Non-Bond songs that sound like Bond songs

We might have a thread on this somewhere, but I'm trying to put together a collection of songs that have been obviously influenced by Bond.

I'll kick it off with Grace Jones' Bond pastiche "Storm" (written for '98's THE AVENGERS), which is kinda interesting because it's not only sung by an actual Bond girl, but it contains a lyric that feels particularly appropriate for the 23rd Bond film: "Love is the sky falling in..."



They don't have to be pastiches of the Bassey ballads in the way that "Storm" is. In fact, I'd be more interested in the songs that reference the Bond sound but aren't entirely beholden to it (ala Goldfrapp's "Pilots").

That's what I fear would happen if David Arnold ever collaborated with Grace Jones. That guy is a professional neuterer of creativity.

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Anything Buble writes and performs seems particularly Bond-ish. He's almost auditioning too much.

HOLD ME, THRILL ME, KISS ME, KILL ME - U2 (If EON had only gotten to U2 a few months sooner than the people making Batman Forever)

THE BEST - Tina Turner
WALKING IN MY SHOES - Depeche Mode
KASHMIR - Led Zeppelin (I always thought the first few notes of the song sounded exactly like the James Bond theme anyway)

Erica Ambler wrote:

Pet Sounds, of course, though it sounds a bit lightweight to me ...

Mid-60's Bond, maybe if there had been another CR'67 type spoof.

Still, one admires the daring that Wilson had

Harmsway wrote:

They don't have to be pastiches of the Bassey ballads in the way that "Storm" is. In fact, I'd be more interested in the songs that reference the Bond sound but aren't entirely beholden to it (ala Goldfrapp's "Pilots").

Okay, how about this? It's sort of like Shirley Bassey meeting Moby's Extreme Ways.

UNKLE FEATURING IAN BROWN - Reign (2003)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lEi0KolscM

It's definitely no Bassey pastiche, but the strings and soaring chorus scream "Bond" to me. In addition, I always thought it contained the intriguing line "I am the spy before the plague", which is suitably bizarre and mysterious and, erm, Flemingian, but I think it may actually be "I am the spark before the blaze."

No matter, though. This track is my pick for Great Daniel Craig Era Bond Song That Never Was.

Can this include instrumentals that sound like Bond underscore? If so, I nominate.'... And the Day Turned to Night' fro Shpongle's hugely influential Are You Shpongled?



Like a late 90s, Indian take on Try from OHMSS. Also reminds me a bit of Shanghai Drive/Adrenaline from SKYFALL.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

HOLD ME, THRILL ME, KISS ME, KILL ME - U2 (If EON had only gotten to U2 a few months sooner than the people making Batman Forever)

Well ... Goldeneye was written by half of them. Still love to hear a Bond track from all of U2 one day, though.

Loomis wrote:

Okay, how about this? It's sort of like Shirley Bassey meeting Moby's Extreme Ways.

UNKLE FEATURING IAN BROWN - Reign (2003)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lEi0KolscM

It's definitely no Bassey pastiche, but the strings and soaring chorus scream "Bond" to me. In addition, I always thought it contained the intriguing line "I am the spy before the plague", which is suitably bizarre and mysterious and, erm, Flemingian, but I think it may actually be "I am the spark before the blaze."

No matter, though. This track is my pick for Great Daniel Craig Era Bond Song That Never Was.

The strings sound like they were stolen from Scott Walker's "Farmer in the City."

Largo's Shark wrote:

Can this include instrumentals that sound like Bond underscore?

Sure, why not?

I was thinking more of vocal songs, but instrumentals could be just as cool. In that spirit, I put forth Propellerheads' "Cominagetcha":

Harmsway wrote:

Loomis wrote:

Okay, how about this? It's sort of like Shirley Bassey meeting Moby's Extreme Ways.

UNKLE FEATURING IAN BROWN - Reign (2003)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lEi0KolscM

It's definitely no Bassey pastiche, but the strings and soaring chorus scream "Bond" to me. In addition, I always thought it contained the intriguing line "I am the spy before the plague", which is suitably bizarre and mysterious and, erm, Flemingian, but I think it may actually be "I am the spark before the blaze."

No matter, though. This track is my pick for Great Daniel Craig Era Bond Song That Never Was.

The strings sound like they were stolen from Scott Walker's "Farmer in the City."

Yes, I think that's where they sampled the strings from.

Sting's "Tomorrow We See" has a pretty strong Bond vibe:




Amy Winehouse's "Love is a Losing Game" is pretty damn Bond-ish, and would have made for a fine title song, as this mash-up of her song and the title sequence from "Diamonds Are Forever" shows:




And here's another pretty flat-out Bond song pastiche. It's "Snake Eater" from the METAL GEAR SOLID game of the same name:

Harmsway wrote:

Loomis wrote:

Okay, how about this? It's sort of like Shirley Bassey meeting Moby's Extreme Ways.

UNKLE FEATURING IAN BROWN - Reign (2003)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lEi0KolscM

It's definitely no Bassey pastiche, but the strings and soaring chorus scream "Bond" to me. In addition, I always thought it contained the intriguing line "I am the spy before the plague", which is suitably bizarre and mysterious and, erm, Flemingian, but I think it may actually be "I am the spark before the blaze."

