This may be an unfair question, in a way. Bond movies go all the way back to the early 1960s, and their theme songs have ranged the gamut in style and tone. So I guess there should be a lot of answers to this. I rank them thusly:
1 - “Nobody Does It Better” by Carly Simon, from “The Spy Who Loved Me.”
2 - “Live and Let Die Theme” by Wings. Movie same name.
3 - “Goldeneye” by Tina Turner. Movie same name.
4 - “The Man With the Golden Gun Theme” by Lulu. Movie same name. Not as well-known as the others on this list, I’ll bet. The song itself isn’t so great, but Lulu’s performance brings a lot to it. Listen to it here.
5 - “For Your Eyes Only” by Sheena Easton. Movie same name.
I’m not sure where to put “James Bond Theme” from “Dr. No.” If memory serves me correctly, this music was not what played over the opening credits. If it was, then it goes to the head of the list, since that music is now definitive of James Bond.
This list begins and ends with Shirley Bassey’s “Goldfinger.” They should have used Shirley Bassey’s cover of “Thunderball” instead of Tom Jones’, “Diamonds Are Forever” is merely serviceable and “Moonraker” is just forgettable. Anyone who goes in another direction is just trying to be contrary juuuuuuust to be different.
I’m probably in a minority that really, really liked Madonna’s vocalizing of “Die Another Day”-- the best post-90s Bond theme song to date.
I’ll throw in an honorable mention for Louis Armstrongs’s “We’ve Got All The Time In The World”, the mid-movie vocal interlude underscoring James’ doomed romance with Tracy in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.”
I’m prepared to admit my memory may be faulty, as I’ve only seen the Lazenby outing once, a long time ago, but wasn’t the song repeated at the end, as he cradled her dying body? In my memory it made me cry (and also wasn’t that the last song Armstrong ever recorded, or am I falsely increasing the tearjerker stakes here?).
I know that Bond says to the cop who drives up to his car after the shooting, “We’ve got all the time in the world, you see.” Maybe that’s what made you cry. I don’t remember the song playing, but I could be wrong.
Louis Armstrong died in 1971, OHMSS debuted in '69, so it probably wasn’t his last song recorded.
Goldfinger, of course.
Live and Let Die - the actual ‘over the credits’ version, not the variants from within the movie.
A View to a Kill (by Duran Duran) - which is officially my favourite.
The only music from Thunderball that should even be considered is the scrapped-at-the-last-minute “Mr. Kiss-Kiss-Bang-Bang,” sung by Dionne Warwick, that was the basis for much of Barry’s instrumental bits throughout the movie. (That nickname for Bond was what people in Japan were calling the character.)
Similarly, “We Have All the Time in the World” was also used heavily in instrumental versions in OHMSS, in scenes with Bond and Tracy.
My favorite? Varies: the instrumental OHMSS theme, “Diamonds are Forever,” “You Only Live Twice,” and “The Spy Who Loved Me”. At this moment, “Diamonds”.
Tuckerfan. Much as I hate to insinuate a Broccoli production compilation of James Bond themes just mii-iii-ight not be the last word on Louis Armstrong’s career, here are three different cites that say he re-recorded one of his best known songs, “What A Wonderful World,” (though not the version everyone knows) in May the year I was born, 1970, on an album with 9 other songs.
