James Bond music

I decided to start a topic on the music of the James Bond movies because I think most of the music has been really great. Monty Norman is credited with writing the main James Bond theme but I believe he only written the melodic line that John Barry's orchestra had played on the electric guitar. John Barry came up with the rest which was played by the brass section:"da-da-DA-da, da-da-DAAA, daa-daa, da-da-daa"

 

"da-da-DA-da, da-da-DAAA"

something's wrong with me. I'm dadaing the Indy Theme there....
can't you find an online midi and post the time of that part - you know, for the incredibly stupid ones; like me

 

I can see how that could be read as the Raiders March, but it's just the part of the James Bond theme after the guitar drops out. In the original recording, it begins with a gong.

 

movie theme songs

Goldfinger= Worst theme ever, from any movie, of any genre, of any period, of all time.

For Your Eyes Only= one of the best movie themes. I guess it does help that it was written by Paul McCartney.

 

Live and Let Die was the best of the Bond songs, hands down....




Mace Windy,
too windy for spoilers!

 

Stradman, Paul McCartney wrote Live and Let Die not For Your Eyes Only. FYEO was written by Bill Conti, who also wrote the theme from Rocky.

 

Goldfinger= Worst theme ever, from any movie, of any genre, of any period, of all time.

How can you say such a thing? It's *the* quintessential Bond song, forever imitated, never matched. The Licence to Kill title song even uses those same two sweet, classic chords.

I'm also fond of Nobody Does It Better (Carly Simon's theme to The Spy Who Loved Me) and The World Is Not Enough, by Garbage. Oh, and You Only Live Twice by Nancy Sinatra (see Robbie Williams' Millennium for theft of that string part!) and the orchestral theme to On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

I'm a Bond freak.

 

Best Bond Score by John Barry-"Moonraker"
Most Innovative Bond Score-"Goldeneye" by Eric Serra
Best Bond Title Song-"Nobody Does It Better".

Worst Bond Title Song-A total Deadlock tie between "Tomorrow Never Dies" and "Die Another Day".

Worst shaft by James Bond politics-"Surrender" (KD Lang from "Tomorrow Never Dies". THIS is the song that should have been topliner instead of that hideous Sheryl Crow caterwaul.)

 

My favorite Bond title songs include:

Diamonds Are Forever
The Man With The Golden Gun
Live And Let Die
A View To A Kill

I've noticed that for some reason, the dvd release of Live And Let Die is in mono, while some older films, like Thunderball, are in 5.1. ?

 

thankyou for catching my mistake. I was thinking Live and Let Die by Paul McCartney. That is the best theme.

The other part about Goldfinger still stands.

 

I love Bond music, but sadly own very little, I just know things I've heard online and such.

From what I've heard, I really love Dave Arnold's contributions, especially his Die Another Day music.

 

My favorite Bond score is You Only Live Twice. I don't think John Barry could do any wrong with his scores for these films.

If you want to read some more about the Bond films, check out this little "how to" guide that I wrote.

Neil

 

Goldfinger= Worst theme ever, from any movie, of any genre, of any period, of all time.

To quote Mr. Bond in that very film:

"Your joking."

Granted he was talking about ejector seats, but the point still stands. But seriously, how can you say that? That's almost blasphemy! As others said, Goldfinger is the ultimate Bond song that all others try to live up to!

Even if it's not your favorite, there's no way it is the worst theme from a film EVER. There are many, many, many other contenders there.

 

Perhapse it would have been better if someone who acctually knew how to sing performed it. I'm guessing it was a woman who sang it, and if so, her voice is atrocious. I would rather listen to fingernails scraping a blackboard than her voice.

Now the rest of it is alright. It is just very difficult for me to get past the "singer's" voice.

 

I just realized that I used a possessive "your" instead of "you're" in my last post, and for that I do apologize.

How do you feel about the songs for Moonraker and Diamonds Are Forever?

 

not sure. I have yet to see those.

I would like to put together a compilation of all the bond title songs, even the really bad ones.

 

I have the "Best of Bond...James Bond" anniversary CD, which has all the title songs minus the latest two. Quite a good CD for any Bond fan.

 

I the Bond scores!

John Barry's soundtracks are great, as usual.

