Most movie franchises don’t make a big deal about theme songs. And that’s probably a good thing —we’re not sure we could have dealt with One Direction singing a title tune for “Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb” or an original Grimes track for “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.” But there’s one movie series that we couldn’t imagine without its signature songs, and that’s the James Bond franchise.
The longest running continuous franchise in movie history is soon to return with "Spectre," and as has been the case for all but one of the 2 installments to date (plus upstart rival entry “Never Say Never Again”), it’s got a popular artist singing an original song over the title sequence —in this case, it’s Sam Smith, with new track “Writing’s On The Wall.”
The latter debuted on Friday, and as self-styled connoisseurs of the Bond themes, we thought it might be a good time to look back at the now fifty-year history of 007 songs (excluding the instrumental themes to “Dr. No” and “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” although both are great), and put them in order from worst to best. How does Sam Smith fare? You can find out below, and argue with us in the comments section.
24. "Die Another Day" by Madonna from "Die Another Day" (2002)
Unless the twist of “Spectre” is that Sam Smith turns out to be playing Ernst Blofeld, “Die Another Day” is the only movie where the singer of the theme also acts in the movie, with Madonna pulling double duties. But given that she’s such a legendary pop star and can be an engaging movie presence in the right roles, it’s disappointing that both the song and the performance turned out to be dreadful. The former Ms. Ciccone stops a film that’s already pretty bad in its tracks when she cameos as a fencing instructor, but frankly, it had already gotten off to a bad start thanks to the title song, a dirge-y, glitchy electro number that’s less John Barry than a Fischerspooner B-side. And in a movie that features an invisible car, a ropey bad-guy role from Toby Stephens and some of the worst CGI ever seen in a major release, the bit in the song where Madonna breathily exclaims “Sigmund Freud, analyze this!” might be the low point.
Bond-iest Lyric: "For every sin, I’ll have to pay / I’ve come to work, I’ve come to play / I think I’ll find another way / It’s not my time to go"
23. "The Man With The Golden Gun" by Lulu from "The Man With The Golden Gun" (1974)
With a title like that, the classic songwriting duo of John Barry and Don Black (a team that won an Oscar for the classic “Born Free”), and belting from Shirley Bassey-ish British chanteuse Lulu, you could be forgiven for thinking that “The Man With The Golden Gun” would be a home run. Then again, you’d think that a Bond film where the bad guy is Christopher Lee would be great too, and look how wrong that turned out. Barry’s least favorite of all the Bond themes (“It’s the one I hate most… it just never happened for me,” he would later say), and the only one never to chart as a single on either side of the Bond, it sounds like a theme song but never really comes together, seemingly restarting itself just when you think it might get near a chorus. Lulu’s vocal performance is pretty good —with the right song, she could have turned out something good— but this is otherwise understandably forgotten, bar the plentiful innuendo.
Bond-iest Lyric: Two-way tie between the double entendre heights of "He has a powerful weapon" and "Who will he bang?"
22. "Never Say Never Again" by Lani Hall from "Never Say Never Again" (1983)
Unofficial Bond movie “Never Say Never Again,” which saw Sean Connery return to the title role thanks to rights technicalities that let “Thunderball” co-writer Kevin McClory make a film with the character (and take sole rights to Spectre and Blofeld), sometimes comes across as a sort of equivalent of those unlicensed Turkish remakes of Superman or Spider-Man, and so it’s appropriate that the film’s song comes across as a bad cover version too. Sung by Lani Hall, a Latin pop star best known for collaborating with Sérgio Mendes, and written by “The Windmills Of Your Mind” composer Michel Legrand, it does have an earworm-y chorus, but the none-more-80s production makes it sound less like a Bond theme and more like something you’d hear in a hotel bar in a rundown European holiday resort, and Hall’s a pretty uncharismatic performer here. It arguably would have been better if they’d just used the Bee Gees song of the same name (which pre-dates the movie).
Bond-iest Lyric: "I just could be the woman to reach you / And teach you to never say never again."
