It's a good song. But I just cannot figure out how it can be regarded as one of the best Bond themes. It doesn't even sound Bond. Yet it just...works.
shareI think the song sounds great, and I like how little motifs of it are woven through the movie. It gives the movie a ‘grand’ feel. Live and Let Die will always be my favorite. There is one song that I always thought had a Bond theme feel: This Masquerade by The Carpenters.
shareIt's a great song. I love it, but it is not a Bond theme. I have no doubt it was a song or partly written song Hamilsch and Sager had lying around and they added a line to make it relevant to the film.
shareI believe you are correct in that the film title was inserted in a previously written song, but I DO consider it a Bond theme. Perhaps the best IMO. It's sultry and sexy and REAL. Compare it to the previous film TMWTGG where the music had the nice John Barry feel but the lyrics were horrible and distracting.
The Spy Who Loved Me is an amazing song and was an exciting departure from the previous themes. "All Time High" repeated the formula a few years later and worked nicely as well.
You're half right. From Songfacts.com:
"Hamlisch and Bayer Sager were supposed to be working on a song for a television pilot when Hamlisch confided he would be writing the theme song for The Spy Who Loved Me. Sager came up with the title "Nobody Does It Better" on the spot".
Thanks. Good info I did not know.
We differ on what a good Bond theme is (and that's Ok). To me a Bond theme is like a Bond movie - Bigger than life, but not necessarily good. IMO, few Bond films are good and fewer themes are good. Goldfinger set the standard for both.
Thunderball is a great Bond theme, but a ridiculous song. Live and Let Die is a great song and a great Bond theme. The songs you mentioned are great songs; I prefer TSWLM.
I see your point and it is very valid.
Good observation. I would also add that some songs work really good when worked into different forms. I don't care much for the View to a Kill theme but when they slowed it down into a string arrangement within the film, it sounded pretty haunting.
shareThere's lots of great Bond songs, and this is one of them. I didn't think much of it when I was younger, but now I've learned to like it a lot.
shareIt's charming, it's different, it's funny.
The title is very clever.
But most importantly: it's just a good song. The production (with the gentle piano opening), the catchy tune, and last but not least the singing by Carly Simon. It all just comes together very well.
In the movie over the opening credits(after the pre-credits snow chase scene), the song is powerfully rocking along and then Simon "closes it out" very quickly as the movie fades in on its first scene. Simon sings the lyric, "baby..you're the best" only ONCE, and it stops.
I found that very irritating when I saw the movie in 1977. Because on the RECORD -- which was a hit radio tune ahead of the release of the movie, Simon stretches out "baby...you're the best" for quite some distance, running variations on the phrase over and over, belting it out til it fades away. I think the record plays out almost a minute longer than the version over the opening credits of the movie.
However, if you wait all the way to the end of The Spy Who Loved Me, you get Simon's "Nobody Does it Better" all the way to the end, just like the record.
Its like the entire movie gets in the way of getting to hear the "correct" version of the song!
I know the feeling. This happens often. Sometimes they speed-up songs, and sometimes they are edited, or a different recording/mix is used. In North by Northwest for example, the magnificent opening theme by Bernard Herrmann is not the one I got used to hearing on record. There have been so many different versions recorded. The track though, is good in any version you hear it in.
When it comes to Bond, I happen to love the title song to Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) by Sheryl Crow. I actually enjoyed it so much when it came out that I bought the single (right before MP3s became popular). In the movie they use a totally different mix of the song over the main titles. It's much tamer and sounds terrible compared to the superior album version. Today the song has a reputation of being one of the worst Bond songs, and I'm convinced it's because of that mix they used.
I know the feeling. This happens often. Sometimes they speed-up songs, and sometimes they are edited, or a different recording/mix is used. In North by Northwest for example, the magnificent opening theme by Bernard Herrmann is not the one I got used to hearing on record. There have been so many different versions recorded. The track though, is good in any version you hear it in.
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Agreed. I got used to the track as it plays at the opening of the 1959 MGM movie -- "the most exhilarating first 30 seconds in movies" says I(well, it WAS at the time) and then I bought a couple of albums where it was reorchestrated and played much slower than on screen. Once I got used to the slow versions, when I would watch the movie again, it seemed too fast. Oh well, as you say, good in any version.
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When it comes to Bond, I happen to love the title song to Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) by Sheryl Crow. I actually enjoyed it so much when it came out that I bought the single (right before MP3s became popular). In the movie they use a totally different mix of the song over the main titles. It's much tamer and sounds terrible compared to the superior album version. Today the song has a reputation of being one of the worst Bond songs, and I'm convinced it's because of that mix they used.
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Never thought of that; its a good song from a good singer but I don't have the comparative versions to remember.
For the most part, the Bond movies got great theme songs that stretched out over the styles of the decades they played in, and that reached out to the "artists of the time," from Shirley Bassey to Tom Jones to Paul McCartney to Carly Simon to Duran Duran(a great song for a lesser Bond, A View to a Kill.) Exactly how the songs compared movie to record, I don't know in EVERY case, but I do remember being irked how Carly Simon had to "cut off the end of the song" at the beginning of The Spy Who Loved Me. It was like a fast car suddenly putting on the brakes!
Agreed. I got used to the track as it plays at the opening of the 1959 MGM movie -- "the most exhilarating first 30 seconds in movies" says I(well, it WAS at the time) and then I bought a couple of albums where it was reorchestrated and played much slower than on screen. Once I got used to the slow versions, when I would watch the movie again, it seemed too fast. Oh well, as you say, good in any version.
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Precisely, and what a great score it is by Bernard Herrmann. If you compare the scores he did for Vertigo, NBNW and Psycho, it's hard to pick a favorite. But I think, at the end of the day -- I would choose Vertigo.
It's funny that Hitch didn't give him more credit. Of all his collaborators, Herrmann must have been the most important.
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For the most part, the Bond movies got great theme songs that stretched out over the styles of the decades they played in, and that reached out to the "artists of the time," from Shirley Bassey to Tom Jones to Paul McCartney to Carly Simon to Duran Duran(a great song for a lesser Bond, A View to a Kill.)
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Well said. It's difficult to find a bad Bond song. Goldfinger I think is the gold standard, though. My other Bond song of choice would be Licence to Kill - a great pop record. And of course the theme from Her Majesty's Secret Service (and the delightful song used in that film: We have all the time in the world). I could go on.
You mentioned Duran Duran. I agree: a lesser bond film, but a killer track.
Bond is the best and everything he does. It fits.
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