James Bond films & theme songs
One of the rounds at my pub quiz this week was dedicated to movie music – specifically, the theme songs from the twenty-three [now 24] James Bond movies.
007 has an outsized presence in trivia. For example, one of the “Top Ten Challenges” on 500 Questions asked for the seven films starring Roger Moore. And a search of the J! Archive reveals nearly 200 clues mentioning or asking for the spy’s name, including four Final Jeopardy! clues (the last was March 9).
In preparation, I put together a table of all of the James Bond movies with their theme songs. For good measure, I threw in each star’s name, because I always forget which single film featured George Lazenby (it was On Her Majesty’s Secret Service).
The rest, in order:
Sean Connery (6 films)
Roger Moore (7)
Timothy Dalton (2)
Pierce Brosnan (4)
Daniel Craig (4)
There are also two “non-canonical” films, i.e., films that weren’t produced by Eon Productions: the 1967 spoof Casino Royale, starring David Niven, and 1983’s Never Say Never Again, starring Sean Connery.
Then we also had a short film with Daniel Craig bringing Queen Elizabeth II to the Opening Ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympics:
On to the good stuff:
| Film | Year | Bond | Theme Performer | Song name (if different from title) | Oscar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dr. No | 1962 | Connery | John Barry Orchestra | "James Bond Theme" | |
| From Russia with Love | 1963 | Connery | Matt Monro | ||
| Goldfinger | 1964 | Connery | Shirley Bassey | ||
| Thunderball | 1965 | Connery | Tom Jones | ||
| You Only Live Twice | 1967 | Connery | Nancy Sinatra | ||
| On Her Majesty's Secret Service | 1969 | Lazenby | Louis Armstrong* | "We Have All the Time in the World" | |
| Diamonds Are Forever | 1971 | Connery | Shirley Bassey | ||
| Live and Let Die | 1973 | Moore | Paul McCartney & Wings | Nominated | |
| The Man with the Golden Gun | 1974 | Moore | Lulu | ||
| The Spy Who Loved Me | 1977 | Moore | Carly Simon | "Nobody Does It Better" | Nominated |
| Moonraker | 1979 | Moore | Shirley Bassey | ||
| For Your Eyes Only | 1981 | Moore | Sheena Easton | Nominated | |
| Octopussy | 1983 | Moore | Rita Coolidge | "All Time High" | |
| A View to a Kill | 1985 | Moore | Duran Duran | ||
| The Living Daylights | 1987 | Dalton | a-ha | ||
| Licence to Kill | 1989 | Dalton | Gladys Knight | ||
| GoldenEye | 1995 | Brosnan | Tina Turner | ||
| Tomorrow Never Dies | 1997 | Brosnan | Sheryl Crow | ||
| The World Is Not Enough | 1999 | Brosnan | Garbage | ||
| Die Another Day | 2002 | Brosnan | Madonna | ||
| Casino Royale | 2006 | Craig | Chris Cornell | "You Know My Name" | |
| Quantum of Solace | 2008 | Craig | Jack White & Alicia Keys | "Another Way to Die" | |
| Skyfall | 2012 | Craig | Adele | Won | |
| Spectre | 2015 | Craig | Sam Smith** | "Writing's on the Wall" | Won |
**the producers initially asked Radiohead to write the theme, but declined to use it (listen to it here)
In case you’re wondering, we got 9/10 – Sheena Easton doesn’t stick in the brain that easily.
If you are talking movies your list is complete. But it turns out that there was a one off TV version of Casino Royale broadcast on the old CBS “Climax” TV anthology show. It was season 1 episode 3 and first aired on October 21, 1954. It’s in IMDB. Search for “Casino Royale” then select “show all entries”. (You can also find it by drilling down from the “Climax” (1954) (TV series) entry.) Now, if you can’t turn this piece of trivia into at least one free drink there’s no hope for you. The only reason I was familiar with its existence is because I have the “Bond 50” Blu Ray set. It’s buried in the supplemental material on one of the disks.
But wait, there’s more! Fleming did the deal for the rights to do Casino Royale on TV, the very broadcast I mentioned above, before Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, the original principals of Eon Productions, got involved. So Eon was able to buy the rights to everything but Casino Royale. The whole fight about the Casino Royale deal resulted in various non-Eon groups gaining the right to produce the two non-canonical Bond films. After decades of litigation and bales of money Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, both children of Cubby Broccoli but by different wives, the current principals at Eon, were able to buy back all the rights. This resulted in the 2006 Casino Royale and Eon finally getting complete control of the Bond franchise.