James Bond music

From best to blah:
1. For Your Eyes Only by Sheena Easton
2. Moonraker by Shirley Bassey
3. From Russia With Love by Matt Monro
4. Goldfinger by Shirley Bassey
5. Diamonds Are Forever by Shirley Bassey
6. Live And Let Die by Paul McCartney and Wings
7. All Time High by Rita Coolidge
8. The Man With The Golden Gun by Lulu
8. The Living Daylights by a-ha
10. A View To A Kill by Duran Duran
11. James Bond Theme by the Monty Norman Orchestra

I have a hard time even remembering what some of the newer songs are. They just don't catch my attention.
The Bond movies went from being campy period spy thrillers to formula action movies. I think Living Daylights was the last really good story. "R" will never truly replace "Q". Why couldn't they have used Qute like they did in the novels?

 

Does anybody know where I can download a MIDI or regular version of the disco version of the Moonraker theme?

 

There's a disco version?

Anyhow, please do not solicit for files that violate any copyright laws.

 

Oh. I'm a Bond Fan, not as big fan as I am a Star Wars-fan, but .. I have seen each movie from the 60's and 70's more times than I have seen AOTC.

I've got a couple of soundtracks LP's from the original Bond movies. My mission is to get a complete collection.
My favourites are not title scores, but some small themes and songs such as Moon Buggy Ride from Diamonds are Forever, the 007 "action-theme" from several of the movies, Death of Fiona from Thunderball, the Space Theme from You Only Live Twice and (of course) We have all the time in the world from In Her Majesty's Secret Service.

I find myself humming these themes every now and then .. when I am not humming something from Star Wars or FotR that is. (I hum a lot)

 

Heck ye....for me the Bond legacy is just about up there with the SW saga.

Each film's score is great in its own way for the time it was set.Even the Goldeneye score by Eric Serra is'nt to bad and fits quite nicely with Bond's venture into Russia.David Arnold is great but it's all getting a bit to similar with his stuff now!

John Barry is awesome....even his main score for the film 'The Black Hole' is epic enough to make you do cartwheels!!!!!

I know what you mean by the non title scores.I really would love to get the tune at the begining of Goldfinger where the camera pans in on the hotel where Bond is getting a massage from the dizzy Dink!

 

Best Bond Score: On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Runner Up: Tomorrow Never Dies

Best Bond Title Song: Nobody Does It Better from The Spy Who Loved Me.
Runner Up: A View To A Kill

I agree with a previous poster who said that Bond is right up there with Star Wars. Check out my website link in my profile I have a whole James Bond section of fan art I've made.

 

What do you guys think of David Arnold's Bond scores?
I think he captured Barry's style very well in Tomorrow Never Dies, but it seems like he's gone with too much synth drums for the latest two.

 

I agree hans olo.After TND it all seems to be getting a bit to similar.I love Arnolds scores for the franchise but maybe its time for some fresh sound.

 

So, have you guys played any Bond video games, cause the score in some of the levels of the game Nightfire, gives you some of that Bond-feeling in a very good way IMO. A memorable moment is when you climb past gaps on those cables in the sniper level.

 

Well being the Bond fanatic that I am, here's my contribution to the list... I'll give Top 5 lists for various categories.

Best Bond Theme Song:

1. Goldfinger (quintessential Bond song)
2. You Only Live Twice (wonderful song.. great lyrics)
3. Nobody Does It Better (my favorite Moore era song)
4. For Your Eyes Only (Sheena Easton... yum)
5. A View to a Kill/Moonraker (toss up for me)

Now honestly I think the best opening title music for a Bond film is On Her Majesty's Secret Service... but it isn't a song...

Worst Bond Theme SOng:

1. The Man With the Golden Gun ("He has a powerful weapon, he charges a million a shot... uggh")
2. Die Another Day (What the hell was Madonna thinking???)
3. Tommorow Never Dies (What the hell was Sheryl Crow thinking... sorry but I usuall pop in KD Lang's Surrender whenever I watch the opening titles)
4. License to Kill (a pale rip off of Goldfinger)
5. Goldeneye (Bono, who wrote the song, tries just a little too hard with this one... but Tina Turner is fantastic)


Best Bond Score

1. On Her Majesty's Secret Service (John Barry at his best)
2. The Living Daylights (great modern sounding score by Barry)
3. Goldfinger (classic Bond score)
4. Moonraker (great score... bad movie)
5. A View to a Kill (Barry writes some great stuff in this one)

Worst Bond Score

1. Goldeneye (this score could take up all 5 positions on the list.. but I digress... the only decent music in the film was the tank chase scene... the producers brought in David Arnold to score the scene as Eric Serra's score was so bad.)
2. Never Say Never Again (even though it's not an "official" Bond movie the score is just bad... some interesting moments... using the jazz combo band for the motorcycle chase works great, but the rest of the score is awful)
3. License to Kill (really bad Michael Kamen score... sounds more like a Leathal Weapon movie (which Kamen scored) than a Bond film.
4. Live and Let Die (love the theme song... but this Barry-less score leaves a lot to be desired.
5. The Man With the Golden Gun (John Barry drops the ball with this one... really bad score, with horrible comic references)

And no, For Your Eyes Only is not on my Worst score list... I actually like Bill Conti's take on the score.. very modern, yet just evokes enough of an old school Bond feel... and yes I have really enjoyed David Arnold's Bond scores.