21. "The Writing’s On The Wall" by Sam Smith from "Spectre" (2015)
Is this song a joke? Seriously, IS THIS A JOKE? Fine, the Bond series has reinvented its lead many times over, tweaking the role for the times and the often songs reflect that —we have rolled with those punches over the years. But what does it say about our current times that we’ve reinvented the Bond song into a drippy, anodyne, nasal whinge without a single memorable hook delivered in a horrible, over-ornate falsetto full of airless little curlicues and bloodless vocal frillery that all the tryhard orchestration in the world can’t compensate for? Maybe it’s the Bond song we deserve for our hipsterism-will-eat-itself universe in which indiegogo-funded anti-gentrification organizations attack cereal cafes. But lord, this is not just neutered —it’s positively castrated. Far from the bloody-steak, rip-your-heart-out, torch song lustiness that is part of the proud heritage of the Bond theme, this is the intro tune for a teetotal, gluten-allergic, lactose intolerant, vegan 007 who worries about being friendzoned and spends hours tweaking the filters on his instagram snaps.
Bond-iest Lyric: "A million shards of glass / That haunt me from my past / As the stars begin to gather/ And the light begins to fade" I guess, but whatever. Seriously, fuck this song.
READ MORE: Skyfail: The 5 Worst James Bond Films
20. "Another Way To Die" by Jack White & Alicia Keys from "Quantum of Solace" (2008)
Faced with the impossible task of trying to rhyme “Quantum Of Solace” in song, Daniel Craig’s second film dodged that particular bullet altogether by calling its theme “Another Way To Die,” sung by the curious pair involving quick-tempered faux-incesting Detroit guitar whiz Jack White and angel-voiced ivory-tinkler Alicia Keys (the first duet ever for a Bond theme). Appropriately for a movie with a title like an obscure legal loophole and where the plot revolves around the battle for utilities contracts, it’s also incredibly boring. White and Keys are an ill-matched duo, never really sounding like they’re singing the same song, and White’s gift for melody seems to have abandoned him here —it’s more Dead Weather than The White Stripes, if you know what we mean. And what’s worse: they passed up a far superior, much more literal version from “Attack The Block” helmer Joe Cornish.
Bond-iest Lyric: "Another ringer with the slick trigger finger / For Her Majesty / Another one with the golden tongue / Poisoning your fantasy" Class lyrics. Awful tune.
19. "You Know My Name" by Chris Cornell from "Casino Royale" (2006)
Daniel Craig’s casting as Bond saw a new serious, gritty era of entries in the series, with Bourne-aping action, interlinked mythology and not much in the way of fancy gadgets or innuendo. To match it, the movie sought a “strong male voice” to signal this new man’s-man version of Bond, and ended up with the slightly odd choice of ratty-facial-haired Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell. A veteran of the grunge era might not see like a natural fit to write and sing a 007 theme, but he and co-writer/composer David Arnold came up with a pretty decent song, far more memorable than the Keys/White number or the Sam Smith tune. The problem is that Cornell was entirely the wrong choice —his gravelly voice seems like it should be accompanying a “xXx” sequel rather than MI6’s finest.
Bond-iest Lyric: "Try to hide your hand / Forget how to feel / Life is gone with just a spin of the wheel"
18. "The Living Daylights"by a-ha from "The Living Daylights" (1987)
You don’t normally associate Scandinavian pop with James Bond (except for the reams of notes we’ve written for a Robyn-sung 007 theme — it’ll happen one day, dammit…), but clearly after a change of pace for the newfound Timothy Dalton era vai 1987’s “The Living Daylights,” producers went for Scandi-popsters a-ha, best known for “Take On Me.” It’s not a terrible song —fitting firmly into their bouffant-haired synth-pop formula (and clearly indebted to “Live And Let Die” to a degree), but it’s not hugely memorable either. Just as the Dalton movies, while not bad as such, never truly feel like 007 outings, the title song never feels like Bond. It’s technically the last theme co-written by John Barry, but it was apparently an unhappy process, and you can’t hear much of his influence in the finished song.
Bond-iest Lyric: "Set your hopes up way too high / The living’s in the way we die." Forgettable though the song is, they come closest to getting that Bond tune essence in these lyrics which sound dramatic and sexy and make zero licks of sense.
