung by Tina Turner, who gets into the same vocal space as Shirley Bassey; she's a little camp, but not so camp that you can't enjoy the song as light entertainment

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

The worst ones are pretty funny:

THE WORST

All Time High, Rita Coolidge
From the dreadful Octopussy, this love ballad presses all the wrong buttons. A perfect encapsulation of all the was wrong with the late Roger Moore era.

You Know My Name, Chris Cornell
You Know My Name? Most people can't even name the movie. This dull as dust rock tune from Casino Royale barely registered.

Thunderball, Tom Jones
Read the title, read the name of the person singing it — then multiply your worst case scenario x10.

Tomorrow Never Dies, Sheryl Crow
Crow beat out more than a dozen other submitted songs with her overly-orchestrated ballad. k.d. Lang's performance of Surrender, which played over the end credits, was far superior.

Another Way to Die, Jack White and Alicia Keys
One problem is that White and Keys have no audible chemistry. Another is that their song has no chorus. But mostly it's that lo-fi guitar fuzz suits Bond about as well as a rented tux.

the Thunderball one

 

[corianderstem]

That Sheryl Crow theme was horrid.

I hope a-ha and Duran Duran got some love on the list. Ooh, and Garbage. That's a good song.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

Sadly not for both:

THE BEST

Nobody Does it Better, Carly Simon
Carole Bayer Sager's words are legitimately sexy while the music by Marvin Hamlisch uses every cliché in the composer's arsenal to build to a syrupy but irresistible coda.

We Have All The Time in the World, Louis Armstrong
The delicate ballad from Her Majesty's Secret Service answers the question: what would it sound like of Louis Armstrong met Burt Bacharach? It sounds good.

For Your Eyes Only, Sheena Easton
A truly horrible song by any measure — except the Bond theme measure. Easton crams in the lyrical double-entendres just in case we forget we're at the peak of the Roger Moore-era and never misses an opportunity to over-emote. To hear Easton sing it, James Bond isn't just keeping the world safe from baddies, he's keeping our hearts safe, too.

Goldeneye, Tina Turner
Composed by Bono and the Edge and sung by Tina Turner, who gets into the same vocal space as Shirley Bassey; she's a little camp, but not so camp that you can't enjoy the song as light entertainment.

Goldfinger, Shirley Bassey
Less a song than an alphorn to herd people into movie theaters, Bassey walks the line between seduction and camp with the same dexterity as Sean Connery.

I'm surprised the most by no Live And Let Die, I would have figured that would be a shoe in

 

[U2DMfan]

C'mon the Chris Cornell and Jack White songs don't belong alongside fucking Tom Jones.

 

[purpleoscar]

YouTube - We Have All the Time in the World - Louis Armstrong

I love this one.

 

[Cin]

Tom Jones the worst?

 

[intedomine]

Duran Duran's 'A View To A Kill' was the best I reckon, along with Shirley Bassey's 'Goldfinger'.

Agree with the sentiment about the Keys-White song. Absolute bollocks, as I'd expect if Jack White's involved.

 

[purpleoscar]

I have a soft spot for this one:

YouTube - Aha - The Living Daylights

This is cool for the old ones:

YouTube - "You Only Live Twice" opening w/ music by Nancy Sinatra

I think John Barry is a big reason why certain songs did well.

 

[pepokiss]

I love Garbage's "The World Is Not Enough"

 

[U2girl]

They haven't been any good after Goldeneye.

 

[DevilsShoes]

Madonna's Die Another Day is by far my least favourite, Bond themes need to have plenty of melodic and orchestral sweep, this one just sounded odd and out of place.

I've been listening to the Keys-White song alot lately, yeah it doesn't really have a hook and seems to meander a bit around the middle, but at least they stuck pretty closely to the overall Bond formula.

On the whole I agree with the list, Goldeneye's one of the most underated themes, great lyrics, great melody and Tina Turners vocal is superb, its certainly up there with Nobody Does It Better.

 

[Aardvark747]

I love Garbage's "The World Is Not Enough"

Me too. Madonna's is the worst.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

It might have a little bit to do with me being such a huge fan of the series but I love most of the James Bond songs that have been done over the years. There have been some weaker ones recently, I'll agree with that.

The greatest of all, though, is unquestionably "Goldfinger" (it also happens to be the best movie in the series). And it reminds me of this classic scene...

YouTube - the cranes singing goldfinger

 

[An Cat Gav]

The Madonna one is by far the worst, even crappier than that sheena easton one.
Duran Duran's one was great, as was Live and Let Die, the shirley basseys, but the best was indeed Carly Simon with nobody does it better.
Am I only the person who thinks the jack white was is fairly disappointing?? Chris Cornell's one was surprisingly enjoyable though.

 

[Simon_DK]

I think You Only Live Twice, Goldeneye and Nobody Does It Better are far the best Bond songs ever! Tomorrow Never Dies and the new one sucks! It should have Swan Lee's (danish band ) Tomorrow Never Dies, it has much more of a Bond theme quality to it.

 

[TheFlyOnTheWall]

I really, really like "Another Way to Die"... No chorus? I find it refreshing...
A very rockish Bond tune... I love the guitars on it, as well as the drums!

Oh, and Goldeneye really is golden!

 

[purpleoscar]

YouTube - Goldfinger theme intro

YouTube - Gladys Knight - "License To Kill"

Do you notice the similarities of the string section?

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

IGN has a much better list imo:

IGN: Top 10 James Bond Theme Songs

No Goldeneye though...

 

[corianderstem]

I'd completely forgotten about the Madonna track. I love Madonna, but that is a shitty, shitty song.

 

[Zooropa man]

Are you fricking kidding me!!!! Madonna's song is the worst thing that could have ever been put together!!!

 

[purpleoscar]

Are you fricking kidding me!!!! Madonna's song is the worst thing that could have ever been put together!!!

Sigmund Freud analyze this, analyze this, analyze this this this....

 

[Scorpionac]

Do you notice the similarities of the string section?

Actually, the framework for Licence to Kill was Goldfinger's melody. They had to credit Goldfinger's writers because of it.

Anyways, I really like the theme to 'Moonraker'. Stupid lyrics, really stupid movie, but who doesn't like John Barry.

 

[Saracene]

I'd completely forgotten about the Madonna track. I love Madonna, but that is a shitty, shitty song.

I absolutely *loathe* that song (though I do like the video clip with Good Madonna battling Evil Madonna, ).

I just listened to Another Way To Die and IMO it's just marginally better than Die Another Day I love Jack White and I love unconventional duets but he and Alicia Keys don't work together at all and the whole song is shambles.