What's the best Bond theme?

I should poll the eighties Bond themes...

how the hell did "die another day" not win this or come much higher anyway

Because it's not really very good?

it's a perfectly okay song but it placed about right

It's been a long time since I listened to the Sheryl Crow one, but it's really not that good. Especially after seeing the credits redone with k.d. lang's song.

WHAT THE FUCK AT CHRIS CORNELL BEATING CARLY SIMON

shit what the fuck at chris cornell beating a-ha for that matter, was everyone just that high on casino royale fumes?

the thing about "Die Another Day" is it was actually the theme song for Analyze This

Just went back and listened to the Chris Cornell one a little bit ago. It's bad. Still better than the Jack White/Alicia Keys monstrosity, though.

WHAT THE FUCK AT CHRIS CORNELL BEATING CARLY SIMON

I guess that someone does do it better.

http://metaldetectingforum.com/images/smilies/shrug.gif

ditto to 'sheena was robbed' sentiments

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkxBgCBYQ9U

if there ever was a bond that should've had an alice cooper theme it was the one w/ christopher lee

obligatory - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHpH-iziTho

came in, saw "Live And Let Die - Paul McCartney & Wings" with 15 votes, literally guffawed

also:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3rqS98seNA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2Y-hCydiXA

Nope. I like Pulp/Jarvis more than I once did, but I still think that track fails the Bond test. xps

yeah 'pulp does bond theme' seems a gimme on paper but the actual thing isn't any better than most of the other mediocre themes they've had for the past 25 years. wish they'd had him come in and touch up the lyrics on the otherwise fantastic adele one though. the blondie is disappointing also (not a patch on sheena) but more a statement of how dry the well was for them at that point.

whoa – I've never heard Blondie's, and, yes, it sounds enervated.

I unabashedly love the Skyfall theme, stupid lyrics or no. It has all the qualities that most of the recent (and by recent, I mean the last 20-25 years' worth) themes have disregarded. I had no memory of k.d. lang's "Surrender" before seeing it edited into the Tomorrow Never Dies opening sequence today, but it totally blows away Sheryl Crow's song and is kind of an island in the vast ocean of mediocrity that has plagued Bond since, basically, the end of the Moore era.

i like 'die another day', if it had more of a spybreak feel it would work perfectly as a bond theme instead of just being a decent second tier madonna single that happened to be a bond theme (of course 'die another day' + spybreak = 'toxic'), as it is it's the best between a-ha and adele.

I would never go to the bat for it but I didn't mind Tina Turner's

<i>"on her majesty's secret service" or gtfo</i>

Totally.

The new Adele is a pastiche of a pastiche. It's barely there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8cvkn4q8Xs

I said on the Jukebox that to me Adele has no talent for emotions, only "emotions" in that Shirley Bassey/Annie Lennox sense: a showbiz belter. So while the song is just okay it's hard to imagine another contemporary singer who knows how to belt these things unashamedly.

I heard the Adele one from another room just yesterday and was thinking it was pretty good. First real listen dispelled that quickly. It's pretty much made to be half-heard while not paying attention, in which case it gets the job done...

"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.