17. "Moonraker" by "Shirley Bassey" from "Moonraker" (1979)
Few trilogy cappers close off the sequence satisfyingly, and unfortunately Shirley Bassey’s “Moonraker,” her third Bond theme after “Goldfinger” and “Diamonds Are Forever,” is more “Matrix Revolutions” than “Three Colors: Red.” Penned once again by John Barry, with words by “We Have All The Time In The World” lyricist Hal David (after Paul Williams’ lyrics were thrown out), the song was turned down by Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathis and Kate Bush (!) before Bassey was brought in at almost the last possible minute. Unlike the movie, the song gets credit for not trying to go to some kind of sci-fi, “Star Wars”-aping place, but it’s by far the least memorable of Bassey’s three tracks as a song itself, and perhaps aware that she was the last resort, the Welsh singer sounds atypically disengaged when she belts it out. If you must play it, at least go for the hilariously incongruous disco remix that plays over the end credits.
Bond-iest Lyric: "Where are you? When will we meet? / Take my unfinished life and make it complete."
16. "GoldenEye" by Tina Turner from "Goldeneye" (1995)
After the increasingly campy Roger Moore ’80s Bond films, the derided, self-serious Dalton era, and a six year gap, 007 needed to come back in a big way, and musically, the producers found some heavy hitters for the theme tune for “GoldenEye” —U2’s Bono and The Edge wrote the song, and one of the biggest, brassiest voices in music, Tina Turner, belted it out. The movie was entirely successful in reviving the franchise: the song, rather less so. You can’t fault Turner’s vocal performance, which is completely stellar, and she makes the song seem better than it actually is (if you want proof, listen to former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger’s reedy cover, done for a video game). Strip her perfomance away, it’s a dull, repetitive sleepwalk with lyrics clunky even by the standard of Bond themes. Still, it could have been worse: Bono could have sung the thing himself…
Bond-iest Lyric: "GoldenEye, I’ll show him forever / It’ll take forever to see what I got"
15. "All Time High" by Rita Coolidge from "Octopussy" (1983)
Released the same year as “Never Say Never Again,” “Octopussy” saw Eon fight back with mostly spent ammunition —an increasingly ancient Roger Moore, a dull supporting cast, and wildly uneven plot that vacillates between proto-Dalton seriousness and bizarre comedy (007 in a clown costume and doing a Tarzan impression). It did at least win the battle of the themes: the big-haired chanteuse Rita Coolidge (a country-tinged singer known for her partnership, romantic and professional, with Kris Kristofferson) turning in a superior entry to Lani Hall’s tune the same year. The song couldn’t sound less like a Bond theme if Skrillex was involved, but it’s a pleasant enough tune, nicely handled by Coolidge. If you put it up against the best of Bassey and Barry, it’s very minor, but against the kind of ’80s movie ballad competition it was clearly aiming for —“Love Lift Us Up (Where We Belong),” etc— it’s easy to think of it more favorably.
Bond-iest Lyric: "All I wanted was a sweet distraction for an hour or two"
READ MORE: The 5 Best James Bond Action Sequences
14. "Tomorrow Never Dies" by Sheryl Crow from "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997)
The shame of it is that this could actually have been a pretty decent son: for it’s tunefulness and sexily overwrought lyrics about enslaving passion and infinity and stuff, it could even have cracked the top 10. But Crow’s delivery is strained, with the perched-atop-a-piano vibe ill suited to her Midwestern barroom rock chick persona, so that it all sounds shrill and nasal in the upper registers and positively whiny in the "until that daaa–aay" part. It would have functioned just fine with a richer vocal track, highlighted by the secondary theme "Surrender" which closes the film, is sung by k.d. lang and comes a lot closer to the sleazy/classy smokiness achieved in the rest of David Arnold‘s score (his first in the Bond franchise). Perhaps unsurprisingly, as he co-wrote "Surrender" with lang with a view to it, rather than Crow’s petulant alternative, being the film’s theme.
Bond-iest Lyric: "Darling you won, it’s no fun / Martinis girls and guns / It’s murder on our love affair"
13. "Thunderball" by Tom Jones from "Thunderball" (1965)
Having found great success with a giant-voiced Welsh singer on “Goldfinger,” producers stuck with a proven recipe for follow-up “Thunderball,” with Shirley Bassey giving way to her male equivalent, Tom Jones, for “Thunderball.” In fact, Bassey was originally meant to return, with a John Barry/Leslie Bricusse number called “Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” but the song was re-recorded by Dionne Warwick, and then Bassey sued the producers when she found out, meaning a replacement was needed in a hurry. Barry and Don Black swiftly penned “Thunderball,” and Jones landed the gig and delivered in typically bombastic fashion (he reportedly nearly fainted after singing the song’s final high note). The trouble is, Jones’ bombast is the main thing carrying the track: it’s a little unmemorable, clearly bearing the marks of having been written in a hurry. We wish Jones had had better material —few male vocalists are as well suited to Bond themes— but it’s otherwise slightly underwhelming.
