The song(?) under the opening credits in "The Living Daylights" has got to be the worst Bond movie title song. Who is aHa and why were they allowed to record this. Do they have a one-handed drummer? Very poor choice by the producers. This one is even worse than the Duran Duran title song for "A View to a Kill". Thank god both have been forgotten.
share[deleted]
Strange, "The Living Daylights" is one of my favorite Bond songs. Just goes to show how subjective this is. As for A-Ha, they gained quite a bit of international fame for "Take On Me" (both the song and its groundbreaking video). A lot of people think "Hunting High and Low" is all they've ever done, but they've never heard the amazing "Memorial Beach," which I think would change a lot of people's minds. Especially those who dismiss them as nothing more than an '80s haircut band or a one-hit wonder.
share[deleted]
Agreed. The Living Daylight is one of my favs. So is A View to a Kill.
Duran Duran's A View to a Kill was apparently the most successful Bond title song in the UK charts (it went to number one) so I don't know about being forgotten.
I didn't like Madonna's Die Another Day but I did really like Casino Royale's title theme, You Know My Name. Can't get it out of my head atm.
Regarding A-Ha, don't forget their only UK #1 "The Sun Always Shines on TV".
"The Living Daylights" is one of the best Bond themes, and an excellent way to introduce Timothy Dalton as 007.
IMHO the weakest opening theme is "Thunderball", while the weakest end theme is "From Russia With Love".
Huh, so they recorded the original version of that song. I quite like the Atrocity cover. :-P
http://youtube.com/watch?v=AizlYBd3FVs
"Positive Portayal of a Cockroach" Award Recipient: WALL-E. The cockroach is a noble beast.
The Living Daylight is one of my favs. So is A View to a Kill.
Ditto. Don't get me wrong, I love Shirley Bassey as much as the next guy, but as a child of the '80s, give me A-ha and Duran Duran anytime. I just got to see Living Daylights on the big screen again this weekend, actually, and am pleased to report that it still holds up pretty well.
shareCompletely agree with aruiz90 !! (Tue Feb 6 2007 16:58:08 )
"The Living Daylights" is probably one of the best theme songs. The worst is Madonna's dreadful "Die Another Day."
The Living Daylights song is fun, melodic, 80s! Die Another Day seems to have been written in the dark, next to the roar of a fully-running jet engine. No style at all...
[deleted]
Not to mention Casino Royale's awful theme...
Those two are the worst Bond tunes, ever.
Granted, it's no "Goldfinger", but it does grow on you.
As for worst..."Die Another Day" is a perfectly acceptable pop ditty, but it makes for a turd of a Bond song.
[deleted]
[deleted]
I think aHa's take on a James Bond theme is alright- it's not the best, it's not the worst. To me, it strikes of the producers trying to recapture the success that Duran Duran had with 'From A View to a Kill' by reusing the formula of getting a British new wave band that made accessible but still somewhat hip pop songs that could crossover to different markets. While there have been some truely bad James Bond theme songs, I feel that the absolute unlistenable worst came 2 years after The Living Daylights with Patti Labelle singing Liscense to Kill.
However, I am of the mind that the James Bond theme song should always be sung by Shirley Bassey.
Maybe I got you wrong, but aHa is definitely not British, they're Norwegian. As for the song, I think it's quite good. Not the best Bond theme, but not the worst. I absolutely agree with most people here that "Die Another Day" is by far the worst.
shareI feel that the absolute unlistenable worst came 2 years after The Living Daylights with Patti Labelle singing Liscense to Kill.
Just my personal opinion, but I find that the music in Living Daylights (not just the 2 prominent songs featured in the film, but the entire score by John Barry) is excellent and among the very best!
shareSecond that. I like the opening song for TLD, although isn't my all-time favorite (have to give it up to The Spy Who Loved Me on that one), but out of the Bond movies I've seen (which is about 3/4 of them), this might be my favorite overall soundtrack from top to bottom. I especially love the one titled "Mujahadin and Opium" - talk about a piece that perfectly captures the atmosphere of what's on the screen - but the whole score for TLD is real quality stuff, and a triumphant swan song for John Barry's Bond career.
shareYeeeehaw, finally I've found someone who thinks the same. Incidentally, I found Eric Serra's effort on Goldeneye pretty good, while ending with a crappy end song. In terms of James Bond songs... Pffff... Difficult. A Spy Who Loved Me's song was good but the rest of the score was a bit insipid (the disco beats are a bit jarring three decades down the line). I love "You Know My Name" from Casino Royale and "Live and Let Die" makes me smile... Trying hard not to mention ""Goldfinger" (oops). "Living Daylights" is not bad and "View to a Kill" was a favourite when I was a kid...
share"and, IMO, did a vastly superior job with that song than Celine Dion did" - yes, but that wasn't difficult, was it now? ;-)))
shareI actually much prefer Celine's version. Patti gets better as the song goes on but I don't like her vocal on the beginning verse. Her voice just sounds kind of choppy and reedy to me. I ADORE "TLD" though. "Live and Let Die" completely rules.
shareI like it... one of my favourite James Bond title songs!
shareA-Ha's "Living Daylights" was one of the better Bond themes in my opinion. I do admit I loved "new wave" and I was a big Duran Duran fan (shows how old I am; MTV premiered my freshman year in college) I agree with the person who likes good old-school Shirley Bassey themes. She can make even something as dumb as "Moonraker" sound good.
Has anyone noticed that there is no consistent relationship between the quality of the Bond movie and the quality of the theme music? Just bear with me here. Think-- "Thunderball":good movie, horrible theme song. "A View to a Kill":not so good movie(just a rehash of Golfinger), but cool theme song. "Live and Let Die":cool movie, awesome theme song. "Die Another Day": forgettable movie, terrible theme song. "Goldfinger","Living Daylights","Casino Royale": all good films with good themes. Lest we forget "On Her Majesty's Secret Service":nobody's favorite, but Louis Armstrong's "We Have All the Time in the World" is a thing of beauty. Also, "Never Say Never Again":questionable remake of "Thunderball", and Lani Hall's theme song is just as questionable.
Okay, I admit it: I'm a movie nerd. But I'd love to read your comments.
If you don't know who is A-HA I suppose you're an american (and americans thinks A-HA "was" a one-hit wonder band only because they heard "take on me" there. A-HA still playing to this days and had a huge success with many other songs and albums in the entire world (with exception of the US). I'm from Chile and I could tell you they were popular here in the 80's and they arrived last year for a comeback tour with huge success.
Plus, "A living daylights" is a theme that classic pop music radios still playing regularly here and in Europe, and it's a very good song.
Taste are subjective. I'd put A-Ha's in my top five...maybe. Who they are "TAKE ON ME!!!! TAKE ON ME!!!"....if you don't remember that, you were in a coma during the 1980's or over 60.
The five worst are
5. Tomorrow Never Dies (Crowe was the wrong singer)
4. Moonraker
3. License to Kill (what were they thinking?)
2. "Die Another Day" (Madonna at her most souless)
1. "All Time High" (Octopussy)
The World Is Not Enough and Tomorrow Never Dies are the worst in my opinion. Bond songs should never sound like a dirge.
share