Worst Bond song

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  • talos7talos7 New Orleans
    Posts: 8,220
    Die Another Day. #200!
  • BennyBenny Shaken not stirredAdministrator, Moderator
    Posts: 15,138
    Bottom five..

    5. From Russia With Love - Matt Munro
    4. Licence To Kill - Galdys Knight
    3. The Living Daylights - Aha
    2. The Man With The Golden Gun - Lulu
    1. Another Way To Die - Jack White & Alicia Keys
  • ClarkDevlinClarkDevlin Martinis, Girls and Guns
    edited December 2014 Posts: 15,423
    Worst Bond songs, I've got to say a tie with Die Another Day, Another Way To Die and The Man With The Golden Gun. But that is just my opinion.
  • Die Another Day and The Man With The Golden Gun. They're both really bad but neither as horrid as Never Say Never Again. It's made even worse so by the fact that Phyllis Hyman's version was actually pretty great.
  • TripAcesTripAces Universal Exports
    Posts: 4,585
    "All Time High." It's so embarrassingly bad that it was made fun of in Ted.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy My Secret Lair
    Posts: 13,384
    Official Bonds, not too happy with Another way to die or The living daylights.
    I don't hate them, but I do feel, others are better.
  • Posts: 7,653
    bondjames wrote: »

    Die Another Day was also a piece of trash that should have been put out with the garbage. A terrible stain on the franchise's legacy. To go from Goldfinger to this? My word.

    trashing DAD is fine, but it kind of fitted the style of movie and listening to it was torture which once again fitted the torture of 007 in that bit. So it had a purpose.
    bondjames wrote: »
    Another Way to Die is very difficult to listen to & I don't like it at all, but I think it was meant to sound this way.....sort of disjointed, like a garbled, scratchy mirror version of You Know My Name. To reflect Bond's pain and confusion during the movie. Still don't like it though.

    Trashing DAD and coming up with an excuse for absolutely the worst of all 007 title songs smells a bit like hypocrisy. It is the one time I understand why recent soundtracks do not carry the titlesong, it would have made the soundtrack sound worse. :D
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    Posts: 23,883
    SaintMark wrote: »
    listening to it was torture which once again fitted the torture of 007 in that bit. So it had a purpose.

    That's a very good point
    SaintMark wrote: »
    It is the one time I understand why recent soundtracks do not carry the titlesong, it would have made the soundtrack sound worse. :D

    Agreed. Another Way to Die was also torture. However I detect a sort of mangled You Know My Name in it whenever I hear it - particularly the musical bit at the end. So there may be a method to the madness of it.
  • Posts: 7,653
    You know my name is CR, and QoB should have its own theme which I guess was BANG BANG. Which is the only part I remember as I thought when I heard it for the 1st time: "Are they taking the piss here?".

    the QoB titlesong is the one time I truly was convinced that EON had gone raving mad.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    edited December 2014 Posts: 23,883
    Yes, I know You Know My Name is CR.

    I'm talking about the musical bit at the end of Another Way to Die after Keyes and Black (thankfully) stop singing.

    There's a slight similarity in that musical bit at the end to the beginning of You Know My Name (not sure how to describe it because I'm not musically trained)....it's too much of a coincidence to me though.

    The "Dana Dana Dana Danaaaaaa" bit. It's like a mangled variation. Given QoS is meant to be a direct continuation of CR, I wonder if there was a conscious decision made.
  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    Posts: 13,978
    5. You Know My Name (Chris Cornell)
    4. Goldfinger (Shirley Bassey)
    3. Skyfall (Adele)
    2. Quantum Of Solace (Jack White & Alicia Keyes)
    1. Die Another Day (Madonna)
  • MooseWithFleasMooseWithFleas Philadelphia
    Posts: 3,369
    I love All Time High. One of my favorites actually :)

    My bottom two are Another Way to Die and Die Another Day. Tomorrow Never Dies is a bit on the mundane side. I like Licence to Kill, but it absolutely does not fit the vibe of the movie in my opinion.
  • talos7talos7 New Orleans
    Posts: 8,220
    Tomorrow Never Dies is a fair song that could have been a very good one with a stronger vocal. Crow struggles and the song is weaker for it.
  • DrunkIrishPoetDrunkIrishPoet The Amber Coast
    Posts: 156
    TMWTGG gets a lot of hate, and sure, it's silly, but I will defend it as a big brassy song that at least tries to sound like a James Bond song. LALD was pretty good and all (shrug) but to me it didn't sound "Bondian." DAF, YOLT and WHATTITW were lovely and very, very Bondian... but not the ballsy kind of songs we got in Thunderball and Goldfinger. Those two were the definitive Bond songs for me.

    Then after TMWTGG all we got were all those romantic ballads--sheesh! (I admit I consider the Moonraker song underrated.) Where's the brass? Where's the balls??