Bond-iest Lyric: "Any woman he wants he’ll get"
12. "Licence To Kill" by Gladys Knight from "Licence To Kill" (1989)
You could perhaps read Gladys Knight’s more classic-style theme for “Licence To Kill” as a response to the muted reaction to “The Living Daylights,” but the reality is rather more prosaic: John Barry was undergoing surgery, and producers had to look elsewhere for both the film’s score (done eventually by Michael Kamen) and the song. Eric Clapton was originally planned to record the theme, but in the end, songwriters Narada Michael Walden, Jeffrey Cohen and Walter Afanasieff fashioned a track around the famous horn part from “Goldfinger,” perhaps helping to explain why this feels more ‘Bond’ than anything since the Connery era. The production’s decidedly more ’80s-inclined, to the extent that it feels a touch dated and cheesy at this point, but Motown legend Knight nails the vocals and somehow unites the idea that this is a sort of power ballad version of something Shirley Bassey could have done.
Bond-iest Lyric: "Say that somebody tries to make a move on you / In the blink of an eye, I’ll be there too"
READ MORE: Sam Mendes Says ‘Spectre’ Will Be His Last James Bond Movie, Reveals Theme Song Is Done
11. "The World Is Not Enough" by Garbage from "The World Is Not Enough" (1999)
Such is the extent that the film itself —a boring mess that’s only defeated for the distinction of Pierce Brosnan’s worst Bond because “Die Another Day” exists and is somehow exponentially worse— tainted our memory that we originally suggested that Garbage’s “The World Is Not Enough” should be in the lower reaches of this list. But we re-listened to the track, and do you know what? It’s pretty great. Written by David Arnold and Don Black, and given to the slightly unlikely Shirley Manson-fronted alt-rock band, it’s one of the rare examples of successfully updating the Bond formula and making it feel legitimately fresh. Arnold drops Barry-ish horns and strings on top, but the track doesn’t feel like a throwback, even introducing a touch of electronica in a way that “Die Another Day” completely failed to do, while Manson’s breathy vocals soar.
Bond-iest Lyric: "I know when to talk / And I know when to touch / No one ever died, from wanting too much"
10. "For Your Eyes Only" by Sheena Easton from "For Your Eyes Only" (1981)
Probably the most successful of the ’80s-power-ballad sub-set of Bond themes (certainly commercially: it hit the top 5 in the U.S), Sheena Easton’s “For Your Eyes Only” wasn’t initially meant to be the song for this otherwise forgettable Roger Moore entry —originally Blondie had written a song for the movie, which was ultimately rejected, though eventually surfaced on their album “The Hunter.” While the film is mostly forgettable, Easton’s song —co-written by “Rocky” composer Bill Conti, unusually for the period without any input from John Barry— works pretty well as a reinvention of the theme for the new decade, with a big chorus pretty much for unsuccessful karaoke recreation. That said, Easton actually appears in the credits of the movie singing the song, which comes across as deeply naff.
Bond-iest Lyric: "The passions that collide in me / the wild abandoned side of me / Only for you, for your eyes only "
9. "You Only Live Twice" by Nancy Sinatra from "You Only Live Twice" (1967)
Again teaming the best-known Bond songwriting team of John Barry and Leslie Bricusse, “You Only Live Twice” numbers among the most iconic Bond themes, and mostly rightly so. Melding what were already becoming well-established Barry/Bond elements with the influence of East Asian music (the film is largely set in Japan), the song was originally recorded by Julie Rogers, and after Cubby Broccoli turned down Barry’s first choice of Aretha Franklin, ended up with Nancy Sinatra, who gives the song a lovely sultry feel. The highpoint, however, are Barry’s memorable strings, which have been well-sampled ever since by artists like Robbie Williams and Cee-Lo Green (with the song covered by Bjork, Coldplay and even Shirley Bassey). And yet, is it blasphemous to say that it’s a little wispier and duller than the very best Bond flicks —all mood, no meat?
