Your favoriate James Bond theme song

[Raguleader]

Toss-up between “Live and Let Die” and “You Know My Name”

Give it to Paul McCartney due to having seniority here. I’ve liked his song for longer.

[kcor1953]

You Only Live Twice.

My favorite book, and I like the idea of Bond actually thinking about stuff, and it sounds like anyone off the street could sing the vocals, snark snark.

Agree that for movie Bondness Goldfinger stands alone–and Bassey has no superior.

[Ponch8]

“Nobody Does It Better,” “For Your Eyes Only,” and “A View to a Kill,” probably in that order. “A View to a Kill” is one of the few Duran Duran songs I like.

How about least favorites? Madonna’s “Die Another Day” was pretty bad.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

@Elendil_s_Heir

…My fave is still Chris Cornell’s “You Know My Name” from the Casino Royale remake - great song, and a very cool opening-credits sequence, too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnzgdBAKyJo

Alas, Cornell just died: http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/18/entertainment/chris-cornell-dead/?iid=ob_article_organicsidebar_expansion

[What_Exit]

Live and Let Die is my favorite. I think it is also Paul’s best post Beatles song.

[WOOKINPANUB]

I don’t believe I’ve heard You Know My Namebut I look forward to checking it out. Mr. Cornell’s voice and style seem perfect for a Bond song. As others have said, it’s very difficult to pick a favorite as they’re almost all very good. So I’ll just state that the definitively worst one is the dreck that is All Time High, as sung by Rita Coolidge. Her voice, the song. . . both totally ill suited. Worse even than the Sam Smith travesty that even he refuses to ever perform again.

[QUOTE=Dr_Doom]
Goldfinger

During the last Academy Awards ceremony was admittedly the first time I’d ever heard the song. I was blown away by the lady singing it. Hokey and theatrical as it seems today, I was moved by how perfectly fitting her inflections and dramatic artistry were to the lyrics, and purpose of the song.

It was also a big AHA! moment, as I immediately recognized the tune as being used by Homer Simpson AKA Max Power.
[/QUOTE]

Am I the only one who is compelled to do the Shirley Bassey hand gestures whenever this song plays?

[QuickSilver]

No love for, “Writing On The Wall” from SPECTRE?

I like it.

But “Skyfall” is my first choice.

[Ponch8]

Please note that this is a zombie thread. I was going to add “Nobody Does It Better,” “For Your Eyes Only,” and “A View to a Kill,” until I noticed I already did so back in 2013.

[DesertDog]

Spy Hard, of course.

[Cornelius_Tuggerson]

I agree with the general gist of this thread. Live and let die, You only live twice and Goldfinger are my favorites as well. I also really like the unofficial For your eyes only that Blondie did, but it never became an actual James Bond theme due to issues between the band and the studio.

[Richard_John_Marcej]

Hey all Dopers, this is as good as place as any to ask this question.
I’ve been trying to find an answer to this for nearly 40 years.

In the 70’s I was a fan of the work of Alice Cooper and bought every LP he and his band put out that decade. On the 1973 album,*** “Muscle of Love***” there’s a single called “Man With The Golden Gun” the lyrics and music sound very Bond-like.
You can give it a listen HERE

When I heard that song, and as a Bond fan as well, I put two & two together and figured that Cooper’s song would be used in the film, which would be released the next year. Guessing that with the success of Paul McCartney & Wings on the previous film they’d go with another rock band. But as we know, this wasn’t the case.

Anyone out there know why this happened? Always been curious about this.

[El_Kabong]

My favorites seem to change from day to day, but here are my current top five:

Live and Let Die
View to a Kill
Goldeneye
The World is Not Enough
Moonraker (of the Shirley Bassey vocals, I prefer this to Goldfinger)
Meanwhile, here is where I’ll put in a plug for (IMO) the most James Bond-ey cut that never was actually a James bond theme: “Man Next Door” by Massive Attack.

