What's the best Bond theme?

"Still stand by my repping for kd Lang's 'Surrender'. Happily someone has righted the wrong and replaced Sheryl Crow."

Now Surrender is good. But Sheryl's Tomorrow Never Dies is better. Definitely the most underrated Bond theme and a top 3 contender.

The votes for Cornell here are hilarious, though.

Sheryl's Tomorrow Never Dies is better. Definitely the most underrated Bond theme and a top 3 contender.

*brain explodes*

Sheryl's Tomorrow Never Dies is better. Definitely the most underrated Bond theme and a top 3 contender.

You know what - it hurts me to say this but this is pretty much OTM - never thought I'd ever rep for a 90's bond themes sung by Sheryl friggin Crow.
Also, the Garbage one was totally robbed.

i bet mark ronson's feeling like a dick now for not holding amy's trackmarked hand through what could have been a great final hurrah for her.

also:

For Your Eyes Only - Sheena Easton 0
From Russian With Love - Matt Munro 0
The Man With The Golden Gun - Lulu 0

?!?!?!?!?!?

This poll result is making me legitimately angry. Who votes for Chris Cornell?!? SMH

had no idea 10 of Chris Cornell's cousins and his mom posted to ILX

The only reasonable explanation I can think of is that the Cornell song was the only James Bond theme these voters had ever heard.

If I'd been around for this poll Matt Munro would have got at least the one vote. I love that song.

The Adele song is really unremarkable in my book, I think it's getting such an easy ride because people still have PTSD from Jack White and Alicia Keys.

It's not all that great, but it's more of a traditional Bond theme than the last two travesties have been.

I wonder if "traditional" is necessarily good in the Bond context. McCartney justly topped this poll, cos his theme broke the mould, which was getting a little too easy listening for its own good. He gave us a rock song built of fragments, with that exciting instrumental spliced in that was so good to run over the chase scenes.

i think the cornell song is pretty legit, even though his voice isnt what it used to be. its not some stupid herky-jerky bond-hating bullshit like the jack white number, it's a pretty traditional sounding bond song except for the guitars - so its got some old bond flavor but it lets you know this is a new take on bond

^^^
Very catchy chorus as well.

There are incredible Bondy strings and horns on it.

incrediblY Bondy.

Just watched Octopussy the other night and my main takeaway was how baaaaaaaaad the theme song was. Sounded like a karaoke performance of a demo of the world's most generic early-80s TV show theme ballad. Just awful. You'd think with a name like "Octopussy," you'd get something interesting going.

Disagree - I dig it, but I tend to also enjoy themes for being unintentionally funny and at odds with its movie in interestings ways. Well let's face it I love 99% of the Bond themes.

It's not a stunner on first listen but it has a weird charm. Your description isn't wrong, but doesn't make it less good. It's hilarious to me how serious-faced it is in its cheesy balladry, set up against the movie and its title. "I'm in so strong and so deep, and so are you". Sneaky melody when you sit through it many times as well.

Another funny is how the 'Moonraker' theme might be the series most elegant.

There's a question that hasn't been discussed here, except briefly by chap with "bondy strings and horns" : what makes a song Bondy ? Just the use of the strings and horns in a way that reminds Barry's theme ?

From Russia With Love underrated here

Had a dream last night where one of the early Bond themes was to the tune of the song Smokey the Bear, but instead of "a-prowlin' and a-growlin'" the lyric was "a-rakin' and a-rapin'".

"Another Way to Die" is so so fucking bad, oh my gooooooooood. I forgot how much I hated this pile of shit.

It's truly dire.

yeah it’s bad. its a pity because i really love the imagery in the credit sequence, so now i just watch w the sound off lol

From Russia With Love is good, bummed that it got no votes.

And I have a soft spot for All Time High

I will always love "All Time High" just because there was no way in hell that a Bond theme song would ever be called "Octopussy," though I'm imagining what would have happened if Rudy Ray Moore had ever done a Bond theme for whatever reason.

How the heck did Portishead never do one of these?

Chuckles on the Rudy Ray Moore doing a Bond theme...

Joe Tex & the Sexolets wouldve crushed the Octospussy theme

...or the B-52's.

Fred Schneider: "...and they called her Oct-O-Pussy!"

i think the one area in which the craig-era almost totally struck out on was bond themes. brosnan had four excellent ones. the best craig theme is "you know my name," which is AWESOME. "skyfall" and "no time to die" are ok-to-good approximations of what a bond theme feels like. "another way to die" and "the writing's on the wall" are just godawful

there's an instrumental version of "another way".... which still isn't that good. jack white's guitar riffs are too basic, and there's too many different song sections.

...or the B-52's.

Fred Schneider: "...and they called her Oct-O-Pussy!"

― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain),

SAH-PRIIIIZZZE!

I want this world to exist. Especially the tie-in video on the lines of Duran's "View to a Kill" video. (Or imagine Fred in the opening credits a la Sheena Easton for For Your Eyes Only.)

Of the modern-era (Dalton/Brosnan/Craig) I mostly have time for these ten:
1. Propellerheads
2. Garbage
3. A-Ha
4. kd Lang
5. Scott Walker
6. Moby
7. Billie Eilish
8. Adele
9. Sheryl Crow
10. Tina Turner

Xp real lolz thinking of a B52 theme although Planet Claire is already a pretty close approximation

He came from Planet Bond
Almost drowned in a pond
He drove an Aston Martin
A-wants vodka martinis, not gin!

Metallica is going to do the next bond theme.

Bond will be played by Tom Hardy

The first film will be called

"To Live is to Die"

Inexplicably, the song will be titled

"Ruin Nation"

i really hope they gender flip bond with the next casting but otherwise i wish all of those sentences were true

yeah i’d love Bond to be a woman

hard pass on Tom Hardy

tom hanks is james bond in... no dying in baseball

Not saying I *want* Tom Hardy, just guessing the predictable way they will go

if metallica does the bond theme then john woo better direct because 90’s mission impossible is what we all clearly want here

Siegbran’s list is especially good bcz there are two guesses for #1.

Haha yeah, but their Goldfinger remix is pretty unremarkable.

The Propheads OHMSS version is one of the very few Bond tunes that capture the kinetic energy of the movies - I like dramatic orchestral ballads as much as the next guy/gal but in the end these movies are 90% hyperactive chase scenes.

I honestly thought History Repeating was the most likely reference!

ah yeah but that was never a Bond tune. It's also funny to read about the rejected bond themes:

Ace Of Base were supposed to do Goldeneye, which was reworked into this - surprisingly it's not cod-reggae europop:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_s1GuSjl-I

Pet Shop Boys reworked their rejected The Living Daylights song into this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKW6BcTcRJ8

Saint Etienne Tomorrow Never Dies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLsyuMYYb3A

Straw The World Is Not Enough

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRrL3d4qrMo

Johnny Cash Thunderball

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-AN5mJF13A

Radiohead Spectre

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLiDemXYSLc

Wasn't there an Alice Cooper version of the Man With the Golden Gun as well?

Yeah, mentioned upthread, but I guess the link is gone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R500VKA9-Zo

Also, the Blondie one is also a dead link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3anh2SV-7s

And here's Natacha Atlas & David Arnold doing a very serviceable You Only Live Twice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0dkXSGNzZE

ah yeah but that was never a Bond tune.

Yah but you listed several not-Bond-themes from the reject pile.

(Pulp didn’t even have to change their rejected theme’s name to disguise it, as the movie helpfully changed their own instead)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRrlFYg2QkI