Since its inception in 1962, the James Bond film series from Eon Productions has featured many musical compositions, many of which are now considered classic pieces of British film music. The best known is the "James Bond Theme" composed by Monty Norman. Other instrumentals, such as "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", and various songs performed by British or American artists such as Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger", Nancy Sinatra's "You Only Live Twice", Paul McCartney and Wings' "Live and Let Die", Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better", Sheena Easton's "For Your Eyes Only", Duran Duran's "A View to a Kill", Gladys Knight's "Licence to Kill", and Tina Turner's "GoldenEye" also became identified with the series.
Three Bond songs have won the Academy Award for Best Original Song: "Skyfall" by Adele, "Writing's on the Wall" by Sam Smith and "No Time to Die" by Billie Eilish. "Writing's on the Wall" and "No Time To Die" are the only Bond themes to reach number one on the UK singles chart, while "A View to a Kill" is the only Bond song to have reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. AllMusic categorised Bond themes as spy music.
Music from Eon Productions "James Bond Theme"
The "James Bond Theme" is the signature theme of the James Bond films and has featured in every Eon Productions Bond film since Dr. No, released in 1962. The piece is used as an accompanying fanfare to the gun barrel sequence in every Eon Bond film prior to Casino Royale (2006).
"James Bond Is Back" The briefest of "James Bond themes", this composition starts off the "Opening Titles" music of From Russia with Love (1963). It can be heard in the trailer for the 1969 film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, as well as in the pre-title sequences of Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and Die Another Day (2002). WLS (AM) used the theme in the mid-1960s for its secret agent radio serial program "The Wild Adventures of Peter Fugitive" that appeared on The Art Roberts Show.
"007 Theme"
"007 Theme", also known as "007 Takes the Lektor", is an adventure theme composed by John Barry in 1963 for the Bond film From Russia with Love. "The John Barry Seven" had pop chart hit with a cover version of Elmer Bernstein's theme to The Magnificent Seven that included seven beats repeated throughout the theme. Barry used seven beats throughout the "007 Theme".
It became a secondary theme for the Bond films, being used throughout the series, primarily during action scenes. Its most notable appearances are: From Russia with Love – played during the gypsy camp gunfight and also during James Bond (Sean Connery)'s theft of the Lektor decoder from the Russian embassy in Istanbul. Thunderball – played briefly in a climactic underwater fight; a similar but different theme of seven beats is played when Bond runs from SPECTRE during a parade and during the climax. You Only Live Twice – played during the flight of "Little Nellie" before Bond battles four helicopters that attack him. Diamonds Are Forever – played during Bond's destruction of Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Charles Gray)'s Headquarters. Moonraker – played during the Amazon River chase.
The theme has not been used in its entirety in a Bond film since its use in Moonraker.
This piece of music was also used by Al Primo, the news director at KYW-TV in Philadelphia for its long-time theme to Eyewitness News, and was adopted by other Group W stations in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Boston and San Francisco as well as other non-Group W stations, including WLS-TV in Chicago. The theme was also sampled by Big Audio Dynamite for the 1986 song "Sightsee M.C!" from their album No. 10, Upping St.
"Suspense" motif Like John Barry, David Arnold has left his own mark in the music of James Bond. In this case, he has established what can be called the "suspense motif", which is a descending, often repetitive four-note motif that can be heard in all of the Bond films he has scored. This motif can be heard in: Tomorrow Never Dies – "Station Break", "*-3-Send", "Underwater Discovery" The World Is Not Enough – "Pipeline", "Remember Pleasure", "Torture Queen", "Submarine" Die Another Day – "Death of Moon", "Iced Inc", "Antonov" Casino Royale – "Miami International", "Dirty Martini", and very briefly in "African Rundown" Quantum of Solace – briefly in "Time to Get Out", and twice in "Perla de las dunas"
Composers The largest contributions to the Bond films, save for the "James Bond Theme", are works from John Barry. Barry composed eleven Bond soundtracks and is credited with the creation of "007" (dominated by brass and percussion) and the popular orchestral theme from On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
Next to Barry, David Arnold is the series' most regular composer. He composed the scores for five Bond films: Tomorrow Never Dies through Quantum of Solace. His orchestrations combined with electronic rhythm elements gave the Pierce Brosnan era its musical identity. John Barry recommended Arnold to producer Barbara Broccoli when she took over the Bond films from her father, Albert R. Broccoli.
Other major composers and record-producers include George Martin, Bill Conti, Michael Kamen, Marvin Hamlisch, Éric Serra, Thomas Newman and Hans Zimmer. Each of these composed for only one Bond film, with the exception of Newman. The departures from John Barry had various causes; sometimes Barry declined in order to avoid paying double income tax—US and UK. Barry died in 2011. Sometimes the director of a Bond film had worked with the composer of his choice on other films – the latter happened to Thomas Newman with Skyfall and Spectre.
