Look, I know musical tastes are a personal thing. There's no right or wrong. One man's treasure is another man's trash. Etc.
But there are a lot of people who say that this song is better than Sheena Easton's song for For Your Eyes Only, and they are objectively wrong.
Blondie submitted this song for FYEO, and was told that sorry, Bill Conti (who was doing the score) had already co-written the theme song they were going to use. Blondie was offered to chance to sing that song, but the band said no.
They then put their song on Blondie's final album, The Hunter.
And I'm sorry, in no possible way is this anywhere near as good as the Conti/Leeson/Easton song.
Yeah, maybe I'm a soft touch for Ms. Easton...I do have it ranked as the #4 Bond theme of all time. And I'll concede that a song you hear when you're 17 sung by a gorgeous Scots lass just might have a wee bit of hormonal nostalgia in the rating.
But I'm sorry, as a movie theme, a 007 theme, Easton's version is superior musically, lyrically, and in performance.
Hey, I love Blondie. But for a theme song? Their song is mixed poorly--Debbie Harry's vocals are buried so deep in the wall of sound that they become too remote and unemotional, especially in the chorus. Yes, I know that was Blondie's style, but it was the wrong style for a movie theme--you shouldn't have to strain to hear the film's title buried under an oversampled chorus. (In fairness, some of that might have been gussied up for the movie had their song been chosen)
Easton's hit was, by contrast, lush and romantic, the slower pace more apropos of the many underwater sequences in the film, and as a contrast to the movies non-stop action. And Sheena belts the living hell out of the tune.
Blondie's version is a fair Bondie song--but seriously, would anyone even put it in their top 20 Blondie songs?--but not a great theme song.
If, however, you want a kick-ass Blondie-sung Bond song, you might try this:
Given the proper musical direction, Blondie (herself and the band) could have contributed something really memorable, but this song just isn't it.
ReplyDeleteThere is a reason these songs are also-rans inthe Bond song derby. Most of them just aren't very good.
In 1980 Blondie had a massive hit with 'Call Me' for American Gigolo, co-written, -produced, -whatever with Giorgio Moroder. Considering how big Moroder was at the time I'm surprised he wasn't more seriously considered to contribute something to a Bond movie.
Love your Bond blog. (And Monstrobot of the Deep is great as well.) My blog was devoted to Bond for a while and I thought you might get a kick out of some of my comments on some of these same films. Here's a link to the index.
ReplyDeleteHope you like it.
I'm watching Goldfinger on BBC America right now and I was on IMDB looking at Bond-related message boards. I was very surprised at how many people list Man with the Golden Gun in the bottom two or three films. Octopussy is another one that an awful lot of Bond fans list very low.
Come on! The worst one is Moonraker! IT'S OFFICIAL!
Let's try that link again. Here we go.
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