Best Bond Song?

[Cachoo]

Some songs may be more iconic but my personal favorite is Carly Simon's contribution.

[Vagabond]

Casino Royale Theme (aka "Have No Fear, Bond Is Here"), sung by Mike Redway.

David Niven is James Bond.

My second pick is Anthony Newley's version of "Goldfinger", which wasn't on the original soundtrack but was included in a compilation collector's edition called The Best of Bond...James Bond.

[orbitz]

In most of the polls, "For Your Eyes Only" doesn't count, as it wasn't an "official" Bond movie. But it's a good song.

Are you confusing FYEO with Sean Connery's "Never Say Never Again" ? NSNA was the unofficial Bond film.

[Jenny]

4. Honourable mention: Lulu - Man With The Golden Gun (not for the song, but because I love Lulu!

Love Lulu! To Sir With Love indeed, not to mention her star turn on AbFab back in the 90s.

I must say though that I love nearly equally Jann Arden's version of To Sir With Love.

[danceronice]

"Goldfinger". There's a REASON Dame Shirley is the only person who's done THREE Bond themes ("Goldfinger", "Diamonds are Forever", and "Moonraker.")

However, I love "You Know My Name" and even did a Tango showcase to it (nifty dance, great music, what does EVERYONE comment on? The playing-card fascinator hairpiece I made, which yes, is Bond's winning straight flush from the movie.)

Also a big fan of "Nobody Does It Better" ("The Spy Who Loved Me"), the only Roger Moore flick I really like and the ONLY case where Ian Fleming very very purposely said you can use the TITLE of the book, but you absolutely NOT using the plot. (The book is what he called an 'experiment.' It's kind of a brutal failure of one.)

AFAIK, "For Your Eyes Only" counts just fine. It's "Never Say Never", iirc, that's dodgy and dubiously canon as it wasn't the same production company. And Sean Connery was VERY clearly phoning it in. Of course he did that a couple times--in one case (either that or You Only Live Twice they had to bribe him by promising a million dollars to a charity of his choice for him to do it.)

Even though it's kind of a silly song and very dated, I gotta give props to "The Man With the Golden Gun", one of the only three awesome things about the movie (the other two being an amazing car stunt almost ruined by being done with a crappy little AMC, and the presence of Christopher Lee, real-life comrade of Ian Fleming and possible inspiration for one of the characters in the books. Christopher Lee makes any movie at least somewhat awesome simply by being present.)

[danceronice]

Casino Royale Theme (aka "Have No Fear, Bond Is Here"), sung by Mike Redway.

David Niven is James Bond.

He almost WAS, if Ian Fleming had gotten his way. (I don't think Fleming lived to see the original "Casino Royale." Probably for the best.) He was NOT sold on Sean Connery until he saw the finished product. At that point he was such a convert he changed Bond's family background so his father was Scottish as a nod to Connery.

[Ozzisk8tr]

All Time High is my fave. I love all of them though, well most. Love all of Shirley's (including Moonraker), and Live and Let Die is a masterpiece. So many good songs.

[znachki]

Never heard this before.

D'OH - my bad, I got it confused with Never Say Never Again...

That one was unofficial.

[briancoogaert]

The World is not enough !!!

[Tesla]

Sean Connery was bribed for Diamonds Are Forever.

[Yehudi]

Hard to choose. I love Diamonds are Forever, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger and Living Daylights.

ETA: The Adele song does bring back Shirley Bassey memories.

[aliceanne]

I picked Goldfinger because it was the first Bond movie I ever saw. I was pretty young, but I thought the special effects were neat and all of the double entendres such as "Pussy Galore" went right over my head.

There have been so many Bonds and the books were so formulaic I've lost track since then. Ian Fleming must have written a lot of them because those movies have been coming out for about 60 years.

[Jenny]

I like it - it's a great mix of both the old school Bond feel and Adele. It melds nicely together, unlike that last bizarre and cacaphonous Jack White and Alicia Keys collab that everyone in this thread has forgot to mention (and with good reason)

Quantum was on last night, so I gave another listen to Jack White and Alicia Keys - it's different from most of the other Bond songs for sure, and maybe one has to be a fan of Jack White's larger body of work to appreciate what he's done here, but I like it

[Susan1]

I picked View to a Kill. I just loved the song anyway. #2 would be Live and Let Die because I love Paul McCartney, and at both concerts, they set off fire works during the song (scared everybody to death even though we knew it was coming!).

And on a related note, one time our rink did a medley of James Bond theme songs for part of the spring show. And those of old enough to know the songs were singing along.

[Aussie Willy]

I went for View to a Kill too.

I must be one of the only people who quite likes Jack White and Alicia Keys' song.

[danceronice]

There have been so many Bonds and the books were so formulaic I've lost track since then. Ian Fleming must have written a lot of them because those movies have been coming out for about 60 years.

There aren't. Fleming died in the mid-sixties and he didn't actually write THAT many Bond books. Some of the movies are based on short stories, several have nothing to do with the books, and "The Spy Who Loved Me" was such an awful book Fleming himself refused to sell anything other than the title so the film plot is 100% different. Sometimes they repeated plots (I'm trying to remember which later film is literally a carbon copy of "Thunderball".) I don't think any of the Pierce Brosnan films were based on books or stories (though GoldenEye is named after Fleming's house), and while Casino Royale is one of the most faithful adaptations they've ever done, "Quantum of Solace" just took the title from a short story (which TV Tropes accurate describes as "James Bond goes to a dinner party with boring people where nothing happens") and "Skyfall" is unrelated.

[znachki]

There aren't. Fleming died in the mid-sixties and he didn't actually write THAT many Bond books. Some of the movies are based on short stories, several have nothing to do with the books, and "The Spy Who Loved Me" was such an awful book Fleming himself refused to sell anything other than the title so the film plot is 100% different. Sometimes they repeated plots (I'm trying to remember which later film is literally a carbon copy of "Thunderball".) I don't think any of the Pierce Brosnan films were based on books or stories (though GoldenEye is named after Fleming's house), and while Casino Royale is one of the most faithful adaptations they've ever done, "Quantum of Solace" just took the title from a short story (which TV Tropes accurate describes as "James Bond goes to a dinner party with boring people where nothing happens") and "Skyfall" is unrelated.

I was housesitting about 20 years ago, and read all of Fleming's Bond books because they were in the library at the house. The one that really struck me was "Moonraker", because the movie had to be so updated. Plus that whole "jaws" thing. Really hated that movie. But, yep big differences in many of the stories.

One of the reasons I loved the new "Casino Royal" so much, is that it was true to the books. Bond got beat up a whole heck of a lot more in the books than he ever did in the movies.

Yep, just like a lot of series, movie or TV, you run out of source material ans have to invent new stories.

[skipaway]

Ok, flame suit on...I find the music of Skyfall dirge like and boring (not unlike other Bond themes) so very recognizable as a Bond Movie theme. The lyrics are sophomoric with the rhyming forced. Adele has a beautiful voice, no doubt about it, but this is not one of her best.

[znachki]

Ok, flame suit on...I find the music of Skyfall dirge like and boring (not unlike other Bond themes) so very recognizable as a Bond Movie theme. The lyrics are sophomoric with the rhyming forced. Adele has a beautiful voice, no doubt about it, but this is not one of her best.

No flame from me, I agree with you.

[Maofan7]

My favourite is You Only Live Twice

In the UK at the moment, they are showing the Bond films around the clock all day and every day on one of the film channels in the run up to the release of Skyfall. Its really good.