For James
Bond fans, there can never be enough movies about their favourite MI6 British
agent with the license to kill. We just
celebrated James Bond’s 50th anniversary last year and the latest
film, “Skyfall”, the 23rd movie in the series, is still in movie
theatres. Over the decades, we’ve had a
half dozen actors portray 007. Sean
Connery was the first (and some say, the best), followed by George Lazenby
(although he only starred in one Bond film, 1969’s “On Her Majesty’s Secret
Service”), Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. Many of the Bond theme songs have also done
well on the music charts. For this weeks’
quiz, we’re asking you to name some of those songs. The first two Bond films, 1962’s “Dr. No” and
“From Russia With Love” didn’t have any hits, but “Dr. No” did introduce that
haunting guitar based instrumental theme.
Throughout the series, the Bond themes have been sung by many performers,
including Madonna, Tom Jones, A-Ha, Sheryl Crowe, Rita Coolidge, Gladys Knight
(without The Pips), Nancy Sinatra, Lulu, someone named Chris Cornell (who?) and
of course Adele who sings the latest theme from “Skyfall”. Naturally, I didn’t mention any of the artists
who are in the following questions (I’m not giving up the answers that easily),
but I’m sure you’ll be able to figure them all out without too many hints from
me. Good luck.
QUESTIONS:
1. This James Bond theme went into the Top Ten
in 1965. It was sung by a British female
singer who also sang the theme to 1971’s “Diamonds Are Forever” (although that
song only made it to # 57) as well as the theme to “Moonraker”, but the less
said about that theme, the better. Sean
Connery was still double 0 7 for this flick and the evil genius villain is
trying to raid Fort Knox and take the ‘gold’ (OOOPS. HINT ALERT).
See if you can put your ‘finger’ (HINT ALERT # 2) on the name of this James Bond theme.
2. Roger Moore played James Bond in his final
007 film. It was the 14th
film in the series and a British group had a # 1 hit with their theme song from
this Bond film. C’mon, if you don’t have
a clue, here’s a hint. It’ll ‘kill’ you
when you find out the answer. So what’s
the name of this Bond theme song as well as the name of the group who sang it?
3. In 1981, this beautiful Scottish born singer took
her James Bond theme song to # 4 on the singles chart. Roger Moore was James Bond once again in this,
the 12th Bond film. Debbie
Harry and Blondie turned down the opportunity to sing this theme which was nominated for an
Academy Award for ‘Best Song’, although it didn’t win. This singer was also on screen singing the
theme during the opening credits. She
later worked with Prince and had a Top Ten hit with his song, “Sugar Walls”. What’s the name of her Bond theme and who’s
the singer?
4. This artist was used to having # 1 hits, but
that didn’t happen with the theme from this James Bond film, even though it did
make it to # 2. It was the first Bond
film to star Roger Moore and the 8th one in the series. This theme was the first true rock’n’roll
song used in a Bond film to that time. The
musical score for the movie was composed by George Martin, who’d worked with
the theme songs composer/singer for many years.
Who performed this theme and what was the name of the 1973 hit?
5. This 1977 James Bond theme song didn’t have
the title of the movie in it, but it was a huge hit nonetheless, zooming up the
charts to # 2 where it remained for 3 weeks.
The female singer of this theme was once married to James Taylor and had
many other hits, including “You’re So Vain”, a # 1 hit in 1973. The Bond film this song is from was the 10th
in the series and the third one for Roger Moore. It also co-starred Beatle Ringo Starr’s future
wife, Barbara Bach. (HINT ALERT) You’d
‘better’ think long and hard about this one.
So what is the name of this James Bond song and its singer?
ANSWERS
1. Some of you probably didn’t need the two
hints I gave you, for by now, you probably know that Shirley Bassey took the
theme from “Goldfinger” to the # 8 spot on Billboards’ Hot 100 chart in March
of 1965. Shirley’s theme from “Diamonds
Are Forever” made it to # 57 on the singles chart in 1972.
2. Duran Duran were riding high on the singles
chart during the 1980’s with such hits as “Hungry Like The Wolf”, “New Moon on
Monday” and “The Reflex” (their first # 1).
In 1985, they had their second # 1 with the theme to “A View To A Kill”. Sadly, it was to be their last # 1.
3. Sheena Easton sang the title song to “For
Your Eyes Only” and it stayed at # 4 on Billboards’ Hot 100 chart for four
weeks in October and the first week of November in 1981 after which it dropped
out of the Top Ten. It was Sheena’s 2nd
Top 5 hit in ’81. She hit the top of the
charts for two weeks in May that same year with her smash hit “Morning Train
(Nine To Five)”. Although the song was
nominated for an Academy Award for ‘Best Song’ for 1981, it lost to “The Best
That You Can Do” from “Arthur”.
4. “Live And Let Die” by Paul McCartney &
Wings is the Bond theme we were looking for.
It was # 2 on the charts for 3 weeks in August of 1973. The song was also nominated for an Academy
Award for ‘Best Song’, but lost to “The Way We Were”, which was written by the
late Marvin Hamlisch along with Marilyn and Alan Bergman. Barbra Streisand, who co-starred in the movie
with Robert Redford, had a # 1 chart hit with it in 1974.
5. Marvin Hamlisch and Carol Bayer Sager wrote the
song “Nobody Does It Better” for the 1977 James Bond film, “The Spy Who Loved
Me”. Carly Simon recorded it and it went
to # 2 on Billboards’ Hot 100 singles chart for 3 weeks in October and November
of ‘77. Only Debbie Boone’s massive hit,
“You Light Up My Life” kept it from the # 1 spot. Once again, the song was nominated for an
Academy Award, but was beaten out by, you guessed it, “You Light Up My Life”,
from the movie of the same name, written by the films’ director Joe Brooks
(Debbie Boone, by the way, did NOT sing the song in the movie. That honour went to session singer Kasey
Cisyk, who also appears as a bridesmaid in the film).
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