It’s one of the greatest lines in movie history:
“My Name’s Bond…James Bond.”
Whether you like hearing those words as uttered by the first James Bond, Sean Connery…or the latest, Daniel Craig, it signals the beginning of a great new adventure. Oh, and here are the 15 best utterances – all compiled for you!
Thanks to home video, we can watch any and all of these classic action films…every Bond at any time!
Equally as exciting as the movies themselves is THIS THEME SONG:
It’s a legendary opening theme song – tight electric guitar, subtle horns that suddenly burst forth, and a just a touch of menace. From “Dr. No” on, this has been how the films have opened….well, except for the “Casino Royale” series reboot…shocking to fans – the theme was moved to the END of that movie!
Rock On, James!
You also have to love the James Bond theme songs…and yes, the most recent, by Adele, was a beautiful addition to the canon:
A recent poll voted Paul McCartney’s “Live And Let Die” as the best Bond theme ever, and I won’t argue: incredibly catchy, bombastic, and pure Macca…
Is That The Best Bond Theme?
The answer is YES! I love McCartney’s catchy, bombastic take on Bond, and here is a great clip of him performing it on his 1973 TV special!
McCartney captured the right amount of bravado AND subtlety in the song – Bond’s best – but there have been many others that were great as well, such as this classic:
Goldinger!
Sassy, confident, oozing with sensuality, let’s give this classic theme song a listen:
Shirley Bassey Scores Again!
Shirley Bassey’s voice was sexy, fun, menacing and provocative – just as the films became pop culture sensations – “Goldfinger” was one of the first true blockbusters, and the 007 series never looked back – and Producers began to look for an iconic theme song for every film…
The very next film, “Thunderball” had Tom Jones, who was hugely popular at the time – then “You Only Live Twice” had Nancy Sinatra, Frank’s daughter – and Shirley Bassey returned to record this classic theme, “Diamonds Are Forever”:
Most fans felt Connery was walking through “Diamonds” a bit, but it is fair to hold that against the song? Speaking of which, one of the WORST Bond movies ever, “A View To A Kill”, had a GREAT theme!
What makes this better is that you see lots of Duran Duran and you don’t see a lot of Bond! The series entered into a rut of trying to get the hottest pop act of the moment, which led immediately to the debacle of “a-ha”!
“Make It Stop”!
Ouch! What an awful theme! And there have been more as well…Sheena Easton, anyone? Chris Cornell? Sheryl Crow even delivered a bad theme…but, to me, there is one that stands above all others…
The Worst Bond Theme Ever!
Love her or hate her, Madonna delivers a theme song that IN NO WAY captures James Bond 007 – his style, his class, his movies – this song exists as an Artist’s effort to usurp what it means to be a Bond theme!
But as much as I hate “Die Another Day, at least Madonna got to have her song heard:
Censored Bond Music!
Did you know that this guy, Alice Cooper, also wrote a Bond theme? But as you can see, he’s not to happy about how it turned out:
Well, that’s just one of many censored Bond theme songs…read about all of them by clicking on the story below:
I wish Alice Cooper was on the list of Bond theme-sters, but it wasn’t to be…
But I Need To Hear Them All!
Of course you do, but don’t worry! To help you decide the best and the worst Bond themes, here is a twelve minute compilation that includes ALL of them!
So, with all of those songs still ringing in your ears, I’m curious which one rises above the others for you…and which one sinks to the bottom!
Leave a comment and let me know what you think is the best Bond theme ever! And the WORST!
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johnrieber 
The best one has to be Gladys Knight with Licence to Thrill, but agree Madonna’s underwhelming attempt was awful.
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My own favourite is Dusty singing ‘The Look of Love’, from the original Casino Royale.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Pete I can’t include that as it’s from a non-franchise parody! Yes I made the rules!!!!!HA! That’s a great song
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Glad to hear that I liked a song from the only non-Bond James Bond. That cheered me up! 🙂
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