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  

Music of the Batman... 50 years of Batman themes!

Purely for fun, and purely because I was in the mood, I've compiled every relevant Batman musical theme since the 1960s.  One live-action TV show, three film themes, and four animated series themes. A few things of note.  First of all, that audio clip of Shirley Walker walking us through the Batman: The Animated Series theme is a treasure to behold, especially as she passed away several years ago (it's the last cut on the two-disc Batman: The Animated Series score collection, which yes I do own).  Secondly, and this is what inspired me to compile these in the first place, whatever misgivings you may have about Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, Elliot Goldenthal's music should not be discounted.  His rip-roaring, more overtly comic book-ish theme is still a joy to listen to, successfully combining the lingering darkness from the Burton films with the more traditional Caped Crusader heroics on display in Schumacher's films (the rest of the jazzy, offbeat music for Batman Forever is pretty terrific too). Thirdly, however powerful and effective the Hans Zimmer/James Newton Howard music may be for the Nolan Batman films, the themes are dreadfully challenging to hum, and I'd be lying if the Batman Begins 'action theme' didn't sound just a bit reminiscent of Jerry Goldsmith's theme to The Shadow (ironically best evidenced in this trailer for The Saint). Finally, despite the nine themes sampled below (and the fact that she's seen quite a few episodes of Batman: The Animated Series and Batman: The Brave and the Bold), my daughter considers the 1960s Batman television theme to be the only 'real' Batman theme song and gets pissed when I hum anything else.  To be fair, I'm not exactly in a rush to show her Batman Returns or The Dark Knight (although she could probably handle Batman & Robin just fine).  Please enjoy and share your thoughts below.  What's your favorite Batman music?  Is it still Elfman above all else or has another later theme supplanted it?  What music do you hear when you think of Batman?

Scott Mendelson

Has our world gone mad? Sarah McLachlan gets happy in new video.

It's not a terrible song, and the video isn't anything special, but the concept is troubling. The song, titled "Loving You Is Easy" is the first single for her new album Laws of Illusion, which debuts on June 15th. The song basically has McLachlan waxing not-so-poetically about how happy she is with the new man in her life. And that is the problem. If I wanted to listen to puppies-and-rainbows melodies about the joys of new love and the sweetness of romance, I'd listen to a Taylor Swift song. I'm sorry, call me old fashioned, but when I listen to Sarah McLachlan music, I expect to be soulfully depressed and artfully bummed out, with soaring odes to misery and suffering plus a dash of gorgeously-sung hopelessness. This is a woman who is the go-to artist when they need a song for a commercial begging you to save downtrodden animals. This is a woman who, bless her lovely voice and compelling lyrics, put out a genuinely depressing Christmas CD a few years back. We'll see how the rest of the album turns out, but I damn well better hear some bitter ballads, sorrowful sonnets, and decidedly un-merry melodies. You're not Weird Al Yankovich, you're Sarah Fu&*#n McLachlan!

Scott Mendelson

PS - While my Taylor Swift reference was intended in jest, I did listen to McLachlan back in the day, and I'm not ashamed to admit it (when you're already a married family man, you can admit all kinds of such vices). But, when I was still a swinging bachelor, the rule was simple: Getting a girl to play her Sarah McLachlan CDs in order to set the mood = Good Idea. Whipping out your own copy of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy or Surfacing to set the mood = Bad Idea.