Bond is indestructible, he can be killed a million times in the movie, do the most incredible and dangerous stunts, and be still alive at the end of the film, like the phoenix born again each time. He is not human, his lifestyle is out of this world, and over the years, he has owned the best cars, has played with the most hi-tech gadgets, has slept with the most beautiful women,… yeah I kind of became tired of this, and I haven’t bothered to go to see the last one, although I had somewhat enjoyed ‘Casino Royale’… What was the song for the movie already? Because James Bond is at the top of world, the most prestigious musicians have written a song for him. ‘Casino Royale’ had ‘You know my name’ by Chris Cornell, it was trying too hard to sound like a classic oldie and I did not like it.
But let’s go back in time, the first films introduced the original James Bond theme composed by Monty Norman, then arranged and orchestrated by John Barry, but the next Bond movies will have their individual signature songs.
In the 60s, the franchise got the biggest names, and the songs were all about strings and explosive dramatic trumpets and horns, romantic and instant classics, there were ‘Goldfinger’ (1965) by Shirley Bassey, the ultimate James Bond song, then Thunderball’ (1966) by Tom Jones, completely in the same vein, the much more psychedelic ‘You only live twice’ (1967) by Nancy Sinatra. Later on, Shirley Bassey returned with ‘Diamonds are forever’ (1972) and ‘Moonraker’ (1979).
But the 70s had also some of the greatest pop rock stars, a Beatle and a true pop icon: first, there was the fast paced and very efficient ‘Live and Let die’ (1973) by Paul and Linda McCartney, and then ‘Nobody does it better’ (1977) by Carly Simon for ‘The Spy who loved me’, the first song that did not have the same title than the movie; it was more romantic than usual, and less out there, but the song was not written by Simon but by Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager.
The 80s were more diverse, either very 80’s mellow music with ‘For your eyes only’ (1981) by Sheena Easton, ‘All Time High’ (1983) by Rita Coolidge for ‘Octopussy’, or more new wave with ‘A view to a kill’ (1985) by Duran Duran (the song went number 1 on the pop singles chart in the US), and ‘The living daylights’ (1987) by A-ha, or even more classic Bond with ‘License to kill’ (1989) by Gladys Knight.
In the 90s, Tina Turner sang the song of ‘GoldenEye’ (1995), written by U2, but the song sounded much more like a Bassey’s classic than anything composed by Bono. And I did not remember that Sheryl Crow had done ‘Tomorrow never dies’ (1997), a very forgettable one, then Garbage composed ‘The world is not enough’ (1999), and even Madonna thought she could be a Bond girl with ‘Die another day’ (2002), another one I could have skipped.
Then ‘Another way to die’ (2008) was sung by Alicia Keys and Jack White for ‘Quantum of Solace’, and it was the first time a duet was performing a song for a Bond movie… but I found the whole thing odd and contrived.
So what about the next James Bond? Iman was saying this past week that Lady Gaga will be chosen to compose the 23rd film’s theme song.
According to thetechherald.com, Gag has already ‘partnered with Polaroid to create a line of technologically-advanced sunglasses that wouldn’t be out of place in a Bond film’: sunglasses that actually take pictures… she likes gadgets, she is perfect for the situation.