Pierce Brosnan as Bond
Its 007 day everyone! With Adele (finally!) putting out her Bond theme, which you can listen too right here, we at FemaleFirst had a thumb through our record collection and picked out our favourite Bond themes to mark the occasion.
Goldfinger – Shirley Bassey
The absolute pinnacle of the Bond ballad, Shirley Bassey’s storming song is possibly the most fondly remembered Bond song out there.
Composed by the same man that became so famous for the franchises brilliant music John Barrie, this is a song that not only uses Shirley Bassey’s massive vocal, but surrounds her with a brilliant big-band accompaniment that takes a diamond and makes it shine even more.
That for decades it was Shirley Bassey’s opening track whenever she played live is a glowing recommendation for the song.
Live and Let Die – Paul McCartney and Wings
Paul McCartney’s 1980’s rock hit recently topped a BBC poll for the nation’s favourite Bond song, and with his great vocal mixed with the driving guitars that permeate the song, it’s not hard to see why so many hold the song dear.
Reuniting Paul McCartney with his old Beatles producer George Martin, the song is an absolute triumph, with its central guitar riff still a bona fide classic.
While the Guns N Roses cover has maybe become even bigger, but the Wings version still remains as one of the best Bond themes.
The World Is Not Enough - Garbage
The film might have been a bit pants and had possibly the worst character name in decades (Christmas Jones? Really?) but Garbage’s luxurious sounding theme song was easily the best three minutes of the film’s running time.
Shirley Manson at her best has a gloriously luxurious voice with a steel edge, and The World Is Not Enough is absolutely that at its best. With those immense sweeping strings and vrilliantly subtle guitar in the back ground, it’s a theme carrying so much more latent threat than nearly any other theme.
Possibly the single most underrated Bond theme of all time.
You Know My Name – Chris Cornell
With the rebirth of the Bond franchise came a new style of Bond theme, a full on rock song.
Chris Cornell was the perfect choice for the song, with the Audioslave lead singer’s fantastically coarse vocal the ideal accompaniment to singly the fasted Bond theme yet to grace the screen.
Despite initial criticism for never featuring the title of the film in the song or it’s name (the very first Bond song to do that) the song went on to be nominated for a Grammy and win a Satellite Award and a World Soundtrack Award.
Written with David Arnold, the current Bond composer, You Know My Name has a wonderfully thrilling quality, all simplicity, muscle and grit. The perfect accompaniment to one of Bond’s best escapades.
You Only Live Twice – Nancy Sinatra
From the film that typified the Connery era of Bond better than anything else comes the theme that positively screams 1960s. Nancy Sinatra’s deep, gorgeous track simply oozes style.
Notoriously hard to sing with it’s odd note changes, and with that almost perfect set of strings behind her, Nancy Sinatra’s theme stands as a timeless serenade to the world’s greatest spy.
Got a favourite Bond song that we missed from our list? Let us know in the comments below.
FemaleFirst Cameron Smith