Inspired by this thread that I just posted.
When all is said and done, I’d have to go with “You Only Live Twice”.
Die Another Day for me, although I realise that’s not a popular opinion.
Diamonds Are Forever, Live And Let Die, A View To A Kill and We Have All The Time In The World are my other favourites.
Tough choice, but I went with Live and Let Die. *Thunderball *and *Goldfinger *would be my next picks.
You forgot Never Say Never Again, and the 1967 Casino Royale (Awful movie, but Burt Bacharach’s theme musichas many admirers)
The best has to be Dr No, which has become the James Bond theme for all the following movies.
It’s certainly not, but I can’t, for the life of me, figure out why. I think it’s a catchy li’l tune, and there are certainly far, far worse Bond theme songs to choose from (Sheryl Crow or Garbage, anyone?)
I think it’s just too far from what people would expect from a Bond theme, and also Madonna was going through a rough patch in her career at the time, not to mention that Die Another Day is roundly regarded as one of the worst Bond films (at least I’ve always had that impression).
It just all stacked up against the song which is a shame because it is honestly a fantastic production and very adventurous. Madonna could have done a big ballad or something a bit safer, like the movie themes she did in the early nineties, but I think she was quite brave.
The music video was out-of-this-world amazing too.
Oh, you’ve definitely got the right impression. I was going to say that Madonna’s theme song was one of the very few good things about the movie (it certainly isn’t Halle Berry’s laughable (as usual) performance).
I see “Goldfinger” and “Live and Let Die” are currently tied for the lead. “Goldfinger” should have the honor.
“Goldfinger” is a kick-ass song in it’s own right, but also actually relates directly to the story/movie, describing the title character.
“Live and Let Die,” on the other hand, is a catchy enough tune but only addresses the general concept of “live and let die,” and does not really relate specifically to the story/movie. Plus it has that godawful line “in which we live in.” For all his talent, McCartney should have taken the honorable route and killed himself for coming up with that travesty.
A View To A Kill, is my favorite. It’s such a campy song, it puts me in the mood to watch a Bond film.
I also went for Live and Let Die as I couldn’t vote for the 1967 Casino Royale.
Goldfinger is the example of everything I associate with Bond movies, right down to the theme song
“in which we’re livin.” You’re welcome.
Another vote for Goldfinger. I love that song, and I love Shirley Bassey’s voice.
Another vote for Goldfinger. The rest of the Shirley Bassey numbers are right up there.
Apparently this has been much discussed on the web, including here on the Dope, where Misnomer wrote: “According to the liner notes from McCartney’s All The Best! album, the lyrics are: But if this ever-changing world in which we live in…”
Then again, maybe I spoke too soon. The next post in the thread I linked above, by rfgdxm, links to this which says:
*Those are certainly the published lyrics to “Live and Let Die”. The
published lyrics to “Hi Hi Hi” also say “body gun” instead of what
Paul insists the lyrics are/were - “polygon”. There are quite a few
examples of the published (i.e. copyrighted) lyrics being incorrect as
per the writer. “Live and Let Die”, if you listen to the song (both
the recorded and any one of several live versions), is another example
of the published lyrics being incorrect.
He clearly sings and has sung “ever changing world in which we’re
living”. *
I can’t say he clearly sings that to my ear (if it was clear, there wouldn’t be all this discussion about it). I can’t make a compelling case either way at this point. Now I have to live with the distressing possibility that there’s one less thing to make merciless fun of in this ever-changing world in which…
Okay, I just carefully listened to the studio version and a live version by McCartney. I think he’s saying “we live in” for two reasons. One, there’s somewhat of a “long E” sound to it, where I think “we’re” would sound more like “whirr” than like “weer.” Two, the amount of time devoted to that syllable sounds a bit too short for “we’re,” which takes a few microseconds longer to say than “we.” Can’t prove it, but I think the evidence points to “we live in.”
This is a pretty tough question – I went with *Goldfinger *too, although I could choose any of about four others on a different day.
I recently downloaded an MP3 album with all of the themes (up through You Know My Name from *Casino Royale *-- which is in my list of top five); it’s an interesting experience to listen to them in chronological order. You get a sense of how musical tastes have changed in the last (nearly) five decades (going from lush strings in the mid-60s to softer sounds in the 70s [Live and Let Die excepted], to 80s synth-pop, to the modern and louder styles of Garbage and Chris Cornell), but they all sound like “a Bond song.” The songs themselves definitely cue images from the movies, which have changed in tenor and tone as well.
Some of the older themes, like We Have All the Time in the World and You Only Live Twice, didn’t used to appeal to me, but they’ve certainly grown on me since downloading the album. Die Another Die, although it’s relatively new, has definitely grown on me as well.
I’m the only one who’s picked Lulu’s “The Man with the Golden Gun”, eh?
Apparently nobody else is in love with Tom Jones. D: