15. “From Russia With Love” – Matt Monro (From Russia With Love)
Gentle lounge piece. It’s pretty good. I can sing this one while drinking. Others did it better, but Matt Monro does it fine.
14. “Tomorrow Never Dies” – Sheryl Crow (Tomorrow Never Dies)
Sheryl Crow’s voice is dangerously sultry in a ’90s sort of way, and “Tomorrow Never Dies” sounds like a proper James Bond song. Risk, sex, and danger must be evoked at all time, and this tune hits those things fine. It’s not as dated as “The World is Not Enough.”
13. “Diamonds are Forever” – Shirley Bassey (Diamonds are Forever)
Shirley Bassey sang the most iconic of all the Bond songs back in the 1960s (we’ll get to it in due course), but the two times she returned both seemed like a cheap attempt to reclaim former glory. That said, “Diamonds are Forever” is a pretty fun tune that still displays her full power.
12. “Surrender” – k.d. lang (Tomorrow Never Dies)
This was the Jame Bond title song that was proposed for “Tomorrow Never Dies,” but ended up getting rejected. Sheryl Crow’s version is fine, but I think I like k.d. lang’s better. It’s sexier. Sluttier, if you will. We did get to hear it, at any rate, over the film’s credits.
11. “All the Time in the World” – Louis Armstrong (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service)
“All the Time in the World” was not the opening song for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, as the series was trying to go in a different direction (it was the first and only film with George Lazenby). “All the Time in the World,” however, did play over the course of the film as Bond and his ladylove (Diana Rigg) romanced one another. The title ended up being ironic, as Rigg met a horrible fate. It’s that irony that has this gentle romantic lounge tune coming in so high.
10. “Skyfall” – Adele (Skyfall)
“Skyfall” is probably the most emotional and complex of the James Bond songs. It sounds less like a proper Bond song than a lot of its compatriots on this list, but it’s such a barn-burner than it doesn’t much matter. It just grows and grows, and Adele nails it.
9. “Casino Royale” – Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass (Casino Royale, 1967)
A lot of the Bond songs have a jazzy, lounge feeling to them. Some of them even have a deliciously chintzy flavor. And as long as that’s true, why not employ one of the masters of musical chintz, Herb Alpert? This instrumental opening makes me so happy, and while it’s not steely or sexy, it’s way effing fun.
8. “The Man with the Golden Gun” – Lulu (The Man with the Golden Gun)
Not Shirley Bassey, but awfully close, Lulu’s rock ‘n’ roll ballad to Christopher Lee is, to make short work of it, awesome. Lulu punches this song it the face. I also like the film just fine, but that’s a separate matter.
007. “You Only Live Twice” – Nancy Sinatra (You Only Live Twice)
If you haven’t been able to surmise yet, I feel the harder, louder, faster Bond themes are better than the gentler ballads (with one notable exception). “You Only Live Twice” is one of the better ballads, at any rate, with its descending strings that Robbie Williams later sampled in “Millennium.”
6 ½. “The Quantum of Solace” & “Quantum of Solace” – Joe Cornish, Adam Buxton (Quantum of Solace)
Quantum of Solace is one of the worst James Bond movies, right down there with Moonraker and Die Another Day. The title is also weird; Another Way to Die would have been fine. Riffing on its weird title, British musical comedians Joe Cornish (who also wrote Attack the Block) and Adam Buxton had a contest as to who could write the better title tune for the movie before it came out. Their results were both amazing, and worthy of noting on this list.
6. “Thunderball” – Tom Jones (Thunderball)
Tom Jones. Period. I don’t care that “he strikes like thunderball” makes no sense.
5. “GoldenEye” – Tina Turner (GoldenEye)
Written by U2, and sung by Tina Turner, GoldenEye is a nasty, awesome, sexy song that hits all the right notes perfectly. In a way, this is the Platonic ideal of a James Bond song. The lyrics and sound are perfect.
4. “A View to a Kill” – Duran Duran (A View to a Kill)
I mentioned that the best of the James Bond songs should sound like autonomous pop hits, and Duran Duran’s “A View to a Kill” fits that notion perfectly. This one sounds nothing like a James Bond song, but it’s a New Wave hit that one could have easily heard on the radio back in the mid-1980s. Dance into the fire. Awesome.
3. “Goldfinger” – Shirley Bassey (Goldfinger)
Goldfinger is where James Bond truly began, in terms of what he was going to be cinematically, and Shirley Bassey’s title tune is the most recognizable of all the Bond songs. Indeed, the song is so iconic, that most of the Bond songs to follow it try to capture a phrase or a sound that began here. It’s the origin point. The big bang of Bond songs.
2. “Live and Let Die” – Paul McCartney & Wings (Live and Let Die)
But “Goldfinger” is still beat out by “Live and Let Die,” another song that, like “A View to a Kill,” is just an awesome standalone pop song. Paul McCartney seems to have written this to be a track on one of his own records, but passed it off as a Bond song instead. It’s an anti-peace song (ironically, I think), and rocks hard. It’s defiant and cool.
1. “Nobody Does It Better” – Carly Simon (The Spy Who Loved Me)
And, at #1, we have one of the most romantic, sexiest songs of all time, bar none. Nobody did it better.
Header Image: 007.com
Witney Seibold is a contributor to the CraveOnline Film Channel, and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. You can follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
