In this week’s AM Gold roundtable, I dared to speak ill of Shirley Bassey’s iconic theme for “Goldfinger.” My contention was that, if this song were not the theme tune for a hugely popular movie, the song wouldn’t have had a hope in hell of cracking the US top ten on its own merits as a song.
Which got me to thinking about what tunes might, while enjoyable purely as excellent songs in their own right, might also make fantastic theme songs for nonexistent James Bond movies…
Intro: John Barry and His Orchestra — James Bond (from Doctor No) from The Best Of Bond … James Bond (1989)
Queen — Who Wants To Live Forever? from A Kind of Magic (1991)
The Silencers — Bulletproof Heart from Dance to the Holy Man (1991)
Gorillaz — Tomorrow Comes Today from Gorillaz (2001)
The Armoury Show — Higher than the World from Waiting for the Floods (1985, out of print)
U2 — Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me from Batman Forever OST (1995)
Luscious Jackson — Naked Eye from Fever In Fever Out (1996)
Digney Fignus — The Girl with the Curious Hand from Digney Fignus EP (1985, out of print)
The Specific Heats — My Secret Agent Days Are Numbered from Aboard a Spaceship of the Imagination (2006)
The Jam — The Eton Rifles from Setting Sons (1979)
Traffic — Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory from Shoot Out at the Fantasy Factory (1973)
Pete Townshend — English Boy originally from Psychoderelict (1993), remixed and reissued on The Best of Pete Townshend: coolwalkingsmoothtalkingstraightsmokingfirestoking (1996)
Agent Orange — I Kill Spies (live) from Real Live Sound (1987)
Crime and the City Solution — The Sly Persuaders from Paradise DiscothÁ¨que (1990)
Echo and the Bunnymen — The Cutter from Porcupine (1983)
The Police — Murder By Numbers from Synchronicity (1993)
The Rakes — Trouble from Ten New Messages (2007)
John Cale — The Chinese Envoy from Music For A New Society (1982, out of print)
Guided By Voices — Teenage FBI from Do the Collapse (1999)
Red Rockers — Good As Gold from Good As Gold (1983)
Kirsty MacColl — Can’t Stop Killing You from Titanic Days (1993)
Simple Minds — Sweat In Bullet (remix) original version released on Sons and Fascination (1981)
Coda: Ron Grainer with the Royal Philarmonic Concert Orchestra —Theme from The Prisoner from 100 Greatest TV Themes (2002)
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