Especially 'A View To A Kill', 'Octopussy' , 'The Living Daylights' & 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' (that fantastic tune)

I know many Bond fans seem to dislike FYEO's score, but I just adore what Bill Conti did with the score! I especially like the "disco" feel during those ski-scenes.

As for David Arnold's score, they aren't that bad either. His best is still 'Tomorrow Never Dies'. The track "Bond & Paris" is probably one of the most beautiful of the series.

I didn't like Eric Senna's score much for Goldeneye, but the track "We share the same passions" is just beautiful.

As for the James Bond theme. There was much discussion whether it was Monty Norman or John Barry who wrote it. I really believe that much of the theme was created by Barry. Monty Norman pretty sucks, IMO (the Dr. No score was horrible).

And most of the theme songs are great, I like them all. It's a pity the newest Bond movies don't use a specific "movie theme" anymore.

 

It's a pity the newest Bond movies don't use a specific "movie theme" anymore.

Well, you have GoldenEye, where Serra didn't write the song (it was two guys from U2, correct?). With Tomorrow Never Dies, "Surrender" (Arnold's tune) was the original theme, but it was replaced with Crow's song (which many bash, but I really like, even if not as much as Lang's). "Surrender" is used all throughout the score, just like Barry does. For TWINE, Arnold wrote the theme and it is incorporated in the score, though not as much as "Surrender". (TWINE is, IMO, one of the best Bond songs ever.) Then comes Die Another Day. From what I hear, Arnold did write a theme for the film called "I Will Return", but it was scrapped for Madonna's (IMO) good, but very un-Bondish song. I think you can hear some of Anrold's song in "A Touch of Frost" (on the piano, I believe).

I really hope they let Arnold do the song for Bond 21. He really has proved himself in the past. I just don't know what's wrong with EON.

 

Here's my order...

21. Die Another Day by Madonna
20. All Time High by Rita Coolidge
19. Thunderball by Tom Jones
18. The World Is Not Enough by Garbage
17. The Living Daylights by a-ha
16. The Man With The Golden Gun by Lulu
15. Tomorrow Never Dies by Sheryl Crow
14. Moonraker by Shirley Bassey
13. We Have All The Time In The World by Louis Armstrong
12. From Russia With Love by Matt Monro
11. For Your Eyes Only by Sheena Easton
10. Diamonds Are Forever by Shirley Bassey
9. On Her Majesty's Secret Service Orchestral Theme by John Barry
8. License To Kill by Gladys Knight
7. You Only Live Twice by Nancy Sinatra
6. Goldeneye by Tina Turner
5. A View To A Kill by Duran Duran
4. Live And Let Die by Paul McCartney and Wings
3. Nobody Does It Better by Carly Simon
2. Goldfinger by Shirley Bassey
1. James Bond Theme by the Monty Norman Orchestra

Lately the themes have been really slacking off. Hopefully the next one will pull it out of the slump.

 

Duran Duran's A View To A Kill title song is my favorite. Like I stated above. I think Monty Norman wrote the melody which ended up being played on the electric guitar while John Barry came up with the bold tunes played by the brass section. I agree that Norman's score for Dr. No pretty much sucks ass.

 

I always think of John Barry, when I think of Bond music. I know that Monty Norman is credited with writing the main theme, but Barry really defined the whole sound of that theme, with his arrangements ( and I'd never be surprised if he wrote half of it as well ). Some of his scores for the series are really quite beautiful. I especially like some of his subtle work on A View To A Kill.

 

Goldfinger was on AMC today and I have had the Shirley Bassey song stuck in my head all day long! It's driving me insane, but it's such a great song.

I, unfortunately, have not heard as many Bond scores as I would like, but I absolutely love both Barry's Goldfinger score and Arnold's Tommorrow Never Dies score.

TND is especially good. My favorite tracks are "Back Seat Driver" and "Bike Chase".

EDIT: After hearing John Powell's score for Paycheck (awesome score, btw), I think he would be a great replacement for David Arnold on any future Bond films.

 

You know, I just remembered that I own the soundtrack for A View To A Kill! It's on vinyl, and I rarely lift the dust cover on my turntable anymore in these days of cds and mp3s and AACs...


Anyhow, there are some really great cues of the Bond theme on there, not to mention the title song.

 

I know this isn't strictly on topic, but there's a great theme for the James Bond game Nightfire that plays in the opening credits.... i love it. i don't know what it is or what it is called though.