[What_Exit]

@Richard_John_Marcej

Hey all Dopers, this is as good as place as any to ask this question.
I’ve been trying to find an answer to this for nearly 40 years.

In the 70’s I was a fan of the work of Alice Cooper and bought every LP he and his band put out that decade. On the 1973 album,*** “Muscle of Love***” there’s a single called “Man With The Golden Gun” the lyrics and music sound very Bond-like.
You can give it a listen HERE

When I heard that song, and as a Bond fan as well, I put two & two together and figured that Cooper’s song would be used in the film, which would be released the next year. Guessing that with the success of Paul McCartney & Wings on the previous film they’d go with another rock band. But as we know, this wasn’t the case.

Anyone out there know why this happened? Always been curious about this.

First I feel compelled to say “We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!” then to answer the question. Alice Cooper wrote the song for the movie and the producers chose to go a different direction. That is what I remember Cooper saying. Oh cool, I found the quote:

It was supposed to be the Bond theme, but it actually came in a day too late, and by the time they heard it, they’d already signed for Lulu’s song. I went, “You’re gonna take Lulu over this?” [Laughs.] 'Cause it was perfect for The Man With The Golden Gun. It had helicopters, it had machine guns—it had the Pointer Sisters, Ronnie Spector, and Liza Minnelli doing background vocals! We went to every single one of those John Barry albums to try and invent the perfect James Bond song, and even Christopher Lee, who played Scaramanga in the movie, said, “Oh, man, why did we take the Lulu song? This song is the one!” [Laughs.] So, yeah, we lost out on that one, but I still put it on the album. I said, “I don’t care, I’m going to do a James Bond track no matter what.”

from Alice Cooper

[Richard_John_Marcej]

@What_Exit

First I feel compelled to say “We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!” then to answer the question. Alice Cooper wrote the song for the movie and the producers chose to go a different direction. That is what I remember Cooper saying. Oh cool, I found the quote:
from Alice Cooper

Wow, Pointer Sisters, Ronnie Spector, and Liza Minnelli were on that as well!
Thanks for the info. And I agree with Coop and Chris, it was a better song.

[CalMeacham]

You Only Live Twice, probably because it’s the first Bond film I saw. Thunderball is probably second. I saw it second, the same night.
I also like the opening music from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service because, like the them to Dr. No, it has no vocals. (Louis Armstrong’s “All the Time in the World” isn’t the opening theme – they used that in the middle of the film.
And I’ve got a sweet spot for Sheena Easton’s For Your Eyes Only. A good song for a Bond film that revived the series.

[DSYoungEsq]

1. The Spy Who Loved Me - Carly Simon, yum.

2. For Your Eyes Only - Sheena Easton singing one that actually made some sense with the lyrics.

3. Live and Let Die - Paul McCartney with an absolute classic.

[Reddy_Mercury]

@Richard_John_Marcej

Hey all Dopers, this is as good as place as any to ask this question.
I’ve been trying to find an answer to this for nearly 40 years.

In the 70’s I was a fan of the work of Alice Cooper and bought every LP he and his band put out that decade. On the 1973 album,*** “Muscle of Love***” there’s a single called “Man With The Golden Gun” the lyrics and music sound very Bond-like.
You can give it a listen HERE

When I heard that song, and as a Bond fan as well, I put two & two together and figured that Cooper’s song would be used in the film, which would be released the next year. Guessing that with the success of Paul McCartney & Wings on the previous film they’d go with another rock band. But as we know, this wasn’t the case.

Anyone out there know why this happened? Always been curious about this.

It was to be the song, but someone at Eon decided they liked Lulu’s version better.

[Clothahump]

For Your Eyes Only

[Czarcasm]

Definitely the original Casino Royale theme.

[Jonathan_Chance]

@Baker

I like almost all of them, and find it hard to choose. The only two I’m really “meh” about are “The Spy Who Loved Me” and “For Your Eyes Only”

And I’m just the opposite. I like both of those. More subtle than most of the others.