So the internet tells me we have:

“James Bond Theme” - John Barry Orchestra
“From Russia With Love” - Matt Monro
“Goldfinger” - Shirley Bassey
“Thunderball” - Tom Jones
“You Only Live Twice” - Nancy Sinatra
“On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” - John Barry Orchestra
“Diamonds Are Forever” - Shirley Bassey
“Live & Let Die” - Paul McCartney and Wings
“Man With The Golden Gun” - Lulu
“Nobody Does It Better” - Carly Simon
“Moonraker” - Shirley Bassey
“For Your Eyes Only” - Sheena Easton
“All Time High” - Rita Coolidge
“A View To A Kill” - Duran Duran
“The Living Daylights” - A-Ha
“Licence To Kill” - Gladys Knight
“GoldenEye” - Tina Turner
“Tomorrow Never Dies” - Sheryl Crow
“The World Is Not Enough” - Garbage
“Die Another Day” - Madonna
“You Know My Name” - Chris Cornell
"Another Way to Die" - Jack White
"Skyfall" - Adele
"Writing's on the Wall" - Sam Smith
"No Time to Die" - Billie Eilish

I'm thinking C, just because there's so much tripe and it has slowly drowned out the few golden era classics. I also really hate the manner in which the Bond theme became 'a thing', which I recall kicking in around The Living Daylights.

Feel free to broaden this to chewing out the pros and cons of Bond tunes but yeah, overall I'm C, w/huge huge waffles.

You only live Twice, is awesome.
Live and Let Die, is awesome.

Those two are definitely NOT CRAP!
Love Carly Simon and Shirley Bassey, but their bond themes are a bit yawn.

Stacking all the other ad-hoc commercial CRAP against those few, just doesn't seem fair.
Tough stuff but gotta go with NC anyway.

Shirley Bassey makes this Not Crap.

Otherwise, they are usually flavor-of-the-month artists or at least firmly and conservatively reflect what's hip, which is either fine or very crap.

While I detest both artists, Skyfall and Tomorrow Never Dies are good. Goldeneye is ok. Die Another Day sucks. That's about all I know.

I always thought GNR did Live and Let Die. Listening to the original I have to say their version is better. Funny that they copied the same crappy backup singing ("you know you did you know" etc.). That reggae break in the middle I had forgot about, it's really corny.

As long as the theme is fairly dark and spy movie-esque it'll probably work. Don't know if it makes a difference, but I've never actually seen more than two or three Bond movies myself, and I think their quality range from lame ("Dr No") to okay ("Skyfall").

I have a fondness for "Nobody Does It Better" as one should. The arrangement sounds drunk and in love.

kokorodoko wrote: Fri May 28, 2021 11:19 am I think their quality range from lame ("Dr No") to okay ("Skyfall").

WTF

I am fine with the Chris Cornell song. Excuse to share JC Pose topless video (link to other thread) with my non PRF crew.

Having spent many car journeys with a complete set of Bond themes (one of the few things my partner and I can enjoy together) I have to vote 'not crap'. They are a genre in themselves, and although they might derive their popularity from the films they frequently transcend them. For example "Moonraker" and "A View To A Kill" are far better songs than the ropey movies.

However there are a few clunkers:

• “Die Another Day” - as mentioned is just awful.
• “All Time High” - turgid.
• “From Russia With Love” - I don't like Sinatra, and I really don't need this discount version with Sinatra's mannerisms turned up to 11.

And, though not part of the canon, “Never Say Never Again” both sucks and blows. Written by Michel Legrand?! Did he forget how music works?

I'm not really familiar with the songs (or the films) after “A View To A Kill”, but since the songs before that are generally more memorable than the films they accompanied, I'll vote NC.

There's some good ones, and some bad ones, but this is still my favorite