A note about the Bond theme songs
PDJamesBond
Posts: 180MI6 Agent
Do any of you remember the old adage that only the even-numbered Star Trek movies are any good? Well, it occurred to me this morning, listening to my “Best of Bond” compilation, that the same holds true with the even-numbered Bond songs through AVTAK. Because if you think about it, what are considered the best Bond themes? We have: FRWL, TB, OHMSS, LALD, “Nobody Does It Better,” FYEO, and AVTAK. The ones in between (with the possible exception of Goldfinger, for which opinions tend to be 50/50) are usually considered “not so good.”
I noticed this trend pick up again with GoldenEye, because in the modern era, the ones people think of as the most successful are GE, TWINE, “You Know My Name,” and SF.
Anyone agree? Disagree? Or perhaps not care at all? Haha.
I noticed this trend pick up again with GoldenEye, because in the modern era, the ones people think of as the most successful are GE, TWINE, “You Know My Name,” and SF.
Anyone agree? Disagree? Or perhaps not care at all? Haha.
Comments
These are Bond movies, 17,19,21 and 23, all odd numbers right?
I do get your point though, never really thought about it to much, can't say I agree with you on the TWINE song, I always thought it was one of the worst one's. Skyfall is one of the most Bondian sounding title songs we have had in years though!
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And is "you know my name" really that popular? I hear a lot of people complaining about that song..
1 - Moore, 2 - Dalton, 3 - Craig, 4 - Connery, 5 - Brosnan, 6 - Lazenby
It's open to debate I guess, but I was referring to just the main bond theme
1 - Moore, 2 - Dalton, 3 - Craig, 4 - Connery, 5 - Brosnan, 6 - Lazenby
And perhaps I shouldn't have said “popular.” I was really thinking more along the lines of “acclaimed among Bond fans.” "You Know My Name," for example, is one that wasn't necessarily popular but I knew very few Bond fans who don't like it.
#1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
That's strange you say this. I find TWINE very Bondian and it was the one I thought of when I first heard Skyfall. They seem to be in the same vein.
1-FRWL, 2-GF, 3-YOLT, 4-OHMSS, 5-DAF, 6-LALD, 7-TSWLM, 8-MR, 9-AVTAK, 10-QOS
On the poll that followed the column, readers had them in this order:
1-GF, 2-TLD, 3-SF, 4-LALD, 5-None of the above, 6-DAF, 7-YOLT, 8-OHMSS, 9-TWINE, 10-FRWL
While a separate column by a different Telegraph writer a few days later, ranked them like this:
1-YOLT, 2-GF, 3-OHMSS, 4-DAF, 5-LALD, 6-TSWLM, 7-FRWL, 8-TMWTGG, 9-TWINE, 10-TLD
Which I guess just goes to show that everyone has a different opinion!
Very interesting post, Domino Effect! I guess everyone really does have a different opinion about the songs! Although it's very comforting to see that neither TND or DAD are on any of those lists!
-DN: It established the Bond theme. If that's not classic, I don't know what is. The rest of the music in it? Umm...let's just say it was the weakest score of the Connery Bonds not counting NSNA, but that it gave us ONE great, incredibly iconic song.
-FRWL: Superb, especially when one considers it's just the second film ever made!
-GF: I always thought this one was very, very good. However, it DOES have a tendency to be an "earworm"; that is, a song you can't get out of your head. Also note that it seems to be in everyone's top ten, though rarely number one.
-TB: Excellent, even if the lyrics could be better. The actual melody is terrific. Unlike GF, it's also not an "earworm".
-YOLT: I thought this one was pretty good, actually.
-OHMSS: Undoubtedly one of the best. Also add in Louis Armstrong's "got-it-one-take" performance while literally dying. Love this one or hate it, it did have a great soundtrack.
-DAF: Liked the title song A LOT (despite the fact that it's an earworm for me), though I found the rest of the soundtrack merely very good as opposed to truly great as it's sometimes touted.
-LALD: Not only a terrific score and soundtrack for a Bond film, but frankly for any film. I rank it first.
-TMWTGG: Weak, although not outright terrible. Certainly the weakest of the Moore era.
-TSWLM: Terrific, especially the end credits!
-MR: Average on all counts. Neither as bad nor as good as many make it out to be.
-FYEO: A good soundtrack, just not a very Bondian one.
-OP: A mixed bag. The music that plays in the suspense scenes is very good, though the rest is about average and even at points below average.
-AVTAK: Knock it around all you like, but you cannot knock the soundtrack except in the PTS. Though I am a HUGE Beach Boys fan, I also think the song is WAY out of place.
-TLD: Really good, especially the Necros Theme and the early suspense music. In second place for me.
-LTK: It was okay; nothing seemed to stand out about it.
-GE: Terrific but not Bondian enough. What do I mean by that? As an experiment, I played the music over silent footage of a junkyard in ex-Soviet Central Asia (one of the "car graveyards" of Kyrgyzstan, I believe where you just have literally miles and miles of what at first appears to be a parking lot, but then walk in and you'll see it's a junkyard) featuring falling-apart late model Soviet cars and even obsolete military vehicles (mostly GAZ-69's and GAZ-69A's). It really DID capture the "post-Soviet decay" feeling extremely well, EVEN the PTS music, but it did so at the complete expense of the Bond theme, which is problematic.
-TND: Welcome back to a really good Bond theme!
-TWINE: Darker than TND, but more Bondian than GE. I really liked this film's soundtrack.
-DAD: The horror...the horror...
-CR: Underrated. Not great, but far from horrible. I liked it.
-QoS: Solid, although the lyrics in the TS were a little clunky.
-SF: The only bit of music I've heard from it I like quite a bit.