Home › Bond Movies › Music
Reporting For Duty
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Categories
Best/Worst Bond Score
ForYourEyesOnly
In the untained cradle of the heavens
Sorry if this has been done before, but I couldn't find it on the first page. Wasn't bothered to look further :)
Anyway, the likely candidates (based on popular opinion) seem to be You Only Live Twice, OHMSS, The Living Daylights, Licence to Kill, and The Spy Who Loved Me (you either love or hate Hamlisch's score). I think Moonraker, Octopussy and A View To A Kill all had great scores which are criminally underrated. The latter two in particular are ones that I personally reckon are among the top 10 pantheon.
Worst probably goes to TMWTGG or QoS or something. I've heard people defend TMWTGG, so it might not be the worst, but it's probably the worst John Barry score/worst Roger Moore era score.
Anyway, the likely candidates (based on popular opinion) seem to be You Only Live Twice, OHMSS, The Living Daylights, Licence to Kill, and The Spy Who Loved Me (you either love or hate Hamlisch's score). I think Moonraker, Octopussy and A View To A Kill all had great scores which are criminally underrated. The latter two in particular are ones that I personally reckon are among the top 10 pantheon.
Worst probably goes to TMWTGG or QoS or something. I've heard people defend TMWTGG, so it might not be the worst, but it's probably the worst John Barry score/worst Roger Moore era score.
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
Least liked. GE
Not many of the non-Barry scores have cut the mustard. The worst is probably Licence To Kill. From the gunbarrel right through I found it cheesy and a bit Americanised.
I wasn't a fan of the Live And Let Die score either, but at least it tried to stay true to some degree. TSWLM went down the cheesy disco route, which doesn't suit Bond at all. FYEO was marginally better but, astounding Gunbarrel score aside, and the submarine score, it was still a little cheesy.
David Arnold at least created a Bondian feel with his scores (poor gunbarrels aside).
I didn't like Skyfall's score at all but Spectre at least hints at being a bit more Bondian.
The worst score is Thomas Newman's effort for Skyfall, which is merely adequate as used in the film, and just bland on album.
A View to a Kill is indeed a fine score. It deserves a complete recording or at least a decent re-release on CD, for the sound quality on the 2003 release is truly abominable.
For me, the bottom of the barrel is TWINE & DAD. Piss poor and unmemorable, from my perspective.
Disagree there as I can't remember ANY memorable tracks from the NSNA score. GE at least has "whispering statues" and "that's what keeps you alone".
Goldeneye is probably my least favourite, I like most of the scores, they're all great in their own way.
My least favorite Bond score is Monty Norman's Dr. No.
My favorite is A View To a Kill tied with OHMSS.
Serras score sounds like a cheap channel 5 film.
OHMSS, TLD. Bubbling behind would be YOLT, DAF and Moonraker. Barry was on fire in the mid-late 60's!
Worst:
DN, GE (mostly as they don't sound Bond). Also not a massive fan of LTK (sounds more like a Die Hard/Lethal Weapon score and doesn't have any strong motifs - do enjoy Kamen's take on the Bond theme however) and DAD (enjoy the Jinx/Icarus themes but the DnB percussion overload on the action tracks is bloody terrible)
Most criminally underrated:
Octopussy, AVTAK (strong scores but find the Bond theme renditions very samey) and strangely QOS (I think this is Arnold's strongest work - it shows *some* restraint - rather liked Quantum's theme and the opening pre-title sequence track).
A porn film with a better score than GE still then.
MR, OHMSS
Worst scores:
DAD and NSNA
My least favourite - Dr. No (Monty Norman)
OHMSS, MR, TLD
Worst:
TSWLM
WORST - GE (a travesty in the history of the BOND franchise)
Not that I partake in too much of that sort of activity, but it certainly does sound somewhat like it belongs in a 70's/80's porno.....including that shite title song.
Agree completely re: Legrand's NSNA score. Parts, like the music accompanying Bond and Fatima's trip out to sea and their subsequent dive, are downright mortifying, especially when there's someone within earshot who's not privy to what you're actually watching. :-S
The funny thing is, Legrand is actually an accomplished composer, and had he never composed a Bond score and someone were to suggest the idea to me, I would think, "Yeah, a James Bond score by Legrand would be amazing!" Sean Connery himself apparently was the one who pushed for Legrand to write the music. I wonder if Connery was actually happy with the final result...
And I actually appreciated the whole Latinisation of the Bond theme in Licence to Kill. GoldenEye was strange, but not overly poor. And I'm with the train that believes Skyfall's score was rather mediocre for something that was meant to commemorate 50 years of Bond.
and annoying. Although like a Fan, I still bought it on VHS, DVD and Bluray. :))
I taped NSNA off the telly with the aim to keep it but taped over it because it's so bad. Never owned it on VHS, DVD or Blu Ray - it just feels really off to me.