Worst Bond song

1131416181922

Comments

  • Posts: 11,189
    Adele is in my top 5 along with LALD, YOLT, NDIB and GE.
  • edited July 2017 Posts: 1,009
    Dupe. Sorry.

  • ChiefTannerChiefTanner Wilmington, DE, USA
    Posts: 34
    Writings on the wall
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    Posts: 7,134
    @bigladiesman I appreciate your thoughts. I also really love the LTK songs and TEOL.

    After some thought, I think Only Myself to Blame is the worst Bond song overall and Another Way to Die the worst title song.
  • MinionMinion Don't Hassle the Bond
    Posts: 1,165
    Only Myself to Blame was so bad, even Michael Apted knew better than to keep it in the final movie.
  • jake24jake24 Sitting at your desk, kissing your lover, eating supper with your familyModerator
    Posts: 10,591
    OMTB is a fine song, but would've been a total mood killer at the end of the film (much like The Experience of Love).
  • Thunderball007Thunderball007 United States
    Posts: 306
    Only Myself to Blame? Someone share it? Never heard it. :P
  • talos7talos7 New Orleans
    Posts: 8,216
    Remember, you asked for it. ;)
  • Thunderball007Thunderball007 United States
    edited July 2017 Posts: 306
    @talos7

    LOL! Thought of that being in The World is Not Enough is hilarious! :P
  • Thunderball007Thunderball007 United States
    edited July 2017 Posts: 306
    Edit.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    Decent jazzy sound to it, but his vocals are horrendous and the lyrics rival WOTW for misery personified.
  • Thunderball007Thunderball007 United States
    Posts: 306
    @bondjames

    A thought. What if they had Pierce Brosnan sing it ala Mamna Mia! :P
  • talos7talos7 New Orleans
    Posts: 8,216
    Yes, as with WOTW, the music is not bad but the vocal...
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    @Thunderball007, you've now left an unfortunate image in my head that will be very difficult to remove, particularly given my lowly opinion of the film and performances as it is.

    hqdefault.jpg
  • Thunderball007Thunderball007 United States
    Posts: 306
    bondjames wrote: »
    @Thunderball007, you've now left an unfortunate image in my head that will be very difficult to remove, particularly given my lowly opinion of the film and performances as it is.

    hqdefault.jpg

    @bondjames

    Oh, this is hysterical. :p
  • BMW_with_missilesBMW_with_missiles All the usual refinements.
    Posts: 3,000
    talos7 wrote: »
    Remember, you asked for it. ;)

    Wow, that was horrible. I'd never heard it before.
  • GoldenGun wrote: »
    After some thought, I think Only Myself to Blame is the worst Bond song overall and Another Way to Die the worst title song.

    Only Myself to Blame is indeed woeful. I'm shocked it was produced by David Arnold. Like WOTW, the melody isn't bad, but those moaning vocals...
    BTW, guilty pleasures:

    Make It Last Night: Cool enough. I love Bill Conti's FYEO score except for the mariachi music on the "Madrid" scenes. Shame on him: he got his start in Spanish and Italian movies: one thinks he would know better.

    NSNA: Too nice of a song for such a shitty soundtrack. Hate its rushed end, though.

    The Experience Of Love: I just like it. Don't ask me why.

    About the ongoing LTK debate:

    LTK: Awesome. My fav Bond song in my fav movie period: love Gladys Knight, and the team Walden-Cohen-Afanasieff ranks between my favourites. They took a classic like Goldfinger and turned it into a R&B anthem, also which speaks wonders of John Barry as a composer and his humongous influence.

    Wedding Party: Another reworking, this time of Jump Up. A happy-go-lucky calypso turned into an annoying piece of crap. Nothing more to say.

    Dirty Love: I actually liked the idea of including a chunk some good ol' AOR on a Bond soundtrack. I enjoy it.

    If You Asked Me To: I know this will be unpopular, but I love it: a smooth ballad by a veteran like Pati LaBelle. Very fitting with the credits showing all those city lights: it creates a cool and relaxng atmosphere after we've have seen hell breaking loose in Isthmus.

    And here's where I stop the derailing.

    Make It Last All Night and Dirty Love are wonderful grungy 80s cheesefests. They would not make a Top 20 of my all-time favorite Bond songs (probably), but they are fun.

    Always have loved Never Say Never Again. It's just sexy and cool and 80s.

    The Experience of Love I can actually appreciate on its own. But it's not Bond and it was completely wrong for the ending of GE.

    Licence to Kill has seriously grown on me over the years. It used to be one of my very least favorite title songs, but now it actually fares relatively well. I'd actually place it above TLD, which would have been unheard of for me once upon a time.

