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All Time High- A forgotten Bond theme?
MayDayDiVicenzo
Here and there
IMO, All Time High is beautiful song, being both 'suitable' for a Bond theme and being quite different to Bond themes with have previously heard. Rita Coolidge is a great singer and the song is put to good use throughout the film. All Time High is definetly in my top 10 Bond themes. However, not many people seem to discuss this song as much as Goldfinger or Skyfall, for example. I don't think I have yet seen it in somebody elses top 10. What are your views on All Time High?
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Comments
It is together with DAF,FYEO and Moonraker (the End Version, which I find much more upbeat) my favourite Bond Song, which says a lot in a Series so blessed with great tunes.
I must agree that the title song is nothing special. Rita Coolidge's vocals are just there and she's performed better songs than this. But I feel differently about the soundtrack as a whole, I find it very memorable and the instrumental versions of ATH such as "That's My Little Octopussy" are sensual and lushly orchestrated. I'd say it's right there with AVTAK for the most part, but Barry's final Bond soundtrack in TLD is still my favorite of his three 1980's contributions to the series. I play all three quite often and never tire of them.
Indeed. I too love All Time High as a Bond theme song. Brilliant as a love song - outside of 'We Have All The Time In The World' probably the very best. It's very 1980s in tone, which is another reason to love it. Sadly, I don't think it performed terribly well in the charts - No. 47 or something, if memory serves.
Shame on me! How could I forget We Have All The Time In The World? There really is no excuse,I'm afraid!!!
Don't be so hard on yourself. We're not all musical maestros. May I recommend a great book by John Burlingame on Bond music here.
Barry's score, however? Totally different story.
For a real forgotten Bond theme, maybe Patti LaBelle's 'If you asked me to', or The Pretenders, 'If there was a man' would be better examples than Coolidge with regards to the James Bond series, but Ok if you insist
Yes, it does have a feeling of 'otherness' about it, as if it's a love song that doesn't quite fit with being a James Bond theme song. I still love it, though.
I love how it's used in the score. It works perfectly. But whereas LALD was the most lyrically removed Bond theme, ATH is the most musically removed one. I think the circumstances hurt ATH much, much more than they hurt LALD. But again, I don't think the song's anything stellar to begin with anyway.
I actually thought Die Another Day wasn't bad as a type of Madonna/Michael Jackson-type pop song and it kind of went with the very different Bond film that DAD turned out to be in the end. I'm no big fan of the desperately over-hyped Madonna, though. Michael Jackson is another matter.
That's a fair point about DAD the song going along with DAD the film. Perhaps to some extent people might dislike the song as collateral damage from hating the movie.
I think that is true. Some have said Bond was thinking, "Any kind of torture but that damned Madonna song!" during the, shall we say, interactive titles sequence in DAD.
It's the only Bond track I have ever found myself dancing along to in a nightclub.
Oh the shame, the absolute shame :-SS
No, I think you are right there, actually. Though, in the words of Phil Collins, 'I can't dance...' Madonna's DAD certainly offers up something new a la the equally much-maligned Lulu's TMWTGG and 'Another Way to Die' from QoS, perhaps.
Whilst we're on the subject of forgotten themes, what about the other songs to have appeared in Bond, but aren't classed as an official song.
The Pretenders, KD Lang, Patti LaBelle etc.? I have to say, I much preferred Lang's 'Surrender' to Sheryl Crow's effort for TND.
I honestly don't feel that way at all. Despite my general dislike for club music, Madonna has written and performed some good songs in her time. I respect her for that as well as managing her career in an exemplary manner. In this case, for me this wouldn't be one of them and it's only a very small part of why I dislike DAD and see it as the worst of the official 23 films to date.
I rate "The Living Daylights" very highly, indeed.
Fully agreed on that. Crow's caterwauling is the worst vocalizing in a Bond song outside of Keyes/White in AWTD. And the song itself is no great shakes. Bassey and Adele would have had a tough time making something of it.
I have a copy of the song ripped from the Internet in 2005, though I guess it must be on the TLD soundtrack which I don't own (as yet).
Now then, what to say about ATH? It doesn't quite rape my ears like AWTD does but it's not a song that I find myself listening to very often either. I do like how the "We're two of a kind" line is used in the film though. So it seems appropriate enough for the film even though it probably wouldn't have been my first choice.
On one hand, I agree with you completely - Madonna is an example performer and she is also very well-managed, yet I disagree with you completely because she conjures such terrible music, such as Die Another Day.
Me neither.
It's just "elevator" music to me. (Or perhaps I should say "lift".)