    So you can say what you will about the modern era, and I don't care. But for classic Bond songs, TMWTGG does all right for itself. Yep.
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    edited December 2014 Posts: 23,883
    TMWTGG gets a lot of hate, and sure, it's silly, but I will defend it as a big brassy song that at least tries to sound like a James Bond song. LALD was pretty good and all (shrug) but to me it didn't sound "Bondian." DAF, YOLT and WHATTITW were lovely and very, very Bondian... but not the ballsy kind of songs we got in Thunderball and Goldfinger. Those two were the definitive Bond songs for me.

    Then after TMWTGG all we got were all those romantic ballads--sheesh! (I admit I consider the Moonraker song underrated.) Where's the brass? Where's the balls??

    So you can say what you will about the modern era, and I don't care. But for classic Bond songs, TMWTGG does all right for itself. Yep.

    I agree with you on TMWTGG. That is a Bond song no doubt.

    However, I disagree on LALD. One of the best Bond songs IMO & easily in my top 5. It has 'balls'.

    Ballads can be very effective lyrically even if they don't have the brass. As an example, lyrically, I think TSWLM one of the definitive Bond songs. A real classic for the ages, although it's quite slow.

    Agree on TB. I have that in my car and Tom Jones belts that one out like no other.

  • Posts: 11,425
    My least favourite are TB, TMWTGG (primarily because of Lulu), TND (although Surrender is fantastic), and TWINE. Madge and AWTD don't bother me that much.
  • Posts: 11,189
    I don't think TND is all that bad. Not great but ok.

    I'd actually take it over Ah-Ha's TLD, which I find a very bland tune.
  • edited December 2014 Posts: 1,778
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    I don't think TND is all that bad. Not great but ok.

    I'd actually take it over Ah-Ha's TLD, which I find a very bland tune.

    I forgot to mention TLD. It seems like they were trying to follow Duran Duran and AVTAK but to little success. And add to that supposedly John Barry hated working with A-Ha to such a degree that he swore he'd never work on another Bond score. Thanks alot A-Ha. You drove away a musical genius and the potential for a few more awesome Barry scores and in return all we got was a crappy 80s pop tune that hardly anyone will back as one of the better Bond songs.
  • edited December 2014 Posts: 1,778
    Sorry. Double post.
  • edited December 2014 Posts: 11,189
    I remember reading a quote from Barry in which he described A-Ha as "a pain in the arse".

    :))

    Although it's strange. I never hear TLD on the radio but occasionally I hear "Take on Me". Whenever I do it makes me think of Timothy Dalton :p
  • Posts: 406
    I dont like you only live twice, moonraker, for your eyes only, all time high, the experience of love, another way to die, the rest I dont mind and enjoy
  • edited December 2014 Posts: 1,778
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    I remember reading a quote from Barry in which he described A-Ha as "a pain in the arse".

    :))

    Yeah I heard that supposedly they were very disrespectful to him. Because naturally they knew more about what made for a great Bond theme than John Barry did right. It's not like John Barry was one of the most decorated film composers of all time. :-?

    I guess it just goes to show you how quickly success can go to people's heads (especially when they're young). They had just released Take On Me and were riding a wave of success. So they thought they could measure up to a man who's forgotten more about making great music than the three of them put together ever knew.
  • Posts: 11,425
    I like TLD
  • bondjamesbondjames You were expecting someone else?
    edited December 2014 Posts: 23,883
    I don't have a problem with TLD at all. I quite liked it, musically, although it's not great lyrically.

    In fact, I think Barry's brilliant TLD score really uses that tune. Some of the best parts of his score incorporate the tune directly.

    It's terribly unfortunate that those goofs didn't show him enough respect. They should have been on their knees during the process, appreciating the privilege they had been given to work on Bond and with Barry.
  • MayDayDiVicenzoMayDayDiVicenzo Here and there
    Posts: 5,080
    TLD is in my top three along with LALD and AVTAK. All bloody good tunes!
  • Posts: 11,189
    I much prefer LALD and AVTAK to TLD.
  • The Man With The Golden Gun, Die Another Day and Another Way To Die are my least favorite Bond themes.
  • TripAcesTripAces Universal Exports
    edited December 2014 Posts: 4,585
    BAIN123 wrote: »
    I remember reading a quote from Barry in which he described A-Ha as "a pain in the arse".[/i

    :))

    Although it's strange. I never hear TLD on the radio but occasionally I hear "Take on Me". Whenever I do it makes me think of Timothy Dalton :p

    The issue, if memory serves, had to do with the mix. Barry wanted a different sound than the band. So there are two versions: one for the TLD soundtrack and one that a-Ha put on their own album. Years later, a-Ha relented and sent Barry an apology and said he was right: his mix was far better. In subsequent versions of the album and the band's greatest hits (as if there were a bunch?) it was Barry's version that was used.

    For more:

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=g_5oDF567IE
  • talos7talos7 New Orleans
    Posts: 8,220
    I think Barry and Duran Duran had a good working relationship
  • edited December 2014 Posts: 317
    Worst song by far is TMWTGG

    I hear some complaining about QOS, I don't think it's bad. I mean the song is fantastic but the vocals are dreadful. If they only got someone else who could sing it'd be great.
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