James Bond Songs
What are the best James Bond movie songs?
In January 1952, Ian Fleming began work on a novel about an agent of the British Secret Intelligence Service named Commader James Bond. He finished it and in 1953, Casino Royale was published. It is hard to imagine now, but critics first panned it for having an unrealistic plot, graphic sexual content, and violent brutality. However, the novel managed to sell seven thousand copies, just enough to encourage Fleming to keep writing. For the next twelve years, Fleming wrote an additional twelve novels about his mythical hero.[1]
Yet, the hero might have sunk into relative obscurity had it not been for a little movie that came out in 1962 called Dr. No. Dr. No would become the first in a long-running series of movies about the legendary spy, James Bond 007. Since then, several actors have protrayed James Bond including Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and most recently Daniel Craig.
Almost as infamous as the movies is the music featured in the movies. Not only does it have an very well-known theme song for the series, but each individual film has been given its own theme song, which for most of them, have become almost as popular. We’ve selected some of the best of these songs and listed them here. Some of the songs include Shirley Bassey’s “Goldfinger,” Duran Duran’s “A View To A Kill,” Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die,” Tina Turner’s “Goldeneye,” Carly Simon’s “Nobody Does it Better,” and Sheena Easton’s “For Your Eyes Only.”
Listed below are what we consider to be the best James Bond movie songs. For your convenience, we have compiled the songs in a playlist.
“A View To A Kill” by Duran Duran from A View To A Kill (1985)
“All Time High” by Rita Coolidge from Octopussy (1983)
“Die Another Day” by Madonna from Die Another Day (2002)
“Diamonds Are Forever” by Shirley Bassey from Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
“For Your Eyes Only” by Sheena Easton from For Your Eyes Only (1981)
“Goldeneye” by Tina Turner from GoldenEye (1995)
“Goldfinger” by Shirley Bassey from Goldfinger (1964)
“James Bond Theme” by London Symphony Orchestra from Dr. No (1962)
“Live And Let Die” by Paul McCartney & Wings from Live And Let Die (1973)
“Nobody Does It Better” by Carly Simon from The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
“The Living Daylights” by A-Ha from The Living Daylights (1987)
“The World Is Not Enough” by Garbage from The World Is Not Enough (1999)
“Thunderball” by Tom Jones from Thunderball (1965)
“You Know My Name” by Chris Cornell from Casino Royale (2006)
“You Only Live Twice” by Nancy Sinatra from You Only Live Twice (1967)
Footnotes
- [1] Portions of this story were taken out of The Secrets of Success are Not a Secret by Darcy Andries.