Nobody does it better: Ranking all James Bond theme songs
Over 60 years of films and over 60 years of terrific theme songs.
By Chris Guest
When Bond songs go wrong
24. “Die Another Day” – Madonna
Extraordinarily dated and very out of touch with what a Bond song entails, this is a total Madonna vanity project. Best line: “Sigmund Freud, Analyze this.” Yikes.
23. “Another Way To Die” – Alicia Keys & Jack White
Ugh. This tuneless track starts off strong with a punchy, fuzzy guitar intro courtesy of White, but then falls apart as two completely mismatched voices try to harmonize within a weedy and unpleasant melody.
22. “Writing’s On The Wall” – Sam Smith
Sam Smith’s Bond song is a particularly uninspired effort. A vaguely menacing intro leads into Smith’s warbling vocals, which veer into an off-key lilt when the pre-chorus comes in. An unpleasant and disappointing choice to reintroduce the evil organization of SPECTRE to the Bond universe. Somehow, this song won an Oscar.
21. “Moonraker” – Shirley Bassey
Shirley Bassey’s third and final Bond song chronologically is also the weakest. This is a near rewrite of one of the best Bond songs, “Goldfinger,” but this time with a plodding tempo and an uninspired backing track. Not recommended listening.
20. “Never Say Never Again” – Lani Hall
"Never Say Never Again" is a rather dull song with little drama or notable musical elements, other than Lani Hall’s throaty delivery – though that’s not really a positive attribute… (Note: This song is not from an official Bond film, but for the merits of this article, it qualifies.)
Sadly, some Bond songs are quite boring
19. “License to Kill” – Gladys Knight
This is where we enter the middling Bond song phase (of which there are too many). A breathy intro from Gladys Knight (sans The Pips), leads into the first line: “Hey baby.” It doesn’t really make sense for a Bond song to ever start with those words, hence the low placement on this list. Once again, the slow pacing and uninspired melody let this track down as well.
18. “For Your Eyes Only” – Sheena Easton
One word: BORING. Not much to say beyond that; this is simply a middling, forgettable Bond song.
17. “No Time to Die” – Billie Eilish
One of three songs on this list to win Best Original Song at the Academy Awards (the others being “Skyfall” and “Writing’s On The Wall”), this track features the singular talents of Eilish, but it simply lacks the movement or drama of other, better songs on this list. Not much happens in this one.
16. “The World Is Not Enough” – Garbage
This song by Garbage is not garbage, but it’s not great either. Fairly strong chorus, though, to be fair.