JAMES BOND COMPETITION: THE VERDICT

Author: Bruce Jenkins  Date Posted:26 November 2021 

JAMES BOND COMPETITION: THE VERDICT

Thanks to everyone who entered the James Bond theme song competition. There were well over sixty entries championing favourite songs from the movies, and all were passionate and entertaining. An amazing eighteen songs were nominated as favourites; that’s 72% of the entire song list! Surely that says a lot about the quality of the music, as well as the diversity of fans’ tastes. Every decade of 007 films was represented.

So which song was the most popular amongst Discrepancy Records listeners? Well, let’s build the tension a little by revealing that there was a three way tie for the second most popular song. Two of those were unsurprising: Shirley Bassey’s classic "Goldfinger" and Paul McCartney and Wings barnstorming "Live And Let Die" each polled well. What no-one predicted was the third member of the tie, Carly Simon’s "Nobody Does It Better" from The Spy Who Loved Me.

However the most popular Bond song amongst competition entrants was Adele’s "Skyfall", which just edged out the above trio. As James C observed, Adele’s song "pairs with the film like a good dry vermouth does a top shelf gin; shaken, not stirred of course".

So many entertaining entries made our job of picking a winner very difficult. Will Harvey made a strong case for Chris Cornell’s "You Know My Name" (Casino Royale, 2006), describing "a marvellous, bombastic distillation of cold-blooded orchestral rock". Felicia R picked Duran Duran’s "A View To A Kill" for its "great 80s pop sound" while Laurie P selected "Goldeneye" and made a great point about how Bond movies changed after the end of the cold war. Special mention must be made of the marvellous effort by Matt M who constructed a long and entertaining acrostic answer using the letters of "S k y f a l l" as the structure.

After much deliberation, we narrowed it down to a final three.

In third place, Chris W’s entry was a vote for "Live and Let Die".

"McCartney jumped at the chance to do a Bond song, and he wanted to ensure that the song had all the themes, lows and BOOMs of an action movie. Throw in George Martin’s orchestration and the song tells you the whole flow of the film in 4 minutes. A masterpiece that stands the test of time (with a little help from Guns N’ roses for new kids on the block). McCartney and Martin together: the rest never stood a chance!"

At #2, this delightful entry from Andrew H.

"Maybe it was because I was 10 years old, but The Union Jack parachute, the underwater car, Barbara Bach, then Carly Simon launching into "Nobody Does it Better" did it for me. It’s all Bond, its all class, it’s all Roger Moore, I still bloody love it. Baby you’re the best."

But the winner, chosen for its insight, economy and style, was Riley Morrow, whose answer was gold.

"Iconic. Bold. Blaring. Shirley Bassey’s pipes are at their absolute zenith here, and with only the second proper Bond theme the die was cast. Gert Fröbe played the role of Goldfinger, but ignore that: Bassey is "Goldfinger". With bluster and brilliance, give her the handgun: she’s more Bond than Connery."

Congratulations Riley. Your prize is in the post.

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Thanks once more to everyone who participated. We do not know when James Bond will return, but can say with confidence that there will most certainly be another Discrepancy Records mission… sorry, competition… in the new year. Stay tuned.

 

© Bruce Jenkins 2021


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