Top 5 James Bond theme songs

When it comes to theme songs, nobody does it better than James Bond…

5. ‘A View to a Kill’ (1985)_{WRITTEN BY JOHN BARRY AND DURAN DURAN • PERFORMED BY DURAN DURAN}

The only Bond theme to top the American Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, ‘A View to a Kill’ is so ridiculously superior to the film which shares its name that the promotional video makes more enjoyable viewing than the movie itself.

Of course, Simon Le Bon famously hit an appalling bum note whilst performing the song at Live Aid, but we wouldn’t link to a YouTube clip of that and nor would we provide the time at which the lamentable squeal occurs because that would be horrendously cruel (2mins 55)…

4. ‘Live and Let Die’ (1973)_{WRITTEN BY PAUL AND LINDA MCCARTNEY • PERFORMED BY PAUL MCCARTNEY AND WINGS}

For the first time, John Barry declined to participate in a Bond film and the conductor’s baton was handed on to onetime Beatles producer George Martin, who scored the film and roped in former Fabs cohort Paul McCartney for the title track. Or maybe it was the other round.

Either way, the soundtrack was ace – in particular, the marvellously-titled piece of incidental music, ‘Baron Samedi’s Dance of Death’ – and the principal theme was one of McCartney’s finest ever compositions. Not even a ham-fisted cover version by Guns ‘N’ Roses in the early 1990s could dampen the irrepressible spirits of what is essentially three songs compressed into one: a vaguely ominous ballad glued onto a lolloping, funky middle eight with the first up-tempo rock elements to ever grace a Bond song. To paraphrase the lyrics, a job very well done.

3. ‘We Have All the Time in the World’ (1969)_{WRITTEN BY JOHN BARRY AND HAL DAVID • PERFORMED BY LOUIS ARMSTRONG}

Although the principal theme tune for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was John Barry’s eponymous instrumental track, the song now most commonly associated with George Lazenby’s solitary outing as 007 is this lush, expansive ballad performed by Louis Armstrong.

Somehow conjuring both the enduring love described in the lyrics and the ironic sad way the title is used by Bond in the aftermath of his wife’s death, this was Armstrong’s final recorded performance before his death in 1971 – he was too ill even to play his trademark trumpet – and Barry later described it as the finest piece of music he ever composed for the series.

2. ‘The Living Daylights’ (1987)_{WRITTEN BY JOHN BARRY AND PAUL WAAKTAAR-SAVOY • PERFORMED BY A-HA}

The Living Daylights was the last Bond film to be scored by John Barry, and while his work is as impressive as ever, it’s the pop songs on the soundtrack that linger longest in the memory.

In addition to this (possibly overly) dramatic, synthy piece of ‘80s Europop, there are also two fine songs from The Pretenders: ‘Where Has Everybody Gone?’ and ‘If There Was a Man.’ But it’s the title song that stands out, Morten Harket over-enunciating the pompous, meaningless lyrics to splendid effect. It’s almost rubbish, but not quite – and that somehow makes it great.

1. ‘Nobody Does It Better’ (1977)_{WRITTEN BY MARVIN HAMLISCH AND CAROLE BAYER SAGER • PERFORMED BY CARLY SIMON}

For The Spy Who Loved Me, Marvin Hamlisch took over from the absent John Barry as composer, and it was he – along with lyricist Carole Bayer Sager and singer Carly Simon – who created the finest James Bond theme of all.

Partly because it ditches convention and relegates the name of the movie to a single line rather than the chorus or title, but mostly because it’s almost inexpressibly wonderful, ‘Nobody Does It Better’ has long since transcended its soundtrack roots and taken its rightful place as one of the greatest songs in recorded history.

The emotional wallop packed by the song’s climax, as Carly sings, ‘Baby baby, darlin’, you’re the best’ is so intense it has the power to raise the hairs on the back of the neck and tweak the tear-ducts no matter how many times one listens to it. In those precious moments as the song cycles through the chords to fadeout, literally nobody does it better.