What's the best Bond theme?

And I was being kind of tongue-in-cheek about it being the best one, as I don't know many other almost-Bond-theme songs, but I quite like Pet Sounds.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Who has the largest number of songs that might have been Bond themes but weren't? Portishead? Cher?

nancy sinatra (who did actually have one, but she could've pretty much had them all)

if tom doesn't win then there's something terribly, terribly wrong with the world.

Who has the largest number of songs that might have been Bond themes but weren't? Portishead? Cher?

As I said in this thread, Fantasy James Bond themes, Pet Shop Boys should have had a Bond theme. 1985 to 1988 PSB has the sound of John Barry running through it like a stick of rock.

LIEV AND LET DIE! I WILL MAKE MORE

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Surprised at the low number of votes for "Goldfinger" and "A View to a Kill." And the high number of votes for the Cornell song, considering the lack of appreciation for it on the thread itself.

low number of votes for "Goldfinger"

can we get a recount?

for "Goldfinger" not to have won this, far and away, is an absolute goddamned sham.

I voted Goldfinger.

I do not trust these results.

didn't Monty Norman do the Bond theme??

Not according to John Barry...

I missed this poll. I'm not sure what I would have voted for. Not LALD I don't think. Maybe any of the seven that follow it, with the exception of the awful Chris Cornell one.

Listening to Diamonds Are Forever just now. Majestic.

Sorry, I meant the six that follow it, not seven and the ragged Duran Duran.

John Barry's a right cantankerous old fart. I saw a documentary about Bond music in which he did nothing but slag off every single band or artist he worked with on a Bond theme with the exception of Tom Jones and Shirley Basey.

"Matt Monroe? A wanker. Not Welsh. Nancy Sinatra? Stupid cow. Not Welsh"

I voted for "You Know My Name" because I thought nobody else was going to. Should have voted for Goldfinger instead.

Chris Cornell must be flattered. ILM's short memory span is infamous at times.

Re John Barry being an old fart. There is a reason why "License To Kill" was the last Bond theme he worked on. During work on the penultimate one, "The Living Daylights", he fell out with a-ha because of musical disagreements.

None of the other recent ones did well, except for I guess Madonna, inexplicably.

But was it disco Moonraker?

ok the results of this poll clearly indicate why I stopped and should never return to reading/posting on ILM, jesus christ

TS: James Bond vs. Jesus Christ

our gain is dc's loss
xp

Surely there's a good few joke votes for Cornell.

You Know My Name - Chris Cornell 11

Yeah, yeah, very funny.

"Theme song" for new James Bond novel, as voted on by MySpace members. Pretty much what you would expect, considering the voting body:

http://uk.myspace.com/devilmaycarebook

YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE OR FUCK YOU, CLOTH-EARS

End Title Sequence = Yes Yes Y'all

Nobody Does It Better; View To A Kill; and For Your Eyes Only got robbed.

http://new.music.yahoo.com/videos/--201553123

New theme is a whole big pile of meh. It feels like Jack White just didn't get it. Bond themes are not supposed to be weird and jerky and minimalist! They're supposed to be memorable and big and catchy.

"Goldfinger" -- b/c Shirley Bassey has nothing on Howard Devoto.

Seriously, "You Only Live Twice" is, I think, the best "theme" in the sense that themes play in instrumental form throughout the movie. And anything that can survive a Robbie Williams sample is ok by me.

Wow I'm just reading this thread for the first time and I just think the results are totally mad. I mean come on, "Live and Let Die"? "You Know My Name"? Seriously, who the hell though of asking the least glamorous person on the planet to do a James Bond theme?

The new song has a good Bond theme lurking in it somewhere, but the production's all wrong, and White's voice is thoroughly un-Bondlike. You need a big alpha male holler or a seductive female purr, not a cartoon yelp.

Goldfrapp's first album is basically a collection of Bond themes that weren't.

― chap, Sunday, June 3, 2007 5:52 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

Not to mention "Time Out From The World" (from Supernature) which is a total ripoff of "You Only Live Twice".

i'd say satchmo wins for his vocal, mccartney for his orchestration and barry for that twang

Goldfinger was actually a pretty banging album. Classic 60s surf/spy music!

Goldfrapp's first album is basically a collection of Bond themes that weren't.

To me it sounds more like Ennio Morricone themes that weren't.

I'm starting to think that Sheryl Crow's is actually one of the top Bond themes. Does her own stuff sound like that?

the instrumental OHMSS theme is mega underrated

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRJnK-uWbfQ

^^^ Second favourite after You Only Live Twice which i still can't believe lost this

I still like the Goldeneye theme. Or the production of the Golfeneye theme.

Golfin' Eye.

I can't believe I was the only write-in for "Casino Royale"

oh wait, it wasn't me...

Matt Munro was robbed, btw.

Not a theme song but I didn't know until two days ago that the Pretenders and John Barry wrote the "love theme" for The Living Daylights -- and it's not awful.

'You Only Live Twice' and 'Diamonds Are Forever' are neck and neck for tops on here.

We should do a poll of all of Barry's songs from films. 'The Good Times Are Comin'! 'Wednesday's Child'! 'Born Free'! 'Down Deep Inside'!

"on her majesty's secret service" or gtfo

Adele was a good choice for the new one.

Best fake Bond theme:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aHQnDTd1y4

The Adele one passes the test; when I listen to it and close my eyes I can see gold naked ladies gyrating against a lava-lamp background.

Adele sounds great on it but that's a seriously stupid song even for the genre of "Bond theme song"

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