    If You Asked Me To has always been a favorite. Such a great romantic song—a perfect way to close out the film.
  • Posts: 386
    Oh man,
    Bottom 3:

    TND: Gets old fast.
    WOTW: Boring.
    AWTD: I don't even remember how it sounds.

    A reminder:

    This sounds more like Only Myself To Blame. I forgot about it, too. Horrendous and hideous: it's good they took it out of the movie.

    BTW, guilty pleasures:

    Make It Last Night: Cool enough. I love Bill Conti's FYEO score except for the mariachi music on the "Madrid" scenes. Shame on him: he got his start in Spanish and Italian movies: one thinks he would know better.

    NSNA: Too nice of a song for such a shitty soundtrack. Hate its rushed end, though.

    The Experience Of Love: I just like it. Don't ask me why.

    About the ongoing LTK debate:

    LTK: Awesome. My fav Bond song in my fav movie period: love Gladys Knight, and the team Walden-Cohen-Afanasieff ranks between my favourites. They took a classic like Goldfinger and turned it into a R&B anthem, also which speaks wonders of John Barry as a composer and his humongous influence.

    Wedding Party: Another reworking, this time of Jump Up. A happy-go-lucky calypso turned into an annoying piece of crap. Nothing more to say.

    Dirty Love: I actually liked the idea of including a chunk some good ol' AOR on a Bond soundtrack. I enjoy it.

    If You Asked Me To: I know this will be unpopular, but I love it: a smooth ballad by a veteran like Pati LaBelle. Very fitting with the credits showing all those city lights: it creates a cool and relaxng atmosphere after we've have seen hell breaking loose in Isthmus.

    And here's where I stop the derailing.

    If You Asked Me Too is indeed the perfect tonic to what was an explosive third act in LTK.

    Great slice of 80s soul.
  • Thunderball007Thunderball007 United States
    Posts: 306
    I love all of the music in Dalton's films.
  • All time high, hands down!
  • Posts: 3,333
    It always surprises me to still read TMWTGG song as the default worst Bond title song, when we’ve had so many more clunkers since then. All Time High was forgettable airport Muzak, LTK was regurgitated GF with a dire soul rift, TWINE was the worst Garbage song of their career, Sheryl Crowe’s was twangy guitar off-key drivel, Madonna’s was serviceable in an equally very poor movie. Moonraker’s should have been better, but the fact the song was written for either Frank Sinatra or Johnny Mathis in mind, it didn’t have a good starting point to begin with. Thankfully Bassey salvaged it after Kate Bush declined. At least TMWTGG song had some balls about it.
  • ForYourEyesOnlyForYourEyesOnly In the untained cradle of the heavens
    Posts: 1,984
    Yeah, it has some catchiness to it. Another Way to Die is probably still the most offensively bad of the lot for me, but DAD's not far off.
  • edited September 2017 Posts: 11,189
    I'd be interested to hear what you thought of Another Way to Die and Writing's on the Wall @bondsum. Personally I think both are pretty forgettable but of the two I definitely prefer WOTW.
  • GBFGBF
    Posts: 3,197
    Worst title tracks: 1) Die another day, 2) Moonraker, 3) WOTW, 4) AWTD, 5) TND

    I must say I actually like all the 80s songs.

    Worst Bond song: If you asked me to.
  • NicNacNicNac Administrator, Moderator
    Posts: 7,582
    I love Moonraker. Very atmospheric and a beautiful melody. Completely agree about DAD though. Even after 15 years, giving it time to age like a fine wine, it still comes across as vinegar.
  • BondStuBondStu Moonraker 6
    Posts: 373
    I cannot ABIDE "All Time High" from Octopussy.
  • ShardlakeShardlake Leeds, West Yorkshire, England
    Posts: 4,043
    I think the problem with Bond themes as they haven't been able to live independent of the credits consistently for a long time.

    What I mean is everything from FRWL up to LALD are classics, they can be heard on the radio and recognized as brilliantly constructed pieces that just happen to be Bond themes, they exist entirely independent and stand on their own merit.

    TMWTGG while I think it's far from the worst was the poorest Barry theme up to that date and compared to his previous efforts it's lacking.

    Obviously NDIB is a doozy and an all time classic, a great theme and damn fine song full stop. Not so much Moonraker, fine on the credits but not really a classic in its own right although Barry's score is masterful. DAF is really Barry's last truly great theme.

