What's the best Bond theme?

"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"

also Sheena was robbed in this poll

Srsly. "For Your Eyes Only" is one of the best of the best.

Yeah it is annoying to me that on the John Barry Themependium box set Sheena's is one of the only Bond vocals not included.

Oy she was such a nice girl before that Prince got to her.

I can't think of View To A Kill now without remembering *that* note at Live Aid

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zIbOL8SSCY&hd=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mINh8ZOWSLw

2.50-ish, look away DJP

oh this is going to be a treat, I can tell already

oh that was awesome

there is nothing more aggravating than when your voice cracks, esp on a note you've hit a bazillion times in a row

biggest gig of their career, right in front of a zillion people, so sad

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