Bond-iest Lyric: "You Only Live Twice or so it seems / One life for yourself and one for your dreams."
8. "A View To A Kill" by Duran Duran from "A View To A Kill" (1985)
“Dance! Into The Fire…” A rare (mostly) successful example of melding a zeitgeisty band with Bond, “A View To A Kill” arguably stands as the most successful song in the franchise —it might not have the Oscars of “Skyfall,” but it’s the only Bond theme to top the Billboard Hot 100. None-more-80s synth-poppers Duran Duran famously landed the gig after bassist John Taylor drunkenly asked Cubby Broccoli at a party “When are you going to get someone decent to do one of your theme songs?” and for the most part they live up to their brashness. They meld better with Barry’s style than a-ha later would, and turn out one of the more purely danceable, enjoyably sleazy numbers in the 007 canon. Though why no one thought to give the job to disco legend Grace Jones, who played the film’s Bond girl Mayday, is a truly baffling question.
Bond-iest Lyric:"The first crystal tears / Fall as snowflakes on your body / First time in years / To drench your skin with lover’s rosy stain / A chance to find a phoenix for the flame" WUT.
7. "From Russia With Love" by Matt Munro from "From Russia With Love" (1963)
The first official Bond song (first movie “Dr. No” had been accompanied only by the instrumental Bond theme) was Matt Monro’s “From Russia With Love”. Fifty years on it is still one of the best, just as the film it comes from remains a difficult peak to conquer for the franchise. Even then, it doesn’t quite hit the formula — only an instrumental of the song, plays during the opening credits, though Monro’s vocals can be heard from a radio within the film. The film was the first to be fully scored by John Barry, but the song actually comes from “Oliver!” composer Lionel Bart, who does give a certain subtle sense of Russian music and a gently percussive cha-cha-cha rhythm to the track, while Monro’s crooned vocals, as smooth as a perfect Martini feel like a perfect fit to one of the classier outings in the franchise.
Bond-iest Lyric: "From Russia with love I fly to you / Much wiser since my good-bye to you."
READ MORE: Licence To Sing: The Lost James Bond Themes By Johnny Cash, Blondie, Pulp & More
6. "Skyfall" by Adele from "Skyfall" (2012)
Given her classic soul feel and status as one of the biggest-selling artists of modern times, it was perhaps inevitable that Adele would be asked to take on Bond theme duties at some point. What wasn’t as inevitable is that she would knock it out of the park, but she absolutely did, with “Skyfall” easily proving the best Bond theme for at least three decades, and ending up as the first song from the franchise to win an Oscar. Written by the singer and producer Paul Epworth (who in a previous life, worked with bands like Bloc Party), it evokes classic Bassey-sung numbers while somehow feeling a little fresh too, building over quiet piano before exploding alongside Adele’s once-in-a-generation voice and a hefty choir. That said, it works even without her — just listen to this surprisingly excellent version by comedian Paul F. Tomkins. No wonder that Sam Smith’s number relies on its template so heavily.
Bond-iest Lyric: "A thousand miles and poles apart/ Where worlds collide and days are dark / You may have my number, you can take my name / But you’ll never have my heart"
5. "We Have All The Time In The World" by Louis Armstrong from "On Her Majesty’s Secret Service" (1969)
When you think of Bond, you tend to think of a sultry ballad sung over silhouettes of dancing ladies. You probably don’t think of Louis Armstrong. But then “We Have All The Time In The World” is hardly an ordinary Bond theme. For one thing, the track only plays at the end of “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” with the already-by-then traditional opening slot taken by a new instrumental theme by John Barry named after the title. For another, it’s deeply sad—though clearly a love song (reportedly the third most popular at weddings), Armstrong delivers it with the appropriate irony, given that Bond’s wife has just been gunned down by Blofeld. Perhaps because Armstrong is so atypical an artist for something like this, or perhaps because it appears at the end, but it’s one of the rare Bond themes to transcend its source, going on to be covered by dozens of artists.
Bond-iest Lyric: "We have all the time in the world / Just for love" Because SPOILER they don’t.