    FYEO is ok nothing outstanding and ATH is possibly Barry's very worst theme, then we get another classic, Barry gets a quality collaborator in Duran Duran and Rog gets to go out with one of the best themes of the series with AVTAK

    I don't mind Aha's LD but the problems between them and Barry are evident it's not a repeat of the previous team up with a chart topper.

    LTK it's not great, fine on the credits but alone pretty forgettable. GE is the closest to a classic the Brosnan era got, Bono & The Edge know how to deliver a quality Bond song and I think this can stand on it's own, the genius that is Nelle Hooper is involved as well.

    TND is dire, just drivel, that "I'm in a puddle on the floor" line makes me cringe everytime I hear it.

    TWINE is like a funeral march and Garbage have done much better and to think Don Black is involved here, clearly Donny did not work up the kind of magic he had with his old friend John.

    DAD is DAD it was ill-advised, it tried something different that didn't work and the results speak for themselves.

    CR's YKMN, It's the best theme of the DC era and in the late Chris Cornell is Arnold's best collaborator, they both really are on the same page and with Kleinmann's best credit sequence, really kick CR with style after one of the best PTS of the series. Also, every time I hear it, mostly outside of the film I think it does stand up on its own and it's the best proper rocker since McCartney's barnstormer.

    AWTD is one of the most hated themes of the series, I really have to say I don't dislike but I can hear why it doesn't work for most. I'm biased because I'm a big Jack White fan, he's contemporary music genius and one of the most prolific musicians to have arrived in the last two decades but his song stinks of a rush job and I think he should have done it on his own or got the rest of the Raconteurs in rather than an ill-advised collaboration with Alicia Keyes.

    SF is the series first award-winning theme of the series and works a treat with the credits but on its own it's not very memorable and far from the best Adele had delivered.

    WOTW is for me the low point of the series I'm not getting into my disgust at the film because it's well documented and made a point of ceasing my discussions on it to prove I can let things go.

    Though that song is just dire, I have no problem with falsetto's the late Jeff Buckley is an example of how to do it right, Thom Yorke has displayed this and Bono in the 90s was quite adept at it but Sam Smith's has no power or melody it's just a screeching noise.

    I've also problem with his sexuality, I'd gladly have seen David Mcalmont or Mark Almond, truly great vocalists tackle a Bond theme but Sam is just flavour of the moment and the lyrics aren't even relevant to the film we are watching.

    Even the glorious opening string section is just really pastiche and nothing new, Barry lite but the song that follows is truly awful and mark my words it will be forgotten as quick as it arrived.

    So for me it's Sam Smith's Writing On The Wall, my only fear is this is just a downward spiral and Ed Sheeran is just round the corner or Jess Glynne or whoever, the memorable stand on it own classic is long in the distance I fear.



  • edited October 2019 Posts: 3,333
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    I'd be interested to hear what you thought of Another Way to Die and Writing's on the Wall @bondsum. Personally I think both are pretty forgettable but of the two I definitely prefer WOTW.
    I’ve just seen this old post by @BAIN123 so I’ll give you a belated reply.

    AWTD wasn’t the best nor was it the worst. Personally, and it’s all very much down to one’s own musical taste, I prefer it to TWINE, TND, WOTW. However, I expected more from the talented Jack White. But then the same could be said of Madonna’s lazy techno effort. Commercially, the song reached number one in Finland and became a top-five hit in Austria, Norway, and Switzerland. It was number nine in the UK charts. Not a total dud.

    The thing I don’t understand is why the producers felt the need to take the co-song-writing duties away from Arnold when he’d previously delivered a perfectly acceptable number for CR (his best IMO). According to a Rolling Stone article it was a Sony executive who — in the year 2007 — decided that the dude from Soundgarden was the right voice to introduce the most radically different, forward-thinking James Bond in the character's half-century history. Bizarrely, the RS article slates the Chris Cornell song and places it somewhere near the bottom of the pile. Even music critics see and hear things different to a lot of us here at MI6. Sure, I know the thinking at the time was to get Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson to do QoS, but when that fell through Sony, the producers, whoever, should’ve got down on their scrawny knees begging Arnold to rescue the title song instead of awarding it to Jack White without even hearing a single note of his song. And if they did hear a demo, it begs the question why they still didn’t wait and see what Arnold came up with.

    As for WOTW, I find it so melodramatic, wrought and painful to listen to, I’ve avoided listening to it since watching the movie back in 2015. I dislike it with a passion.
  • Posts: 4,044
    I wish WOTW was forgettable
  • Last_Rat_StandingLast_Rat_Standing Long Neck Ice Cold Beer Never Broke My Heart
    Posts: 4,589
    For your eyes only
Sign In or Register to comment.