Best James Bond Theme Song/Opening?

[samurainoir]

Of the modern Bond films... I thought Adele's Skyfall was an awesome old-school style Bond Theme that would have fit in with the best of the 70's stuff. Hearing it on the car radio for the first time actually gave me shivers and made me excited to see a Bond film for the first time since I was a kid.

[samurainoir]

I actually think the Madonna one was pretty catchy, but it was waaaay overproduced and the auto-tuning was just wrong. If Madonna had just trusted her own vocals enough to belt it old-style Shirley Bassey with an orchestral back-up rather than electronic/sampling, I think this would have been a classic.

Music aside, what a great opening sequence though. Thought the scorpions and fire/ice/electricity women were great ways to translate the usually surreal montage of bodies as landscape into a metaphor for Bond's torture and escape inside himself to survive such an ordeal. This was one opening that you couldn't afford to miss while getting your popcorn.

Here's my real disappointment with the opening though.. for the first time we have a really compelling opening sequence that actually ties into the story and hints at something DIFFERENT and perhaps even complex and contemporary (like the best parts of Daniel Craig's films). HOW would capture and torture effect James Bond? In general, isn't this the first time things go horribly awry for Bond in an opening sequence? Brosnan's performance hints at something more painful and ironic immediately following his year or so of trauma, but for the most part bounces right back into his best laid back aping of Roger Moore's dry humour (although I always thought of Brosnan as a brilliant under-utilized comic actor). I would love to see how Brosnan might have handled some of the material that Craig's Bond is given rather than constantly revert to the forgettable cartoon adventures (albeit entertaining ones) that typified his run of movies.

[Goblin19]

Agreed completely with Earth 2 Chris.

[PNGwynne]

Shirley Bassey--Goldfinger!

For Moore, not that I really care for post-Connery Bonds, I like Live and Let Die.

[hedrap]

Thunderball and You Only Live Twice.

I really like View, LALD, Nobody Does It Better, but those work as straight-up songs that don't need the Bond tie-in. Thunderball and YOLT are thematics in spades.

[Marvelmania]

^I can't believe I typed "GoldMEMBER" instead of GoldFINGER".

Now that is FUNNY!!!!!!!!!

[Mikey]

I actually like the theme from On Her Majesty.

I just don't like that it doesn't have lyrics and I especially hate the opening showing Sean Connery Bond clips.

It's like a slap in the face to any new guy

[PNGwynne]

^ I agree. Actually, it's in my top three for Bond films, in general.

I love that the theme for OHMSS is fully instrumental.

[YoungOnce]

Yep... Goldfinger is the "gold standard" in my book. It's the iconic theme to me. But as someone else mentioned, there were a lot of good ones throughout the 70's. And I also like Adele's Skyfall. It's got that classic sound of foreboding and tension on the horizon.

[samurainoir]

Goldfinger is such a strong and iconic song, I keep forgetting that Shirley Bassey actually did two other Bond themes. Diamonds are Forever and Moonraker. both are fine, but totally overshadowed by underwhelming Bond films and that Goldfinger really defined Bond theme songs in those earliest Connery years.