Somebody did it better...
...makes us feel sad for the rest. We present the secret history of the Bond themes that didn’t make the cut
Johnny Cash (Thunderball, 1965)
What
possessed the creator of pared-down tales of poverty and heartache to
submit a song for a film about a jet-setting secret agent? The reason
for its rejection is also lost to posterity as it’s pretty darn good,
reminiscent of ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky’ and ‘Rawhide’ (“They shudder
at the fury of the mighty Thunderball...”). Oh, wait, perhaps that’s
why. Visit YouTube for what might have been, as some enterprising soul
has matched Cash’s music to the existing credits. (You can find some of
the following there, too.)
Dionne Warwick (Thunderball, 1965)
Muse
to Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Warwick had scored top ten hits with
‘Walk on By’ and ‘Anyone who had a Heart’ when she was approached by
John Barry and lyricist Leslie Bricusse to sing ‘Mr Kiss Kiss Bang
Bang’ (Bond’s nickname in Japan and Italy) as the
Thunderball
theme. Shirley Bassey also recorded a version. But Bond’s producers
wanted the title in the tune, so Warwick and Bassey were kiss-kissed
goodbye.
Thunderball would eventually be graced by the lung-busting Tom Jones number; Warwick’s track wasn’t officially released until 1992.
Julie Rogers (You Only Live Twice, 1967)
The revised lyrics for
Thunderball
were written by Don Black, coincidentally brother-in-law to the next
Bond-theme bridesmaid. 22-year-old British singer Julie Rogers had
enjoyed a worldwide hit with ‘The Wedding’ in 1965, and was ushered
into the studio to record Barry and Bricusse’s song. Reason to believe
she’d clinched it, you might think – but not in Bond world. The
producers looked to Frank Sinatra, who suggested his daughter, Nancy.
Her beautifully haunting reworking was a winner.
Alice Cooper (The Man with the Golden Gun, 1974)
“If
you couple the James Bond sexiness, with a little bit of horror and a
little bit of Broadway and a little bit of vaudeville… and throw a lot
of blood and fog in there – you got Alice Cooper.” So said the man
himself, and who are we to argue? But then, we’re not Bond producers.
Alice submitted a theme for
The Man with the Golden Gun
– with, perhaps more bizarrely, Liza Minnelli on backing vocals – only
to lose out to Lulu. Yes, Lulu. Cooper’s theme found an outlet on the
album
Muscle of Love, but Lulu’s rendering of Barry and Black’s theme song flopped.
Blondie (For Your Eyes Only, 1981)
Blondie
and Bond: it even sounds right. But, as ever with 007, it was all about
the girl. Debbie Harry was asked to sing on a track already chosen for
the film; the band defiantly submitted their own entry but it was
rejected, ending up on Blondie’s
The Hunter album.
Sheena Easton (who had a huge hit in 1980 with ‘Morning Train’) got the
nod instead to sing Bill Conti and Michael Leeson’s song, and made
history as the first Bond theme artist to appear in the titles.
Pulp (Tomorrow Never Dies, 1997)
The
battle to front this Pierce Brosnan outing was perhaps the bloodiest
yet, with up to a dozen artists in the running to provide the theme.
Pulp’s offering, ‘Tomorrow Never Lies’ (supposedly the film’s original
title until a misread fax caused the switch), surfaced as the B-side to
‘Help the Aged’. This was Bond at 3am after a bottle of whisky, oddly
vulnerable and melancholy, and would have represented a bold choice to
say the least. Marc Almond’s attempt sounds fun (he has described it as
“pastichey, Bassey-by-numbers”), but remains unheard. Space, Saint
Etienne and The Cardigans apparently all received rejection letters,
too.
Story by Anna Richards and Simon WardellThis
is an edited version of the original story. To enjoy the full article,
which also includes Aretha Franklin, Johnny Mathis and kd lang,
subscribe to Sony Magazine here