Favourite Bond Song

I like TND. The music is good (the pianos, bass, strings), and Crow's vocals are decent.

I don't know who could sit and listen to AWTD or DAD in full. God bless 'em if they can. Awful music. "You Know My Name" isn't that great, either. The lyrics are pretty bad and Cornell doesn't do it any justice. He's past his prime. That song is hardly the biggest problem in CASINO ROYALE, though, if you ask me.

The Main Titles version of You Know My Name is far superior than the album version.

As we await Sam Smith's big release this Friday..........I was wondering how, and/or why, Gladys Knight managed to snag the title song to LICENSE TO KILL. A fine singer, but her genre was all wrong for 007.

But beyond being the wrong type of singer for 007, her career had already peaked long before 1989. By the time LTK rolled around, music videos and artists were being heavily leaned upon to market the movie. The only post-filming publicity touring in the U.S. I remember taking place was Talisa Soto and Carey Lowell going on MTV (and this was still when MTV was airing music videos and was capable of influencing the market).

Knight's demographics seemed all wrong for the Bond moviegoer. Not sure how EON managed to get MGM to sign off on hiring Knight...and then hiring Patti Labelle as well.

With the choices of Duran Duran, A-ha, and The Pretenders, it seemed like EON was going for a younger-ish demo, so how did we get from Duran Duran to Gladys Knight in the span of four years?

Not every singer has to appeal to 14 year olds, but even with the selection of Tina Turner, she at least still had been a Top-40 mainstay in the early 90's, so her being the choice (in addition to being an excellent singer and far, far better choice than ASS OF BASE) wasn't all that unusual.

Ever since Tina Turner each pick has had relatively recent, big success. Maybe only Chris Cornell defies that trend.

Fundamentally there was nothing wrong with Gladys' vocals, but the song always reminded me of a gospel track (not something that belongs in 007).

I don't know what Rick Astley or Eric Clapton would've brought to the table because I've never heard their demos (or alleged demos), but there definitely were other, better, more lucrative options out there. I'd have made a play for INXS (going for the Duran Duran and A-ha demo), but Tears For Fears, Robert Palmer and Richard Marx (in the same vein as Paul McCartney or Chris Cornell) could've all been options. Taylor Dayne was getting hot at the time and had the vocal range to belt out a classic.

I don't know. It just seemed like Gladys Knight was an out-of-nowhere pick.

DAF was my first and remains my favorite.

I'll stick my neck out and defend ATH and MWGG. I'll even defend DAD, despite not liking the snippets I'd heard on the radio before seeing the film.

I won't defend AWTD. Everything everyone says about their least favorites applies to that one, for me.

I don't know Sam Smith's work, so I won't comment on WOTW until I hear it (with the titles on opening night).

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

With the choices of Duran Duran, A-ha, and The Pretenders, it seemed like EON was going for a younger-ish demo, so how did we get from Duran Duran to Gladys Knight in the span of four years?

Maybe because a bubble-gum synthesized Bond theme didn't suit LTK's grit and violence?

Incidentally, DD tried to recapture their old Bond magic by submitting a demo for TND but it was shit. It evolved into Last Day on Earth on their Pop Trash album 3 years later.

AMC Hornet wrote:

DAF was my first and remains my favorite.

I'll stick my neck out and defend ATH and MWGG. I'll even defend DAD, despite not liking the snippets I'd heard on the radio before seeing the film.

I won't defend AWTD. Everything everyone says about their least favorites applies to that one, for me.

I don't know Sam Smith's work, so I won't comment on WOTW until I hear it (with the titles on opening night).

I like ALL TIME HIGH. Rita Coolidge...never heard of her before, never heard from her since. If they wanted someone with a fairly strong, recent Billboard resume, they could/should have gone for Olivia Newton-John. Again, I'm not talking about the quality of the songs, per se, but the commercial viability of some of these picks.

By 1985, the music video was firmly established as a strong marketing tool, so in 1983 maybe EON gets a pass for picking Rita Coolidge over someone who was higher profile at the time...such as Laura Branigan.

So, again, Gladys Knight seems like a really out-of-left-field pick for Bond. Her style doesn't work for Bond. Coolidge's song, which I think is beautiful, could easily have been sung by Shirley Bassey (the gold standard). So I have no problem with the vocals or the tune; she just seems like an under-the-radar pick who never had any sort of high profile success before or after. The Bond songs, as of late, have usually been about rewarding artists rather than launching them. They are the feather-in-the-cap for most artists; a coveted privilege few others get to attain; the Super Bowl of songs; rarified air.

My least favorite song is probably TMWTGG; the tune is limp and it's just too disco-ish in certain parts. LTK also is one of the least memorable; too out of the genre for Bond; sounds like an old Gospel revival song. I can at least suggest that underneath all the weirdness of DAD there lies a decent tune.

But I'd say overall that TMWTGG probably has never improved in my opinion and thus is likely to always stay the least favorite.

My rankings of the best:
#1 A VIEW TO A KILL
#2 LIVE AND LET DIE
#3 WHERE HAS EVERYBODY GONE
#4 ANOTHER WAY TO DIE
#5 THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS
#6 NOBODY DOES IT BETTER/MOONRAKER
#7 DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER
#8 TOMORROW NEVER DIES
#9 FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
#10 ALL TIME HIGH/GOLDENEYE

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

#10 ALL TIME HIGH/GOLDENEYE

Ya meant OCTOPUSSY

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

As we await Sam Smith's big release this Friday..........I was wondering how, and/or why, Gladys Knight managed to snag the title song to LICENSE TO KILL. A fine singer, but her genre was all wrong for 007.

I think they were trying to capitalize on that mid-to-late 80s revival of R&B when artists like Whitney Huston, Bobby Brown, and Janet Jackson were hitting the charts. That same summer, GHOSTBUSTERS II also had that cover of "Higher and Higher" by Howard Huntsberry. Gladys Knight, Patti LaBelle, and Tina Turner* were experiencing career revivals in that period.

*=Though I think Turner could have pulled off something better in that era, rather than 1995.

bitchcraft wrote:

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

With the choices of Duran Duran, A-ha, and The Pretenders, it seemed like EON was going for a younger-ish demo, so how did we get from Duran Duran to Gladys Knight in the span of four years?

Maybe because a bubble-gum synthesized Bond theme didn't suit LTK's grit and violence?

Incidentally, DD tried to recapture their old Bond magic by submitting a demo for TND but it was shit. It evolved into Last Day on Earth on their Pop Trash album 3 years later.

That's fucking terrible!

Haha I just heard the first 30 seconds of that Duran Duran track and it's no wonder it didn't get accepted! Sounds like a video game from PS1.

DD should've waited 5 years and then submitted it ... EON were keen for a shoddy electronica theme song in the 40th anniversary year if Madge's DAD is anything to go by.