Favorite James Bond theme song and opening

[EinhanderZwei]

Stupid thread, lazy Sunday...
Mine:
Song - tie between For Your Eyes Only and Licence To Kill
Opening sequence - For Your Eyes Only

[neorichieb1971]

View to a kill

[rancor]

You Only Live Twice.

[BPzeBanshee]

GOLDENEYE

Not so much the sing-song with the chicks but the intro where Bond shoots the screen is the best in the series due to the awesome Cold War music.

[ratlhead]

Casino Royale - You Know My Name

[BulletMagnet]

Spy Hard.

[Herr Schatten]

Best song: Tie between Goldfinger, Goldeneye, and The Living Daylights. You Know My Name is also awesome.
Best opening: Goldfinger all the way.

Worst song and opening: Die Another Day. (An utter disgrace to the series.)

[EinhanderZwei]

Worst song and opening: Die Another Day. (An utter disgrace to the series.)

Yeah, both are a lot worse than I remember them...

[Kakizaki]

Best opening - Octopussy (loved that micro jet)
Best song - The Man with the Golden Gun, For Your Eyes Only

And yeah, I'm a little biased regarding the Roger Moore era.

[Khan]

Goldeneye

[Mortificator]

Snake Eater




Serious answer: GoldenEye
Runners-up: Goldfinger, A View to a Kill, You Know My Name

[null1024]

I'm pretty sure most people are going to say GoldenEye [which is also my answer].

[ED-057]

#1 For Your Eyes Only
#2 The Spy Who Loved Me

[emphatic]

Song: Tie between The Spy Who Loved Me, Live And Let Die and the Propellerheads' rendition of In His Majesty's Secret Service theme(featured in one of the latter films with Pierce Brosnan).

Opening: I have no idea, but I bet Miss Monepenny's opening is the best one.

[E. Randy Dupre]

I always think that I like the corny '80s tunes - All Time High, For Your Eyes Only, etc. - but then I'm pretty sure that what I actually like are the covers of those (and other) tracks on the David Arnold 'Shaken and Stirred' album:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maeELHysFPE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEoyfNG_b6k

For real, though, it's got to be OHMSS. Both the pre-credit scene - which is unusual for the series in that it's just a punch-up, and has some very odd editing that gives it a hyper-realistic look, decades before the Bourne films made that fashionable - and the amazing tune that bursts in with the credits:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRJnK-uWbfQ

That pre-credits sequence also being the only time in the entire series that the possibility is hinted at that james Bond is simply a code name that's passed down between agents, which is a concept that I wish to fuck the films would take onboard.

[njiska]

Best song: Tie between Goldfinger, Goldeneye, and The Living Daylights. You Know My Name is also awesome.
Best opening: Goldfinger all the way.

Worst song and opening: Die Another Day. (An utter disgrace to the series.)

Pretty much my choices, only I'm a bit so-so on GoldenEye. Goldfinger and The Living Daylights are pretty much the peak. As for Die Another Day the only good thing to come from that debacle was an interesting strip routine i once saw.

[drauch]

Thunderball. Tom Jones is the man.

[Soldato J]

No love for Jack White and Alicia Keyes?

[emphatic]

No love for Jack White and Alicia Keyes?

I loved it until Alicia Keys starts howling like she's at a soccer game.

[antron]

what's that one where Wierd Al's head explodes?

[Mischief Maker]

Best song: On her Majesty's Secret Service

Best opening: The Living Daylights? (You mean the song and naked dancers part, right?)

Best Bond Movie Period: From Russia with Love. Spies doing spy stuff during the Cold War instead of the Smirking Ubermensch vs Dr. Evil.

[Vexorg]

what's that one where Wierd Al's head explodes?

That would be from Spy Hard, a Leslie Nielsen movie, but an obvious parody of the Bond intros.

As for Bond intros, I've always liked Live and Let Die. And is it just me, or does Led Zeppelin's Kashmir sound like the kind of song that should be used in a Bond intro?

[Icarus]

Semi-serious answer:
James Bond Theme by Moby.

Very serious answer for music:
Goldeneye first, Casino Royale (the modern one) second, The World Is Not Enough third.

Very serious answer for graphics:
Casino Royale (the modern one) first, The World Is Not Enough second.

This thread made me pull out the Bond, Beat & Bass remixes album again. Great stuff.

[JBC]

I'm a Bond fanatic. Recently I was able to acquire all of Ian Fleming's original stories and am about halfway through Goldfinger. Live & Let Die is my favorite so far though. The buildup is masterful, and the ending in the book is so grisly compared to the movie. It gave me chills even. The newest novel, Carte Blanche by Jeffrey Deaver is pretty swell too.

The topic of this thread is so very difficult for me because I want badly to break it down by era but that would hardly be fair. It is difficult to beat Paul McCartney and the Wings 'Live & Let Die', both the song and it's intense voodoo themed title sequence. However, both Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace have set a new standard in Bond title sequences and the songs are damn good to boot. Very satisfied with Daniel Craig as Bond so far and can't wait for Skyfall, where he'll be facing off against Javier Bardem.

When I was younger I used to really love the opening of Goldeneye and even though I wouldn't usually condone listening to Tina Turner, the song really worked for the whole thing. Pretty sexy, those Russian silhouettes with sledgehammers. Shirley Manson and Sheryl Crow both did amazing jobs on the next two films, but their title sequences were lacking. Madonna failed miserably to capture the Bond spirit and honestly I find the whole of Die Another Day to be embarrassing. Poor ole Pierce Brosnan got handed the worst scripts.

George Lazenby's only film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service has a pretty great title sequence but it's accompanied by the only Bond title track to lack lyrics.

I absolutely love Duran Duran's 'A View To A Kill', and such a great movie with Christopher Walken and his scary ass girlfriend. As well, Aha's 'The Living Daylights' is pretty good but both songs are distinctly eighties when I feel that a Bond title track has to have a certain timelessness about it.

I hate to go without mentioning 'You Only Live Twice' and 'The Man With the Golden Gun' but I'm afraid in the end they both have that 'Goldfinger' style cheese of the earlier Bond flicks.

I suppose I have to go with 'Live & Let Die', which is hard to argue as it's one of the few Bond songs that still gets radio play to this day. Damn unfortunate about that Guns N' Roses version that rears it's ugly head so often.

[Moniker]

Yeah, Live & Let Die is definitely the best song, although my least favorite movie.

Spy Who Loved Me is a close second, and my favorite opening. Parachute with the Union Jack FTW.

[dan76]

Best - The Spy Who Loved Me / Man with the Golden Gun

Phoo Yuk?
1974 sir.

[ShmupSamurai]

Goldfinger, no exceptions.

[Never_Scurred]

My vote goes for Esthero - Nearly Civilized from the PS2 game 007: Nightfire.

[SuperGrafx]

As much as I love the various James Bond movies, I always found the openings to be somewhat silly and lame.

[MX7]

The Spy Who Loved Me, Live And Let Die, The Living Daylights, Licence To Kill.

Opening? Probably Goldeneye.