Who's Rumored to Sing 'Spectre's' Theme, and Ranking the Top Ten Bond Songs

By Cindy Davis | Lists | July 28, 2015 |

By Cindy Davis | Lists | July 28, 2015 |

Before we get started, I recommend you play as you read:

We love Bond, we love Bond movies, and we love those Bond title sequence songs. I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of the theme music, all jangly guitars and brass — it immediately brings to mind a dashing suited and accented man who’s as smooth with his weapon as he is with his…hands (*wink-nudge*). We also love hearing each film’s title theme, often performed by popular-at-the-time artists ranging from Tom Jones, and Shirley Bassey to A-ha and Duran Duran. The announcement of a new Bond film’s title performer usually merits its own big announcement; Adele’s gorgeous Skyfall was one of the film’s highlights.

Before we get to who might be singing the Spectre title theme, I thought it might be fun to rank the top ten so far. Oh, and…though I know how y’all love to debate in the comments, you can rest assured that this is the definitive ranking, so NO NEED TO ARGUE. Got it?

Good. Here we go…

10. GoldenEye, Tina Turner

9. Thunderball, Tom Jones

8. You know My Name, Chris Cornell

7. Diamonds Are Forever, Shirley Bassey

6. Morning Train For Your Eyes Only, Sheena Easton

5. A View to a Kill, Duran Duran

4. Nobody Does It Better, Carly Simon

3. Skyfall, Adele

2. Goldfinger, Shirley Bassey

1. Live and Let Die, Paul McCartney & Wings

Now that we’ve gotten that settled, you must be wondering who’ll do the title song for Spectre; director Sam Mendes says it’s already in the can — “It’s fantastic and I’m very excited about it.” Since Spectre seems to be calling back some old villains, is it possible we’ll be getting an update to a classic Bond song? Sam Smith tipped off the press, and then the artist herself seemed to confirm:

Live and let die

— Ellie Goulding (@elliegoulding) July 9, 2015

That's a wrap! 🙏🏼

A photo posted by elliegoulding (@elliegoulding) on Jul 27, 2015 at 3:48pm PDT

I’m not terribly familiar with Goulding, so I have no comment on the choice, other than that I fervently hope this won’t be a pop-ish, breathy remake of a kickass song.

Spectre is out November 6th, and Mendes says we “won’t have to wait long” for the official artist announcement.

Cindy Davis, (Twitter)