Ever since the groundbreaking success of Shirley Bassey’s Goldfinger theme song, every movie in the James Bond franchise has featured an original theme by a contemporary pop artist over the opening credits (except for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, which had a John Barry composition over the opening titles and a love theme in the middle of the movie).
Some of these themes have become iconic, topping the charts upon release and remaining popular to this day, while others have been dreadful, hated on their movie’s opening weekend and then forgotten instantly. So, we’ve ranked all the Bond themes from worst to best.
22 “Die Another Day” By Madonna
Madonna is one of the most popular artists in the world, but she really dropped the ball when she was tapped to record a theme song for Die Another Day. This could’ve been Madonna’s comeback vehicle, but she squandered the opportunity by churning out a generic dance song with auto-tuned vocals, nonsensical lyrics, and no connection whatsoever to James Bond.
21 “The Man With The Golden Gun” By Lulu
Bond composer John Barry has confessed that Lulu’s theme song for The Man with the Golden Gun is his least favorite of all the Bond themes. Bond themes have always contained double entendres, but Lulu’s track is pretty on-the-nose about its focus on 007’s, ahem, golden gun.
20 “Thunderball” By Tom Jones
In theory, Tom Jones is a great fit for a Bond theme, and if he’d been recruited a few movies later, he probably could’ve delivered a great one. After the success of Shirley Bassey’s Goldfinger theme, the 007 producers decided to hire a popular singer to sing an original theme for every subsequent movie.
But before they realized the key to making that work was letting the singer marry their own style with the Bond style, the producers tapped Tom Jones to play it safe with a Shirley Bassey-esque track for Thunderball, which didn’t work at all.
19 “Writing’s On The Wall” By Sam Smith (From Spectre)
When Sam Smith was hired to sing a theme song for the Daniel Craig Bond outing Spectre, he didn’t come up with a Bond theme in the Sam Smith style; he just came up with a generic Sam Smith song. “Writing’s on the Wall” sounds nothing like a Bond theme and its lyrics have nothing to do with the movie’s admittedly muddled plot.
18 “The Living Daylights” By A-Ha
The flashy synths in A-Ha’s theme song for The Living Daylights felt wildly out of place in a Bond movie, especially Timothy Dalton’s first outing as 007, which marked a shift toward a darker, edgier tone.
17 “Tomorrow Never Dies” By Sheryl Crow
When it was announced that Sheryl Crow would sing the theme for Pierce Brosnan’s second outing as 007, she was deemed an odd choice for a Bond theme. These doubts turned out to be well-placed when Crow turned out a dreary, instantly forgettable track.
16 “Another Way To Die” By Jack White And Alicia Keys (From Quantum Of Solace)
Jack White and Alicia Keys joined forces to give Quantum of Solace its theme song, “Another Way to Die.” It’s a catchy rock tune, but like the movie it’s attached to, it’s pretty generic compared to the franchise’s finest offerings.
15 “For Your Eyes Only” By Sheena Easton
While it’s not as unbearable as the absolute worst Bond themes, Sheena Easton’s For Your Eyes Only theme doesn’t come close to scraping the heights of the greats. It’s just a regular Sheena Easton song; it even borders on sounding like a spoof of a Sheena Easton song.
14 “Moonraker” By Shirley Bassey
Shirley Bassey experienced the inverse of “third time lucky” with her Bond theme history. After recording two of the franchise’s greatest theme songs, she sang a third one for Moonraker that sorely lacked the previous tracks’ oomph and staying power.
13 “A View To A Kill” By Duran Duran
Although A View to a Kill is one of the worst Bond movies on the whole, it has a pretty great theme by Duran Duran. “A View to a Kill” is pure ‘80s-era new wave, but hasn’t aged as badly as the rest of the genre.
12 “All Time High” By Rita Coolidge (From Octopussy)
With all the gloss and sheen of the ‘80s (widely regarded to be one of the worst eras for the Bond franchise), Rita Coolidge’s “All Time High” from Octopussy achieves the admittedly easy task of being more memorable than the movie itself.
11 “You Know My Name” By Chris Cornell (From Casino Royale)
Chris Cornell’s theme song for Casino Royale proved that a musician’s chosen genre doesn’t have to affect their ability to come up with a good Bond theme. With “You Know My Name,” Cornell made his ‘90s grunge style work wonders for Martin Campbell’s gritty reboot.
10 “GoldenEye” By Tina Turner
Written by U2’s Bono and The Edge, the GoldenEye theme sung by Tina Turner was the perfect track to kick off Pierce Brosnan’s bold first adventure in the role of 007.
Turner’s R&B verve calls back to the traditional Bond theme stylings of Shirley Bassey.
9 “Licence To Kill” By Gladys Knight
The Bond themes of the ‘80s fell into the glossy trappings of a lot of the worst music of that decade, so it was a breath of fresh air when Gladys Knight brought a ‘60s-style edge to the theme for Licence to Kill.
8 “No Time To Die” By Billie Eilish
It won’t be clear how well Billie Eilish’s theme song pairs with No Time to Die until the movie can finally be released, but just based on the track itself, it’s one heck of a contribution to the Bond theme oeuvre – especially considering, at 18 years old, Eilish became the youngest ever performer to record a theme song for the franchise.
7 “The World Is Not Enough” By Garbage
Garbage seemed like a strange choice for a James Bond theme when they were hired to record a theme for The World is Not Enough, but the song they created is now consistently ranked as one of the best in the franchise.
6 “You Only Live Twice” By Nancy Sinatra
While the movie You Only Live Twice is nothing to write home about due to its flimsy plotting (screenwriter Roald Dahl said that source material read more like a travelogue than a novel), Nancy Sinatra’s melancholic theme “You Only Live Twice” is one of the all-time best.
5 “Diamonds Are Forever” By Shirley Bassey
Shirley Bassey’s best Bond theme will always be “Goldfinger,” but her theme from Diamonds Are Forever is a close second. Apparently, in the studio, John Barry told Bassey to imagine she was singing about a penis.
4 “Skyfall” By Adele
Adele’s chart-topping theme for Skyfall was the first Bond theme to win a bunch of different accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and it deserves all the praise. It’s distinctly an Adele song, but the orchestrations are beautifully Bond-ian.
3 “Nobody Does It Better” By Carly Simon (From The Spy Who Loved Me)
At the end of one of the James Bond franchise’s most breathtaking opening set pieces, as 007 skis off the edge of a cliff and deploys a Union Jack parachute, Carly Simon’s “Nobody Does It Better” kicks in. In addition to being one of the greatest Bond movies, The Spy Who Loved Me has one of the series’ most memorable theme songs.
2 “Live And Let Die” By Paul McCartney & Wings
Paul McCartney took the assignment of writing the theme for Live and Let Die as a job. He didn’t view it as a passion project and he hashed out the lyrics in an afternoon. But since this is Paul McCartney, one of the greatest musicians who ever lived, the result is one of the most iconic and endearing Bond themes in the franchise’s history.
1 “Goldfinger” By Shirley Bassey
The third Bond movie, Goldfinger, established the franchise’s formula: an opening action sequence, a one-off love interest, a megalomaniacal villain, a globetrotting plot etc. So, it’s fitting that the movie also has the Bond theme that set the tone for all to come, and remains the greatest, sung by the legendary Shirley Bassey.
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