worst 007 theme ever!

Best Bond theme = Wings.

Worst=Madonna, I don't mind the song but it doesn't sound anything like a bond theme nor does it reinvent it beautifully, it doesn't have enough odd bond lyrics either. All this personal stuff isn't much to do with bond.

Because Bond themes have to be preposterous.

I don't really like 'Diamonds are forever'. It sounds a little forced.

Of course, the Props got "Spy Break" in that one classic segment of The Matrix that everyone and their momma has done a spoof of, so that prob'ly made up for it.

that said, i think madonna/mirwais' effort is sound - elton clearly misses the point in believing it has to conform to his own outdated notion of what a theme song should be. why bemoan the lack of 'campness' (tho i think the 'Sigmund Freud' line is quite fruity) and 'a tune' when its got GAPS to get excited about? Mirwais loves the synthesized voice and uses it better than most out there too

i mean as in doing a Bond theme similar to 'Pilots'

also, Broadcast would also be contenders for a future one - or would they see it as 'selling out'? i suppose a more realistic choice next time would be Kylie, Sophie E.B. or the bloomin Sugababes

worst Bond theme ever for me is 'For Your Eyes Only' - gah its so fucking lame! my favourite is 'A View To A Kill' though, or any of the Bassey ones

Best bond theme = LIVE AND LET DIE OBVIOUSLY!

I was going to mention the Propellorheads as an example of what not to do with 'moderning up' Bond music.

Worst: Die Another Day, For Your Eyes Only and that one that Bassey sang for Moonraker that no-one can ever remember

What happened to the Propellorheads, incidentally? Big for a while, then disappeared without trace to the extent that no one EVER talks about them unless they're talking about Bond.

WORST BOND SONG EVAH = 'All Time High' (from Octopussy, I think) by thank-God-I-cannot-even-remember

(BEST = Nancy obv)

Yes, whatever did happen to Propellerheads? IIRC, they did a dud follow up EP to "Decks..." and then vanished.

Oh, I forgot they did the "History Repeating" with Shirley Bassey. I didn't like that NEARLY as much as the Madonna track...maybe it's those dizzying Matmos synth voices though.

I thought their re-do of the Bond theme was tops though, but I guess nobody else thinks so. Once again, I have an unpopular opinion! Woo!

As for oldie Bond songs I like 'Nobody Does it Better' the best, and 'Live & Let Die' and also have a soft spot for 'Living Daylights'.

"set my hopes up way too high..."

I'm partial to Bassey's "Moonraker" also, which is perhaps the Bond theme that is best suited to accompany partially clothed dancing silhouettes.

WORST BOND SONG EVAH = 'All Time High' (from Octopussy, I think) by thank-God-I-cannot-even-remember

That would be Rita Coolidge. They usually find a way to work the movie's title into the song, but thank goodness they didn't for Octopussy.

I know it isn't an official MGM/UA Bond film, but the theme for Casino Royale (by Burt Bacharach) is pretty mod. Too bad they way way overplay that theme during the movie, and you are hating life by the end (the movie is pretty lousy). And then there's Never Say Never Again from WB, part of the "let's milk the fuck out of my dubious claim to the story of Thunderball" scheme.

Let's at least mention the immortal original James Bond theme for Dr. No by John Barry. Just listening to that guitar lick makes you feel cool for a week.

Anyway I'm irredeemably rockist, Shirley Bassey and the other 60's classics (Nancy and Tom) own this thread. Best of the rest Duran Duran and yikes kd Lang. Live and let die is great but ain't Bond in my book.

i really rate 'Goldeneye' btw, sung by Tina, written by Bono, produced by Nellee Hooper - thats either your worst nightmare or a match made in heaven for movie themes

The other guy graduated from harvard in 1999 with a degree in hairdressing.

Norman Cook now has a successful music career.

Richard Fearless went on to form a rock band.

Tom Chemical was not impressed.

Junkie XL never did let go.

Does that Robbie Williams song "Millennium" sample or just lift the string part from Nancy Sinatra's "You Only Live Twice"? I'm w/ Ned, btw: it's one of the best...

i think robbie williams ruined things by ripping-off that great orchestrated backdrop/riff for his awful millenial cash-in, so i hope he payed the original composers handsomely, but i would prefer it if williams was more generally made to pay.

