The forgotten classic among 007 theme songs...

I've generally stayed out of the James Bond waters of late for pretty obvious reasons.  But as a result of Adele's Skyfall being released, I went back and listened to the previous 007 theme songs, paying extra attention to the post-GoldenEye tunes that I have perhaps only listened to once or twice.  First of all, I take back every vaguely defensive thing I ever said about Madonna's "Die Another Day".  The tuneless, joyless disco chore is every bit as awful as the pundits claimed ten years ago, so mea culpa.  But the next one on the list was Chris Cornell's "You Know My Name" from Casino Royale.  I had only heard the song perhaps once, when I saw the film in theaters six years ago (confession: when I watch the 007 films at home, I usually skip the credit sequences as they do nothing for me and of course are completely disconnected to the  narrative).  So imagine my surprise as I discovered, six years late perhaps, what a rather terrific and catchy kick-ass rock tune Cornell's ditty actually is.  It's firmly in the vein of hard-rock "being a spy is *hard!* tunes from The Living Daylights and A View To A Kill (and arguably Live and Let Die).  It's also the catchiest tune since Duran Duran's "Dance Into the Fire" and stands alongside that camp classic as one of the best pure rock-n-roll songs in the Bond universe.  Anyway, if you haven't listened to it in awhile, sample above.  And consider this a second mea culpa, for not realizing how good this theme was all those years.

Scott Mendelson

UPDATED: Adele's new SKYFALL theme is frankly terrific.

It's no secret that I think that the vast majority of James Bond theme songs are pretty silly.  They mostly range from goofy ("Thunderball"), guilty pleasure ("A View to a Kill") to fun-but-completely incomprehensible ("The Living Daylights") to terrible ("The Man With the Golden Gun") to dishwater dull ("Die Another Day"). So it is with a token amount of shock that Adele's new theme song, revealed in full with lyrics in the above video, is pretty darn good.  The vocals are superb, it makes terrific use of the 007 theme, and it manages to almost exist as a stand-alone contemporary single.  It's a ditty worthy of the better Bond themes ("Nobody Does It Better", "Live and Let Die", "All Time High").  So have a listen as the marketing campaign for Skyfall enters its final stage before the film's UK debut (October 26th) and its US debut (November 9th).  What are your thoughts on Adele's latest contribution to a fifty-year musical tradition?

UPDATED with a new short trailer cut to the song, which works just fine.

Scott Mendelson

Note - In response to comments, yes I am a big fan of Tina Turner's "GoldenEye" theme song, especially as its line 'You'll never know how I watched you in the shadows as a child...' evokes the idea that the musicians penning 007 themes grew up on the franchise.  But it doesn't quite work as a stand-alone single, which is why you never hear it on the radio, hence it's not one of the very very best themes.

Adele's Skyfall theme is good, but Joe Cornish's Quantum of Solace is still the best.

So terrific is this satirical Bond theme song that I find myself humming it when I think of Daniel Craig's last 007 picture, only to remember that it wasn't the actual theme to Quantum Of Solace.  If by some weird miracle you've never heard this ditty over the last four years, take a listen.  Joke or not, it's the catchiest 007 theme song since, I dunno, Duran Duran's "Dance into the Fire" from A View to a Kill.    Anyway, about 90 seconds of Adele's theme song for the upcoming Skyfall leaked online yesterday and I have to say it's pretty darn good.  I'm not a hardcore Adele fan ("Someone Like You" is even more frighteningly stalker-ish than Sting's "Every Breath You Take"), but she dials back the vocal melodramatics and the tune is better for it.  I'm of the opinion that most 007 themes are pretty silly, so that I actually like this one and would listen to it as a stand-alone single is pretty high praise.  The official release of the whole song comes on October 5th on AdeleTv.  If you want a sneak peak, go here.

Scott Mendelson