4. "Diamonds Are Forever" by Shirley Bassey from "Diamonds Are Forever" (1971)
Perhaps better known to the kids today than even “Goldfinger,” thanks to some sampling by Kanye West (on 2005’s “Diamonds From Sierra Leone”), “Diamonds Are Forever” doesn’t quite top the earlier song as Shirley Bassey’s finest entry in the franchise, but comes damn close. Six years after she’d fallen out with the producers on “Thunderball,” Bassey returned with another John Barry-penned number (with lyrics by Don Black this time), an innuendo-laced love letter to utterly rampant materialism. With a chorus as big as Bassey’s vocals, and even one of the best bridges of the series, it’s only kept from being higher by being so much in the “Goldfinger” mould, though its surprising feminism (“Men are mere mortals who are not worth going to your grave for”) is definitely a boon.
Bond-iest Lyric: "Diamonds are forever / Sparkling round my little finger / Unlike men, the diamonds linger"
3. "Live And Let Die" by Paul McCartney and Wings from "Live And Let Die" (1973)
Despite Bond having derided his legendary band in “Goldfinger” (“This is just as bad as listening to the Beatles without earmuffs,” Connery says in the film, creakily), Paul McCartney apparently didn’t hold a grudge, penning the title song (with wife Linda) for Roger Moore’s first movie in the tuxedo. Thankfully ignoring the temptation to bring in some Haitian voodoo influence, McCartney (and band Wings) stuck to what he knew best. That said, it’s among his most aggressive solo numbers, seeming decidedly McCartney-ish to begin with, but switching into Bond mode once that might guitar chord comes in. We’ll say that the bridge that lands about 90 seconds in is kind of lousy, but otherwise, McCartney definitely had the last laugh over Bond (the song also got a famous cover from Guns N Roses, which got its own great big-screen showcase in “Grosse Point Blank.”
Bond-iest Lyric: The surfeit of "in"s in "In this ever-changing world in which we live in"
READ MORE: Nobody Does It Better: The 5 Best James Bond Films
2. "Goldfinger" by Shirley Bassey from "Goldfinger" (1964)
As great as “From Russia With Love” is, “Goldfinger” was arguably the first true Bond theme as we know it today, and remains probably the archetypal one. Written by Barry, Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newly, the song was penned without the lyricists having read the script or seen any footage, but still does a pretty great job at capturing the devilishness of the film’s titular villain (Gert Frobe has never seemed so sexy). And though the song’s a cracker, and invented the signature Bond-theme sound in large part, so much of that is down to Bassey’s delivery. Formerly romantically entangled with Barry, she brings an enormously sultry, yet almost regretful, feel to the track: someone who was swept off her feet entirely by Goldfinger, just got out with her life, but isn’t entirely sure she won’t get back. Perhaps even more than our number one entry, it’s the standard to which all subsequent themes were held to.
Bond-iest Lyric: "A golden girl knows when he’s kissed her / It’s the kiss of death from Mister / Goldfinger"
1. "Nobody Does It Better" by Carly Simon from "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1977)
Is it controversial not to have “Goldfinger” in the top slot? Perhaps, but over the Playlist’s Friday night Martini-and-baccarat get together, there was little doubt that we’d end up going for Carly Simon’s theme from “The Spy Who Loved Me,” “Nobody Does It Better.” Penned, as with the score, by Marvin Hamlisch (it’s one of the few non-Barry scored movies before the 1990s), it takes our top slot because, unlike “Goldfinger,” it’s about our hero—he’s so vain he probably thinks this song is about him. And he’s right: no other 007 tune captures the spirit of the character himself, while still managing to pull off a certain universality. It’s the song that, if he were real, would be played at Bond’s funeral while all his friends and discarded lovers got teary-eyed together. In fact, he probably would have insisted on it, and then jumped out of the coffin, and skied down an exploding mountain.
Bond-iest Lyric: "But like heaven above me / The spy who loved me / Is keeping all my secrets safe tonight."
We’ve covered pretty much all the basics here, as you might have imagined, though we should say that we stuck to songs, excluding the instrumental themes to “Dr. No” (which obviously would have won, as one of cinema’s most iconic hooks), and “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.” In theory, we could also have included Burt Bacharach’s “The Look Of Love,” which won an Oscar nod for unofficial black sheep of the Bond family, 1967’s spoof “Casino Royale.” And for bonus point, there’s also the awful “I’ll Take It All,” the theme to 2010’s Bond videogame “Blood Stone,” sung by Joss Stone and Dave Stewart. And to read more about some of the Bond themes that never made it to the movies, click here for our feature from a few years back.
