I’m sorry, is everyone in this thread old? Like. . .over thirty or something?
The best Bond song is clearly “You Know My Name” from the Daniel Craig Casino Royale. I mean. . .it has Chris Cornell. He was in Soundgarden! He’s, like, totally awesome.
. . .okay, in all seriousness, to my ear, that is the best one. It keeps the tone of the Bond songs while updating it with some rock, which makes it a lot more palatable to me. Most of the other themes were just too soft for a series that had a lot of action–though I’m not a huge fan of any pop-style music, so that’s probably a factor. It’s very. . .nice, and raw, and awesome. I love it, both as a Bond theme and on its own. Blasphemy, I know.
I like the way it builds… and builds… and builds at the end. Like, Bond is coming for you. He’s coming. He’s coming, and he’s going to kill you, and he’s not going to stop until you are dead.
I voted Goldfinger for best song as a Bond theme, but the only songs I regularly listen to are “View to a Kill”, “You Know My Name” and “Live and Let Die”.
Wow, if there was ever a Bond song where the Emperor had no clothes, it’s the dreadful L&LD. The lyrics have nothing to do with anything, there’s only one verse (barely), and the action bridge wants to be badass but comes across as repetitively stupid. 1st place? Ugh.
OK, finally voted for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, although, technically, it does not have an opening theme song (just an instrumental piece) and “We have all the time in the world” is the love song, not the title track, but…
Goldfinger was doing very nicely without my vote and the Louis Armstrong song is just so good.
Top 5:
[ol]
[li]We have all the time in the world[/li][li]Goldfinger[/li][li]Thunderball[/li][li]Nobody does it better (also from the first Bond movie I ever saw).[/li][li]Dr. No original theme.[/li][/ol]
I have to go with “Goldfinger”. There are technically better opening title songs, but none that so well accompany and indemnify a Bond movie, especially one that is both as iconic and irrational as Goldfinger. Duran Duran’s A View To A Kill is uncommonly catchy, but also, like Roger Moore’s performance, just hasn’t aged well, harkening back to a very cheesy decade for both Bond films and music in general. (Ditto, in its own way, for “Thunderball”.) Shirley Bassey nails it with a brassy, big band backing, and like a good Bond theme, it talks to his opponent rather than Bond himself.
The theme to “Dr. No” just isn’t jelled as the classic Bond theme, despite having Monty Norman’s signature guitar riff. The Dalton/Brosnan era themes all blend together for me, like the films; I expected something more standout from Gladys Knight, Tina Turner, and Sheryl Crow. (I didn’t expect much from Garbage or Madonna, and got exactly what I paid for.) The lounge lizard themes from From Russia to Love, Thunderball and Octopussy are yawn-inducing. McCartney’s “Live and Let Die” may be the best thing he did post-Beatles, but it didn’t work as a Bond theme (although, to be fair, neither did the film).
I have an uncommon–perhaps unique–affection for the Jack White/Alicia Keyes atonal “Another Way to Die” from Quantum of Solace, although the severely hobbled version that accompanied the film is much inferior to the full version (available on the soundtrack album), and think that it suits the “New Bond” very well while still harkening to the big band sound. It’s the first post-Barry title song that really sounds like a Bond film. (“You Know My Name” could have been there if not for the hoarse screeching of Chris Cornell, who I like otherwise but not for voicing a Bond song.)
Since it doesn’t qualify as a credit song per se, I didn’t consider Louis Armstrong’s “We Have All The Time In The World”, the love ballad theme to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, but this is actually one of my favorite songs, period, especially the way John Barry managed to integrate it into other parts of the soundtrack.
The Spy Who Loved Me. All the others are fighting for second place (which I’d give to Casino Royale)
Incidentally - I was shocked, shocked, I tell you, to realize recently that many of the older Bond movies have not aged well. At all. Many of them are almost unwatchable…as a Bond fan it was a major shock.
So far I’m the only twit to vote for From Russia With Love, principally because of Matt Monro’s voice. Of course, the song appeared over the closing credits rather than at the start.
hands down the best is You Know Your Name!
Not only is it sung by the best vocalist on the planet but that song just plain rocks! I can give a second place nod to Live and Let Die with Nobody Does It Better a close third, but c’mon!
