First there’s the bold, brassy note that sounds as if it’s shimmering in mid-air. Next comes the haunting piano melody that has, as one songwriter says, “the whiff of the boudoir about it.” Then the sultry voice of Adele singing lyrics that have the whiff of the camp about them: “This is the end/Hold your breath and count to 10/Feel the earth move and then/Hear my heart burst again.” And, finally, the explosion of a 77-piece orchestra in the chorus.
“Skyfall,” the best James Bond song in years, is a deliberate throwback to the grand old Bond tunes of the ’60s and ’70s, which had lush, muscular melodies and were blared out by full-throated pop icons such as Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones and Nancy Sinatra.
Sam Mendes, the director of “Skyfall” wanted his Bond to echo the classics: “Goldfinger,” “Thunderball,” “You Only Live Twice.” They all had terrific title themes.
Can you hum the big song from “Quantum of Solace”? Madonna’s “Die Another Day” anyone? Duran Duran’s “A View to a Kill”?
But with “Skyfall” you know you’re in good hands, especially when the famous “James Bond Theme” sneaks in under the main melody.
“I must say I’m very pleased about that!” says Monty Norman, who wrote the Bond theme for the first movie, “Dr. No,” in 1962. “It’s used very lightly but very skillfully.”
Norman wrote the theme for an aborted stage musical based on V.S. Naipaul’s novel “A House for Mr. Biswas,” which is set in Trinidad. For Bond, John Barry orchestrated the song, adding the famous surf guitar riff and — dum di-di dum dum! — movie history was made. “When the camera pans up to Sean Connery the first time, Sean became a star, and the ‘James Bond Theme’ became imprinted on the world,” Norman says.
The next movie, “From Russia With Love,” had a romantic song written by Lionel Bart, but it wasn’t used until the end credits. With “Goldfinger,” the title song became a key ingredient in the Bond franchise. And as they say in England, what a cracking good song it was, too. Barry wrote the music, Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse the lyrics.
“Anthony and I went over to John’s apartment, and he played us the first three notes,” Bricusse recalls. “We looked at each other and sang, ‘Wider than a mile!’ ” — a reference to “Moon River,” which those first three notes do indeed echo.
Bond producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman hired Shirley Bassey, then topping the charts with “As Long As He Needs Me,” to record the song. A BBC presenter once said of Bassey: “She doesn’t sing songs, she bites lumps out of them.” Bassey tore into “Goldfinger,” and scored a gold-plated smash.
“Every James Bond song should be sung by Shirley Bassey,” says Bricusse. “The lyrics to ‘Goldfinger’ are ludicrous. But she puts them across through sheer force of personality.”
For the next movie, “Thunderball,” Broccoli and Saltzman turned to another singer who “bites lumps” out of songs — Tom Jones.
“I remember the recording session vividly,” says Don Black, who wrote the lyrics. “Tom was in fine voice, but John Barry told him to save it — because the last note is the killer. He did the song in one take and when he hit the last note, the blood rushed to his head, and he fainted.”
Broccoli and Saltzman had a rule about a Bond song — it had to be sung by a performer on top of the charts. When Barry delivered “You Only Live Twice” (with lyrics by Bricusse) to the producers, he told them he’d discovered a wonderful young singer he wanted to record the song. Absolutely not, they said. Nancy Sinatra dominated the hit parade with “These Boots Are Made for Walking,” and she got the gig. (The young singer they turned down? Aretha Franklin.)
Black, who’s written five Bond songs, has a theory about what makes a good one: “It should be seductive, provocative and it should have the whiff of the boudoir about it.” There’s no better example of that than “Diamonds Are Forever.”
The lyrics have more than a whiff of the boudoir: “Touch it, stroke it and undress it.” Bassey liked the song, but wasn’t sure how to approach it. Barry told her, “Think of the diamond as a penis.”
As the Bond franchise moved into the ’70s and ’80s, the tone of the songs began to change. “Live and Let Die,” by Paul McCartney, was a pop explosion, but most of the songs got softer, more romantic.
The best song of the Roger Moore years is “Nobody Does It Better” from “The Spy Who Loved Me.” Marvin Hamlisch, fresh from the success of “A Chorus Line,” was hired to score the movie. His friend, the lyricist Carole Bayer Sager, was working with him on a song for a TV pilot when he mentioned his new gig.
“I told him I loved James Bond, and he played the song for me,” Sager says. “I said you should call it ‘Nobody Does It Better’ because ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ didn’t sound like a hit title. Before I went home that day, we’d written the chorus.”
Sager finished the lyrics in Los Angeles, Hamlisch finished the tune in England, Carly Simon recorded the vocals in New York, and the strings were added in London.
“It’s very Bond-ish in its intercontinental travel,” says Sager.
Listen closely to the fade-out and you can hear Simon ad-lib, “James, you’re the best.”
“I never knew if she meant James Bond or James Taylor,” says Sager.
For many Bond fans, the era of the great title song ended when Barry quit the franchise in 1987. His last song was “The Living Daylights,” co-written by Paul Waaktaar-Savoythe of the group A-ha and performed by his band.
It’s not exactly “Goldfinger.”
But Black and the other writers of the classic Bond numbers are delighted that Adele’s “Skyfall” has brought the Bond song back to its roots.
“It’s good for all of us,” says Black. “A good new Bond song creates interest in the old ones, and they are nice little earners.”
Songs in the key of Bond: Fifty years of spy-tastic tunes
“Dr. No” (1962)
“James Bond Theme” by Monty Norman, arranged by John Barry
“From Russia With Love” (1963)
Title song performed by Matt Monro over end credits
“Goldfinger” (1964)
Title song performed by Shirley Bassey
“Thunderball” (1965)
Title song performed by Tom Jones
“You Only Live Twice” (1967)
Title song performed by Nancy Sinatra
“On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” (1969)
“We Have All the Time in the World,” performed by Louis Armstrong
“Diamonds Are Forever” (1971)
Title song performed by Shirley Bassey
“Live and Let Die” (1973)
Title song performed by Paul McCartney & Wings
“The Man With the Golden Gun” (1974)
Title song performed by Lulu
“The Spy Who Loved Me” (1977)
“Nobody Does It Better” performed by Carly Simon
“Moonraker” (1979)
Title song performed by Shirley Bassey
“For Your Eyes Only” (1981)
Title song performed by Sheena Easton
“Octopussy” (1983)
“All Time High” performed by Rita Coolidge
“Never Say Never Again” (1983)
Title song performed by Lani Hall
“A View to a Kill” (1985)
Title song performed by Duran Duran
“The Living Daylights” (1987)
Title song performed by A-ha
“License To Kill” (1989)
Title song performed by Gladys Knight
“GoldenEye” (1995)
Title song performed by Tina Turner
“Tomorrow Never Dies” (1997)
Title song performed by Sheryl Crow
“The World Is Not Enough” (1999)
Title song performed by Garbage
“Die Another Day” (2002)
Title song performed by Madonna
“Quantum of Solace” (2008)
“Another Way To Die” performed by Jack White and Alicia Keys
“Casino Royale” (2006)
“You Know My Name” performed by Chris Cornell
“Skyfall” (2012)
Title song performed by Adele