Blarg. Voted Goldeneye, meant to pick Goldfinger. Ah well, I like that one too.
I never got the hate for this song either. I like it.
Still, there’s a bunch I like better. I voted for Goldfinger. But Live and Let Die, The Spy Who Loved Me or Diamonds Are Forever could be my vote on another day.
Only ones that are good are:
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World is Not Enough - By far the best and where my vote is
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All Time High - The real name of the Octopussy song
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Diamonds are Forever
That’s about it, really.
Almost voted for Live and Let Die, but the fact is, I’m a huge fan of You know My Name, the theme song for Casino Royale (the Craig remake, not the original with Sellers, of course). I especially like how the theme ties in with the Bond leitmotif throughout the movie, but in a relatively downplayed way, never letting the Bond theme break free by itself until the very end of the movie:
The name’s Bond. James Bond.
I’m a music geek, what can I say? 
For the life of me, I just can’t remember if the them for Live and Let Die ever actually integrated into the movie’s soundtrack, or if it just played at the beginning and end of the film.
I’m kind of with you on this. It’s a lot more subtle–and “exotic” in that hokey 60s kind of way. And that’s what’s most enduring about the original Bond and Bond scenarios, which so quickly became self-parody in the later films.
“Live and Let Die” is just too spastic–a McCartney pastiche that only gets more annoying with overplay.
However, “Goldfinger” and “Thunderball” are more true to the Ian Flemming concept of the Evil Genius antagonist:
"Such a cold finger,
Beckons you to enter his web of sin…
…BUT DON’T GO IN!!!"
He’ll welcome you into his lair
Like the nobleman welcomes his guest
With free dental care and a stock plan that helps you invest!
But beware of his generous pensions
And three weeks paid vacation each year
And on Fridays the lunch room serves hot dogs and burgers and beer!
He loves German beer!
The poll should be prefaced in some way. I agree that it’s the best “bond sound” but Live and Let Die is something I could play as a separate song.
My first impulse was for the instrumental “OHMSS” theme, but on second thought went with “You Only Live Twice,” mostly because it has lyrics (nicely sung by Nancy Sinatra).
Supposedly, among the subculture of die-hard Bond fans (the sorts who attend conventions and such), the consensus is that OHMSS has the best soundtrack, even though John Barry later characterized it as being ridiculously “overwritten,” whatever he meant by that exactly (I remember him saying that in a radio interview with Terry Gross on her “Fresh Air” program on NPR about ten years ago or so).
The fast instrumental bit shows up once or twice, and there’s this (4:13 ff).
Goldfinger, Live and Let Die, We Have All The Time In The World, A View to A Kill and Goldeneye are the best. I picked Goldfinger. Auric Goldfinger.
My personal favorite Bond film is The Man With The Golden Gun solely because of the way Scramonga’s hubris does him in.
A View To A Kill was the only “Bond song” to go to #1.
I voted for “For Your Eyes Only,” as I love Sheena Easton. Though Carly Simon’s “The Spy Who Loved Me,” is a close second.
I’m surprised, in other polls I have seen on this The Spy Who Loved Me is usually right up there with Goldfinger. But for me it’s You Only Live Twice. I do like a bit of John Barry, and that’s one of my favourites of his.
Goldfinger, however I think Thunderball has the best overall movie score.
If you care to, post your top five. Mine is:
[ol]
[li]“You Only Live Twice”[/li][li]“On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”[/li][li]“Goldfinger”[/li][li]“A View to a Kill”[/li][li]“Thunderball”[/li][/ol]
I’m a big fan of the Bond movies and their soundtracks and though therefore I feel I’m being disloyal to John Barry by picking one of the very few he didn’t write, I picked Carly Simon singing the theme tune to The Spy Who Loved Me. I just love that piano introduction! Especially in the context of the film, coming in right after that jaw dropping parachute stunt.
Close second for me would be John Barry’s terrifically exciting instrumental theme tune to OHMSS. I also love Goldfinger as having the theme tune that most sells what the Bond franchise is really about. I also think that if I was judging the Bond scores as a whole, the Goldfinger score is best overall.
ETA: In order of one to five, they’d go:
[ol]
[li]The Spy Who loved Me[/li][li]OHMSS[/li][li]Goldfinger[/li][li]Live And Let Die[/li][li]Octopussy[/li][/ol]
Goldeneye. Oh, yeah.
Although the Casino Royale opening is wicked cool, too.
Speaking of Casino Royale, it was pretty dickish for Chris Cornell to not give permission for “You Know My Name” to be used on the soundtrack album.
I agree!
Because *Goldfinger *is doing so well in the poll, I thought I’d chime back in with another observation: Shirley Bassey has sung a Bond theme song not once, not twice, but thrice (Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker). No other performer has more than one song (and I don’t see that changing).
I can’t help but wonder if “Nobody Does it Better” from The Spy Who Loved Me would have fared better in the poll if you’d given the song titles instead of the movie titles.