List the worst Bond songs
sirso
Posts: 146MI6 Agent
List the worst Bond songs.
Here is my list:
Thunderball
The Man with the Golden Gun
A View to a Kill
The Living Daylights
All the songs since Licensed to Kill
Comments
Taste is subjective. That said, these are my thoughts:
Hate:
Dislike:
Indifferent:
Everything else is at least good to great.
OHMSS>FRWL>CR>TSWLM>NTTD>MR>SF>FYEO>GE>DN>YOLT>OP>
TND>TWINE>QOS>TB>TMWTGG>GF>LALD>TLD>AVTAK>SP>DAF>LTK>DAD
Bond rankings: Lazenby>Moore>Connery>Craig>Brosnan>Dalton
Yes, taste is subjective.
I dislike 'Writing's On The Wall', find 'All Time High' a little too 'easy listening' and never warmed to 'For Yours Eyes Only'. Would it be sacrilege to say that 'The Spy Who Loved Me' never really floated my boat either?
To me, the others are all good to superb, including two or three often considered to be more 'controversial'.
There are a few clunkers, but if you ever pop in the album of all the themes, there's none I'd fast forward to even if there are more than a few that I would never choose to listen to individually. Some I like more than I should because I like the films. Some have grown on me over the years, a few have deteriorated. Sam Smith has grown on me, but it is still amongst my least favourites. Billie Eilish remains where it was the first time I heard it but as I don't care for the film, I doubt it will ever improve in my personal ratings.
I believe I've made my feelings about "Another Way To Die" very clear on a regular basis since it escaped- er, was released. "Die Another Day" has grown on me, which was another bottom of the lister initially. "No Time To Enunciate" won't ever be a favourite, neither will the Sam Smith thing.
Shady:
I dislike 'Writing's On The Wall', find 'All Time High' a little too 'easy listening' and never warmed to 'For Yours Eyes Only'.
Yeah I think All Time High is probably Barry's all time low in terms of Bond songs for me. It's interesting that in that period he'd take a film off and then seemingly try and repeat what the composer before did with the song. LALD is the first full-on rock Bond song; Barry comes back and tries his own rocky Bond song with TMWTGG- it's not as good. Then Nobody Does it Better and FYEO are a sort of easy listening, more fashionable pop ballads; Barry comes back and gives us All Time High in the same vein- not as good as either of those.
It's a good thing he managed to come up with something a bit fresher for AVTAK.
To be fair, 'All Time High' was probably a last minute surrender. I bet he spent ages trying to make the word 'octopussy' work in terms of lyrics.
OHMSS>FRWL>CR>TSWLM>NTTD>MR>SF>FYEO>GE>DN>YOLT>OP>
TND>TWINE>QOS>TB>TMWTGG>GF>LALD>TLD>AVTAK>SP>DAF>LTK>DAD
Bond rankings: Lazenby>Moore>Connery>Craig>Brosnan>Dalton
Dear Diary,
Still working on the lyrics. Things aren't going well:
"...everyone knows that a secret agent is never fussy, about his Octo..."
Nope, that doesn't work.
John
https://videosift.com/video/Smith-Jones-Stanley-Rogers-film-score-composer
that was great!
OHMSS>FRWL>CR>TSWLM>NTTD>MR>SF>FYEO>GE>DN>YOLT>OP>
TND>TWINE>QOS>TB>TMWTGG>GF>LALD>TLD>AVTAK>SP>DAF>LTK>DAD
Bond rankings: Lazenby>Moore>Connery>Craig>Brosnan>Dalton
Worst songs:
TMWTGG and everything from GE onwards apart from CR and SK
I think after CR, Craig-Bond has been particularly badly served in the title song department, the last three in particular being simply dull and overblown. Attempting to be significant does not make them memorable, although in terms of sales, they have had tremendous impact.
The very worst?
ANOTHER WAY TO DIE is horrendous. Just terrible. Badly sung and seemingly written by someone who can't play music.
TOMORROW NEVER DIES features a horrid vocal, Ms Crow can't even touch the notes she's written for herself to sing which seems a massive oversight. The tune tries hard, but it's a lead balloon.
THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH is too much. Very slow. Garbage are a much better band than this. I was so disappointed when I heard this. No zip. No fizz. Nothing. Going through all the motions without any idea where to take them.
NO TIME TO DIE. Can't even hear the words, so breathy I thought the poor girl was having an asthma attack.
I know it isn't a title tune, but THE EXPERIENCE OF LOVE from GoldenEye is quite possibly the worst written, produced and performed song in the entire franchise history. What were the producers thinking allowing such three minutes of rubbish onto a Bond soundtrack? Thank God it was sung over the closing credits.
It certainly is all subjective. I'll categorise oddly as Snog (Bond themes that are just great fun or I really like. No Strings attached). Marry (The Bond themes that I love and couldn't bare not to hear ever again). Avoid (Bond themes, I'm really not a fan of and will avoid listening to and skip when listening to Best of Bond). I've just done three in each category, to keep things very brief.
Snog:
A View To A Kill
All Time High
Moonraker
Marry:
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Nobody Does It Better
Live And Let Die
Avoid:
Another Way To Die
Die Another Die
Writing's On The Wall
The problem for me since Barry stopped doing the songs, is that most of songs sound like pastiches of the Goldfinger sound (big brass section etc).
The Barry songs weren't all brass sounding.
The brass thing has become a cliché.
Honestly Writing's On the Wall is the only one I don't like, I'd say; and NTTD is a step up from that (and even WOTW has a lovely string bit). The worst crime pretty much any of the others break for me is to be dull: TWINE is maybe the dullest- the melody actually sounds bored with itself.
I've always enjoyed Another Way To Die and don't get the hate it attracts: it's the only one which has a genuine rock sensibility. It didn't need to be a duet perhaps.
I’ve seen No Time to Die four times and I can never hear any part of the title song in my own mind without watching the movie. The song is lifeless, drab garbage, and a lousy way to end the Craig era musically.