Throughout the years there have been a number of potential theme tunes for the Bond films that didn’t quite make the cut. Some were considered for the main theme by the producers but were ultimately rejected in favor of another tune. Some were simply novelty recordings that were never actually considered at all. And some songs, while they did eventually make it into the film in question, have alternate versions floating about in the ether. Here then is a brief look at just a few of the renegade Bond theme songs. Kudos to the super talented YouTube skills of LuiECuomo, who edited together the following videos.
THUNDERBALL:
Dionne Warwick – “Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang”
Originally, John Barry had a difficult time coming up with a way to tie the word ‘Thunderball’ into song lyrics, so he wrote “Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” instead. It’s a great song, typical Barry stuff, and the lyrics, while a bit cheesy at first, paint a fairly vivid picture of Connery’s Bond. The first version of this tune actually had Shirley Bassey singing the vocals, but was soon re-recorded with Dionne Warwick. However, the producers were concerned that a theme tune without the title of the film in it would not just not work. I don’t really know why they thought this back then but reneged on the idea later (Rita Coolidge’s “All Time High” for instance), but “Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” was scrapped, Barry turned to Don Black for help with the lyrics, and Tom Jones was sought out to provide the vocals. The rest is history.
But if you’d like to hear another Thunderball reject…
Johnny Cash – “Thunderball”
Bond goes country! This song is freaking awesome! Out of all the potential themes for the film, this is the one that actually has some part of the story inserted into the lyrics. Not exactly what one would expect from a typical Bond theme from the 60’s, but it has a certain charm to it nonetheless. I don’t know the exact story behind this, but apparently the late Johnny Cash recorded this on his own and submitted it to the producers to use in the film if they wanted. They politely declined. Johnny Cash was a pretty big name at this point in time though, so I’m sure the public at large would’ve been just as accepting of this as they were Tom Jones.
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN:
Alice Cooper – “The Man With The Golden Gun”
Now, as far as I’m aware, this has never been confirmed by EON productions to have ever actually been in the running. The only one speaking on the subject is Mr. Furnier himself, who claims it was indeed set to be the theme before the producers dropped it in favor of the horrific Lulu song. If this is true, whoever made the decision must have been smoking some good hash at the time, because the Alice song actually has a dash of Bond flavor in it, as opposed to what we ended up with. There’s just something fitting about Alice Cooper singing about the villain of the film, played by one of the Hammer Horror icons Christopher Lee. I can only think that EON just wanted to return to a female vocalist after Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die”, but on the heels of “Under My Wheels” and “School’s Out”, Alice Cooper was HUGE at this point in time. My feeling is they really missed out here.
YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE:
Nancy Sinatra – “You Only Live Twice (Single version)”
This is among my favorite theme tunes, so I was interested to hear what an alternate take by the same artist sounded like. The version played on the radio is very different from what you actually hear in the film. It has a slightly faster tempo, there’s an added echo to the vocals, and everything sounds intentionally overproduced. I like it, although it lacks the ’simplicity’ that makes the original so good.
TOMORROW NEVER DIES:
K.D. Lang – “Surrender”
I suppose this is cheating a bit, considering you actually do hear this song in the film. However, it’s been placed over the end credits of Tomorrow Never Dies instead of during the opening credits, which is where it was originally intended to be. Such a terrible shame. This tune is infinitely better than the Las Vegas lounge act that was Sheryl Crow’s song.
However, before these two artists were in the running to do the theme, there was a horde of others who were tapped to do recordings…
Pulp – “Tomorrow Never Lies”
My favorite among those overlooked tunes is this one by Jarvis Cocker’s old band Pulp. The song has been edited down from its five and a half minutes to actually fit over the credit sequence. The title of the song was actually the original title of the film, which given the whole newspaper/media angle of the film, would’ve been a much better title, no? At the very least, it would have kept quiet those folks who seem to be under the impression every other Bond film has some form of ‘Die’, ‘Death’, or ‘Kill’ in the title (the word ‘Gold’ or ‘Golden’ appears just as much as ‘Die’ in Bond titles, why aren’t we complaining about that?).
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY:
Blondie – “For Your Eyes Only”
Er… just ignore Sheena Easton lip syncing to a completely different song here…