Yancy

 

this score could take up all 5 positions on the list.. but I digress... the only decent music in the film was the tank chase scene... the producers brought in David Arnold to score the scene as Eric Serra's score was so bad

Well, there were certainly very good parts in it. Tracks as "We share the same passions" and "For ever, James" are too beautiful for words. I rank these in my top 5 of fav. Bond tracks.

And the overall soundtrack wasn't that distracting as some other Bond scores (like TSWLM, LTK) were, IMO.

The Man With the Golden Gun (John Barry drops the ball with this one... really bad score, with horrible comic references)

Yeah, but the movie had a pretty bad script to begin with. I still like the main theme though, especially the more romantic arrangements of it.

And no, For Your Eyes Only is not on my Worst score list... I actually like Bill Conti's take on the score.. very modern, yet just evokes enough of an old school Bond feel... and yes I have really enjoyed David Arnold's Bond scores.

I absolutely love Bill Conti's FYEO work. I enjoy every bit of it. Great theme, overall mood... Definitely one of my fav. scores.

About David Arnold, I don't like his overuse of electronics in TWINE & DAD. Sometimes too much for me. I like his score for TND though, one of the most finest Bond scores ever. The track "Bond and Paris" is most beautiful. It's a pity they didn't use the song "Surrender" for the main title, since David Arnold used it as a main theme through the movie.

John Barry's scores are always great. His best certainly were the last Bond movies as TLD, AVTAK, OP, MR.

I like every bit of TLD, great score. In AVTAK, I love that action theme "Snow Job", the beautiful "Wine with Stacey" and many other things. In OP, I loved the main theme & orchestral arrangements of it, great stuff. And for MR, the scene in space when that space station is revealed is great. The choral parts of "Flight into Space" give me the chills.

At the end, I would say that the Bond scores are of high quality. Some tracks definitely top some of John Williams' work.

I wonder how John Williams would manage a Bond score. It just doesn't look like his kind of thing. But it would be interesting.

 

I wonder how John Williams would manage a Bond score. It just doesn't look like his kind of thing. But it would be interesting.

I think Williams would do a great job... I would imagine he would harken back to his older days writing a jazz inspired score.

BTW, I have to agree with your comments about Arnold. I love the fact that he tries to evoke the Barry sound, but think he does rely a little too much on techno...

Also gotta agree with you about TLD... I think it's one of the finest scores every written by Barry... love that score...

Yancy

 

1. Goldeneye (this score could take up all 5 positions on the list.. but I digress... the only decent music in the film was the tank chase scene... the producers brought in David Arnold to score the scene as Eric Serra's score was so bad.)

Seriously? I never realised Arnold wrote anything for Goldeneye. Is this music included on the score album?

 

Arnold didn't write anything for GoldenEye. It was John Altman that wrote that piece.

However, it has always been a fantasy of mine that they would have Arnold re-score GoldenEye.

 

Minor correction. David Arnold did NOT write the tank chase scene music (I had heard a number of times he did). That particular piece was written by John Altman who was the conductor on Goldeneye. The producers were apparently so horrified with what Serra turned in for that scene that they asked Altman if he could whip something up... which he did.

But the only version of the Goldeneye tank chase on the original soundtrack is the very bad version by Eric Serra... and it is bad, even though I usually like Serra's stuff... especially his scores for the Luc Besson films he worked on (i.e., La Femme Nikita, The Professional, etc). He just wasn't very suited for Bond.

But the good news is you can get John Altman's version of the tank chase scene... just go out and get yourself "James Bond Back In Action Vol. 2" it contains Altman's version of the scene. Actually I would highly recommend both volumes of "James Bond Back In Action" for any serious Bond Film Score afficinados. Both volumes contain a lot of hard to find (at least they were until MGM started to re-issue the original soundtracks a year and a half ago) Bond music... but be warned, these are not original recordings, but they are pretty good re-recordings by the City of Prague Philharmonic.

Anyway... sorry for the bad info there. The urban legend that had been going around the Bond community for years was that David Arnold was brought in to re-score that scene, and that he had done such a great job it earned him the job for TND.

Yancy