The Five Best James Bond Theme Songs

He's lunched with Cubby Broccoli--the late 007 film producer--and has a James Bond memorabilia collection that would be the envy of Auric Goldfinger. Today, guest blogger TerryB counts down his picks for the five best Bond theme songs.

Twenty-three official James Bond films. I’ve been a fan of the 007 films since my college roommate encouraged me to join him at a James Bond Film Festival on campus. Seeing On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in a very cold auditorium amplified the film’s snowy setting. The projectionist cranked the film’s sound after Bond’s wife Tracy is killed in the final moments. The counter-point of the James Bond theme over the film’s emotional ending was a sort of sneer to emotion and reminded us that Bond was an agent first. I fell in love with Bond music that night.

I’ve always said that when *I* win the lottery, one way I’d love to spend the money is mount a one-night concert of all the Bond theme song artists, each performing their theme(s), in order of release. Until that concert can be arranged, here’s a different sorting--my choices for the five best 007 theme songs:

5.  Casino Royale – “You Know My Name,” performed by Chris Cornell.  Written by Chris Cornell and David Arnold. Perhaps the most gritty of all the James Bond themes, this song was meant to be a reflection of the new James Bond (Daniel Craig) and that his Bond was conflicted and not the seemingly indestructible agent played by Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan. The lyrics describe James Bond’s world this way: I've seen diamonds cut through harder men/Than you yourself/But if you must pretend/You may meet your end/The coldest blood runs through my veins/You know my name.

4.  A View to a Kill – “A View to a Kill,” performed by Duran Duran. Written by John Barry and Duran Duran.  Although Barry had never collaborated with a band for a Bond song, the fast-living, hyper-successful Duran Duran somehow seemed a natural choice to join him in 1985, and the result remains one of the biggest hits of any 007 track. The first Bond theme song to chart #1 in the U.S., it’s lyrically loony: A sacred why/A mystery gaping inside/The weekend's why/Until we dance into the fire/That fatal kiss is all we need. Still, it has a stomping, throbbing beat that was a perfect marriage for James Bond and one of the biggest bands of the time.

3. Live and Let Die – “Live and Let Die,” performed by Paul McCartney and Wings.  Written by Paul and Linda McCartney. Probably the only Bond theme song that has little to do with the film, except sharing a title, this song’s piercing flute notes and eccentric bridge were quite effectively married to the film’s many chase sequences. Turning an innocent into a world-weary cynic (or killing them) is often the path of many Bond heroines. The song lyric captures their journey so well: When you were young and your heart was an open book/You used to say live and let live (You know you did, you know you did, you know you did)/But if this ever changing world in which we live in/Makes you give in and cry/Say live and let die.

2. The Spy Who Loved Me – “Nobody Does It Better,” performed by Carly Simon. Written by Marvin Hamlisch (music) and Carole Bayer Sager (lyrics). A fitting type of theme for nearly all of the Roger Moore-era 007 films, romantically-inclined, but painting Bond with equal palettes of love and vengeance. And both are deadly. The lyric wins for working in the film’s title smoothly and keeping the song palatable for Top 40 radio: I wasn’t looking, but somehow you found me/I tried to hide from your love light/But like heaven above me, the spy who loved me, is keeping all my secrets safe tonight. The title yielded a phrase used in marketing later Bond films: the 13th 007 opus Octopussy ("Nobody does it better…thirteen times") and the 2006 release Casino Royale (the commercials used the song's title, "Nobody Does It Better", as a catch phrase).

1. Goldfinger – “Goldfinger,” performed by Shirley Bassey. Written by John Barry (music) and Anthony Newley & Leslie Bricusse (lyrics). This was the film that perfected the 007 “formula.” Director Guy Hamilton was purported to have suggested the song “Mack the Knife” to John Barry, “a gritty and rough” song on which to model this film’s theme song. Shirley Bassey tops the list with her gutsy, machine gun delivery of the lyric, enunciating every word sharply. And what words would befit a villain’s theme better? For a golden girl knows when he's kissed her/ It's the kiss of death from Mister Goldfinger. At the 2013 Academy Awards, in tribute to 50 Years of James Bond Films, Dame Shirley Bassey performed the song to wide acclaim and a standing ovation.