I think Die another day might be dead on the median of bond-song-quality

Die Another Day is an AWFUL Bond song, but then the last truely great Bond theme was Licence to Kill - the Brosnan ones have not been that good. The person (B**unt) who said Die Another Day is the best Bond film since Spy Who Loved Me is also talking utter poo. It's not even the best Brosnan one (the Michael Apted directed The World is Not Enough is far better as is Tommorow Never Dies).

Best official Bond song is either Nobody Does it Better or We Have All the Time in the World (from On Her Majesty's Secret Service, which also has a killer theme played over the credits and is THE best Bond movie), and runner ups include All Time High (from Octopussy), A View to a Kill and The Living Daylights.

Number nine...number nine...also got the biggest vote from within the thrusting Thatcherkid poll demographic, viz. "Die Another Day" by Madonna. Truly terrible and it would have been my wooden spoon without question or hesitation (cue 500 posts from Lex explaining how it's the greatest record ever made, cont. p. 94).

In second place, "touch it, stroke it and caress it," and again Mr Saltzman blew a fuse about this DIRTY and FILTHY song. Don Black didn't deny it but there was no time to write a replacement so they had to go with Dame Shirl's "Diamonds Are Forever." Quite right, too.

I have the Pulp and Stet versions.

'Die Another Day's problems all stem from Madonna's voice on the track which is too high-pitched and light to have enough impact but i still enjoy the production and at least they tried to do something a bit different.

i was shocked that Cornell has done the new one - he looks a lot better now than he did 12 years ago at least.

I thought the new cornell one was pretty dreadful on fist hearing, but it works surprisingly well in the context of the opening credits - which is the point, I suppose. how many of these songs would you actually ever listen to outside of watching the film? for me, only tom's effort...

not as bad as 'all-time high', but close.

I suspect the only reason it was assigned to the film is because a) it repeats the title quite a lot and b) madonna recorded it, which guarantees exposure.

I'm not exactly the greatest madge fan, but she is capable of much better.

'live and let die' is close fifth for me, behind the original JB theme, matt monro, 'goldfinger' and jones.

I agree that she is capable of a perfectly decent and adventurous Bond theme if she could be bothered.

like i say i think 'Die Another Day's only 'problem' is that it deviates so much from Bond theme formula (being too dancey, modern and with too mild a vocal performance). but it's a decent pop song in it's own right.

You should have heard Pick Of The Pops yesterday (Nov '83) for lack of bass. Extraordinary how so many records of the period decided they could do without any.

because it's entirely pedestrian rhythmically, overly and pointlessly repetitive, melodically nigh-on non-existent, texturally bland and dynamically flat. madge sounds like she recorded her vocal on a dictaphone in an aeroplane toilet while reading hello!.

an over-the-top cartoon series like bond requires a correspondingly OTT soundtrack performance, an explosion of some kind, rather than incessant and polite digital burbling.

it's the same reason why the ballads rarely work as bond themes.

i love 'die another day' because the strings are like knives slicing through flesh,

really? to me they sound more like butter knives struggling to hack their way through custard. curious...

I appreciate what you're saying she's getting at with the steely, post-human aspects, but I don't think it comes across in an invigorating or confrontational way. it doesn't sound hard-edged, but flimsy and fragile. inhuman and robotic, yes, but more tweeky* than terminator.

*ineffective penis-headed plastic child-robot from battlestar galactica, in case you were wondering.

it doesn't seem anymore repetetive than anything else altho it doesn't have a bridge/big build up to chorus like many other Bond themes. perhaps this was an attempt to avoid sounding lazy, tho it does mean there is less to hang on to vocally perhaps.

the strings seem good and placed foreground to add some sense of weight yet perhaps had to be toned down so as not to engulf Madonna's light and electronically assisted vocal.

from russia with love (amazingly dynamic, violent and stabby intro leading to swooning croonathon)

live and let die (all over the shop, including slightly embarassing reggae interlude)

thunderball ("and he strikes-" da-da-da-da-da! "like thunderball!")

...all have greater variation going on in the percussion section. however, it's true that most of the themes aren't exactly stravinsky, in terms of rhythmic complexity - but because DAD is essentially all rhythm and little melody, its shortcomings in that area are more obvious.

Actually, from Buck Rogers

goddammit, you're right. my apologies. BG had the equally pointless robo-dog thing.

otm it compliments the violent opening title sequence perfectly. This Bond isn't a smooth, sauve operator he's something a little dirtier and grittier than before. It's earwormed it into my head despite only having hear it three times, which I would never have expected.