No matter, though. This track is my pick for Great Daniel Craig Era Bond Song That Never Was.

The strings sound like they were stolen from Scott Walker's "Farmer in the City."

They weren't "stolen", they were sampled.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

HOLD ME, THRILL ME, KISS ME, KILL ME - U2 (If EON had only gotten to U2 a few months sooner than the people making Batman Forever)

Well ... Goldeneye was written by half of them. Still love to hear a Bond track from all of U2 one day, though.

Tina was great, but the song lacked "Ooomph". I'd suggest Turner's 1996 song, Whatever You Want, would have made a better Bond song.

I'd also add En Vogue's "Don't Let Go". It came out about the same time as Goldeneye, and, well, I don't know a whole lot about music, but I think the beat of the song would have matched up well with Daniel Kleinmann's titles.

Largo's Shark wrote:

Harmsway wrote:

Loomis wrote:

Okay, how about this? It's sort of like Shirley Bassey meeting Moby's Extreme Ways.

UNKLE FEATURING IAN BROWN - Reign (2003)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lEi0KolscM

It's definitely no Bassey pastiche, but the strings and soaring chorus scream "Bond" to me. In addition, I always thought it contained the intriguing line "I am the spy before the plague", which is suitably bizarre and mysterious and, erm, Flemingian, but I think it may actually be "I am the spark before the blaze."

No matter, though. This track is my pick for Great Daniel Craig Era Bond Song That Never Was.

The strings sound like they were stolen from Scott Walker's "Farmer in the City."

They weren't "stolen", they were sampled.

You say toe-may-toe, I say I toe-mah-toe.

Harmsway wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

Harmsway wrote:

Loomis wrote:

Okay, how about this? It's sort of like Shirley Bassey meeting Moby's Extreme Ways.

UNKLE FEATURING IAN BROWN - Reign (2003)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lEi0KolscM

It's definitely no Bassey pastiche, but the strings and soaring chorus scream "Bond" to me. In addition, I always thought it contained the intriguing line "I am the spy before the plague", which is suitably bizarre and mysterious and, erm, Flemingian, but I think it may actually be "I am the spark before the blaze."

No matter, though. This track is my pick for Great Daniel Craig Era Bond Song That Never Was.

The strings sound like they were stolen from Scott Walker's "Farmer in the City."

They weren't "stolen", they were sampled.

You say toe-may-toe, I say I toe-mah-toe.

Sampling is an honourable, worthy tradition. Nothing to do with crime. Listen to Berio's Sinfonia.

Largo's Shark wrote:

Sampling is an honourable, worthy tradition. Nothing to do with crime.

If the resulting work is good, sure. If not, well...

Just about everything I've ever heard from Sade sounds almost stereotypically Bondian. She would have been a much better choice than Rita Coolidge and Gladys Knight.

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

HOLD ME, THRILL ME, KISS ME, KILL ME - U2 (If EON had only gotten to U2 a few months sooner than the people making Batman Forever)

... Really? Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me is generally considered to be one of U2's worst songs. It's not as bad as Elevation, Miami, The Playboy Mansion, or the mediocre back half of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, but it's still considered to be pretty bad.

It is? By who? I think it's a great track.

I love the single version of Elevation, too. And I'm pretty fond of Miami and The Playboy Mansion ... Pop's 2 'meh' moments for me are If God Will Send His Angels and If You Wear That Velvet Dress.

Prisoner Monkeys wrote:

Gravity's Silhouette wrote:

HOLD ME, THRILL ME, KISS ME, KILL ME - U2 (If EON had only gotten to U2 a few months sooner than the people making Batman Forever)

... Really? Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me is generally considered to be one of U2's worst songs. It's not as bad as Elevation, Miami, The Playboy Mansion, or the mediocre back half of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, but it's still considered to be pretty bad.

I'm not a follower of U2, so I'm surprised to hear that it is considered one of their worst songs when it, I think, went to #1 in the U.S. Regardless, according to the media relations firm of Me, Myself, and I, it was a great song and would have worked as a theme song for GOLDENEYE.

Based upon some of the tracks Eric Serra provided for the film (mostly those dealing with the sequences set in Russia), I would have thought Enigma to be a more logical choice. They had early 90's success, and had contributed a hit to the 1993 film SLIVER.

Harmsway wrote:

Largo's Shark wrote:

Sampling is an honourable, worthy tradition. Nothing to do with crime.

If the resulting work is good, sure. If not, well...

In any case, I don't think UNKLE's track sounds remotely like the Scott Walker song (although I believe that Walker does get a co-writing credit on UNKLE's effort). They merely used the strings from Walker's song (presumably they could have knocked up their own strings parts easily enough but for some reason chose to sample Walker's) - otherwise, the two tracks are chalk and cheese. In terms of melody, lyrics, chorus and so on, they have absolutely nothing to do with each other - heck, they're also in violently different genres. No one's getting a free (or even paid-for) ride on Walker's back here.

Whether UNKLE's effort is good is, of course, a separate question. In my book it is (obviously), but to each his own.

Oh, sure. I was just egging Sharky on. UNKLE's effort isn't really my cup o' tea, but I'm not at all bothered that it samples Walker's track.