FilmYearScore composerDr. No1962Monty NormanFrom Russia with Love1963John BarryGoldfinger1964Thunderball1965You Only Live Twice1967On Her Majesty's Secret Service1969Diamonds Are Forever1971Live and Let Die1973George MartinThe Man with the Golden Gun1974John BarryThe Spy Who Loved Me1977Marvin HamlischMoonraker1979John BarryFor Your Eyes Only1981Bill ContiOctopussy1983John BarryA View to a Kill1985The Living Daylights1987Licence to Kill1989Michael KamenGoldenEye1995Éric SerraTomorrow Never Dies1997David ArnoldThe World Is Not Enough1999Die Another Day2002Casino Royale2006Quantum of Solace2008Skyfall2012Thomas NewmanSpectre2015No Time to Die2021Hans Zimmer
Title themes The "James Bond Theme" is the main theme for Dr. No, and has featured in all the Eon Productions Bond films in different versions. The theme has also featured on the gun barrel sequences at the beginning of the films. The original theme was written by Monty Norman, and was performed by John Barry and his orchestra in 1962. In the opening credits of Dr. No, two other pieces were played: an untitled bongo interlude and a Calypso-flavoured rendition of "Three Blind Mice", titled "Kingston Calypso". Due to this, Dr. No is the only film to have more than one opening theme. The "James Bond Theme" reached 13 in the UK singles chart, and remained in the charts for 13 weeks.Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums. London: Guinness World Records Limited
The opening credits of From Russia with Love were accompanied by an instrumental version of the main theme, arranged by John Barry and written by Lionel Bart. A single by The John Barry Orchestra reached 39 in the U.K. At the film's end, a vocal version by English singer Matt Monro is heard. This song spent 13 weeks in the U.K. charts, peaking at 20.
Goldfinger was the third soundtrack composed by John Barry, and this time the theme song had lyrics written by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse. The soundtrack reached 1 on the Billboard 200 and spent 70 weeks on the charts.Whitburn, Joel (2006). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits. Billboard Books It also peaked at 14 on the UK Albums Chart, and received the Bond series first Grammy Award nomination, Best Original Score from a Motion Picture or Television Show at the 7th Annual Grammy Awards.
Welsh singer Shirley Bassey is the only singer to perform more than one Bond theme – she recorded the themes to Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, and Moonraker. Bassey also recorded her own version of "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" for Thunderball and it was rumoured that her song "No Good About Goodbye" from her 2009 album The Performance was intended for Quantum of Solace, however David Arnold said "No Good About Goodbye" was never intended as a Bond song.link to MI6 article
Paul McCartney and Wings' performance of "Live and Let Die" was the first Bond theme song to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 46th Academy Awards; it reached 2 as a U.S. single on the Billboard Hot 100, and 9 on the U.K. charts. George Martin's work in the song won the Grammy for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists at the 16th Annual Grammy Awards.
Marvin Hamlisch's (music) and Carole Bayer Sager's (lyrics) "Nobody Does It Better" (performed by Carly Simon) from The Spy Who Loved Me received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 50th Academy Awards, as did Bill Conti's "For Your Eyes Only" at the 54th Academy Awards, which was performed by Sheena Easton in the film For Your Eyes Only.
It was not until the 2013 Oscars that a Bond theme song finally won the Academy Award for Best Original Song: the theme song from Skyfall by Adele at the 85th Academy Awards. Thomas Newman's score also got the first nomination for Academy Award for Best Original Score in the series since Hamlisch's own for The Spy Who Loved Me, while winning the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards. Adele's song also won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media. Sam Smith's "Writing's on the Wall" from Spectre and Billie Eilish's "No Time to Die" from the film of the same name would also win Oscars for Best Original Song at the 88th Academy Awards and 94th Academy Awards respectively.
Duran Duran and John Barry's "A View To A Kill" topped the singles charts in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, the only Bond theme to hit 1 in the United States. No James Bond theme had topped the charts in the UK until Sam Smith's "Writing's on the Wall" entered the charts at number one on 2 October 2015.
Several of the later films have alternative theme songs, often during the closing credits. The Living Daylights featured The Pretenders performing "If There Was a Man," composed by John Barry with Chrissie Hynde. Licence to Kill has "If You Asked Me To" sung by Patti LaBelle. GoldenEye featured Éric Serra's "The Experience of Love". Tomorrow Never Dies included k.d. lang's "Surrender" during the closing credits, a song which was originally proposed by composer David Arnold to be the title sequence theme instead of the Sheryl Crow title song. The "Surrender" theme is heard throughout the score while the melody of Sheryl Crow's song is not used again during the film. This harks back to the Thunderball soundtrack, where "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" was originally proposed as the opening credits music, only to be replaced by the eponymous title track as sung by Tom Jones.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service featured an instrumental theme tune, something which remains unique amongst the post–From Russia with Love films, and included a vocal theme in the form of Louis Armstrong's performance of "We Have All the Time in the World", written by John Barry and Hal David.
FilmYearScore composerTitle songComposed byPerformed byUK peakpositionUS peakpositionDr. No(soundtrack)1962Monty Norman"James Bond Theme"Monty NormanJohn Barry & Orchestra; Monty Norman13—"Kingston Calypso Arrangement of "Three Blind Mice"Byron Lee and the Dragonaires——From Russia with Love(soundtrack)1963John Barry"Opening Titles: James Bond Is Back/From Russia with Love/James Bond Theme"John BarryLionel BartMonty NormanJohn Barry (title sequence)