The Sound of 007 (2022) - full transcript

(JAMES BOND THEME MUSIC PLAYING)

♪♪ Fool me once, fool me twice
Are you death or paradise?

♪♪ Now you'll never see me cry

♪♪ There's just no time to die ♪♪

(EXHALES)

Hold on.

BILLIE: Since before I even
was really aware of Bond,

the music has always been
an important part of my life.

-Wanna take a break?
-Yeah.

Yeah, come on.
Have a listen.

For years, we would pretend
to write Bond songs



because it was
such a dream of ours.

For me, Bond music
is the most iconic thing on the planet.

I first saw a Bond film...

I think I saw a double bill of

From Russia with Love,
and Goldfinger, I think it was.

I wasn't old enough to separate
the experience of the music at that point.

The first one that I can think
of was Diamonds Are Forever.

I was really
struck by the music.

I was at a children's
birthday party.

They brought out
this ratty projector.

God knows why anyone
thought it was a good idea

to show You Only Live Twice
to an 8-year-old. It took my head off.

You've got these incredible images
and this incredible music.

The music got me through
my teenage years, my childhood.



I love the films, but more than
the individual plots of each movie,

the thing that stayed with me
was the music of Bond.

Working on a Bond movie, there are
three things you're playing with:

the Bond theme, the score,
and then you've got the song.

I think song is the finest of
the art forms, for me.

The intimacy of it,
that it can be with you anywhere.

I love Bond songs.

It's impossible to choose
a favorite Bond song.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service
is my favorite.

Carly Simon's is best.

My favorite artist
is Chris Cornell.

Live and Let Die.

I'd have to say Skyfall.
That song had a huge impact on me.

No Time To Die has
a special place in my heart.

We Have All the Time in the World.

It's a very emotional song for me
that reminds me of my childhood.

With the Bond songs,

it's a testament to how brilliant they are
that they've lasted so long.

The Bond movies have their own sound
that still rings out 60 years later,

which is astonishing
for any piece of music.

It's something to be really
celebrated.

SAM: Everyone goes into
every Bond movie

waiting for the most famous
piece of music in film history.

The Bond theme has been in our lives
for as long as we can remember.

You're in the womb,
what do you hear?

The heartbeat
and the Bond theme.

DAVID: When Bond does something
typically Bond-esque,

there's only one piece of music
you can play.

BARBARA: James Bond, the character,
doesn't spend a lot of time

talking about what he's doing
or how he's feeling,

so the music has always
had to kind of give you

a sense of what's going on
within Bond.

The adrenaline, the tension,
the joy, the anxiety...

You hear the Bond theme,
and it gives you that shot in the arm.

(GUNSHOT)

(HARMONIUM PLAYING BOND THEME)

JON: Over the 60 years
and 25 films,

the James Bond theme
has become an iconic tune

recognizable to
the world at large.

You know exactly
what that is

within the first few notes,

no matter what
the arrangement sounds like.

And yet it has one of the most strange
and unlikely origin stories

in movie history.

Anyway, now for our musical spot,
this week, we call on Monty Norman.

MONTY: I was a singer,
originally, with the big bands.

Used to write the odd song.

And I suddenly realized

there was money to be made
in writing stage musicals,

so I gave up singing.

Cubby Broccoli rang me

and asked me to come to his office
to meet his new partner, Harry Saltzman.

He said,
"We've just acquired

"Ian Fleming's
James Bond novels,

"and we're going to turn them into films.
Would you like to do the score?

"We're doing all the location
work in Jamaica.

"Why don't you come out,
absorb the atmosphere?

"Bring your wife.
All expenses paid."

I mean, how could I refuse?

(SOCA MUSIC PLAYING)

It was an inspired choice
to take this songwriter to Jamaica,

absorb the atmosphere,
and incorporate the players

who were actually there
in Kingston, Jamaica, at the time.

MONTY: Jamaica was great fun.

Ian Fleming invited us over
to his house, GoldenEye,

and he was asking me
about the music.

I told him we were just about
to go into the location

for Ursula Andress
to come out of the water.

Monty wrote this wonderful song,
Underneath the Mango Tree,

which Ursula Andress is singing
as she emerges from the water

when we first see Honey Ryder.

♪♪ Make boolooloop

♪♪ Underneath the mango tree
Me honey and me... ♪♪

Who is that?

That song became a classic
moment in movie history.

Right. Up slowly
and face the wall.

Monty, of course,
was a fine songwriter.

MAN: Hold it.

But where he was not entirely comfortable
was in writing dramatic music.

Gently, bud, gently.

He struggled with the idea
of a theme for this new character.

And there was some time
pressure now.

I suddenly remembered something
that I'd written for a musical

about the East Indian community
in Trinidad

called A House for Mr. Biswas.

The songs had
this Indian sound,

but instead of a sitar,
I thought that should be done on a guitar.

It was a song called Bad Sign, Good Sign,
and it goes like this...

♪♪ I was born with this
Unlucky sneeze

♪♪ And what is worse I came into the world
The wrong way round... ♪♪

And so on.

This sounded to me,
strangely enough, when you think of it,

like the character of James Bond.

It's an idea, at that.

But the filmmakers themselves

felt they needed something
a little bit more dynamic.

That's when the connection
with John Barry was made.

Thank you. Very much.

In modern music today, people are always
looking for what they call a new noise.

And we have someone who found
a very enchanting new sort of noise.

Ladies and gentlemen,
the John Barry Seven!

(AUDIENCE CHEERING)

JON: In 1962, he'd already had
a number of hits on his own,

and he was already a somewhat
experienced film composer.

JOHN: I received a phone call
on a Saturday morning

from the head of music
at United Artists.

And he said that these two guys,
two weird guys...

I always remember him saying,
called Saltzman and Broccoli,

they've got a score for the movie
and they're very dissatisfied.

By tomorrow, they need
at least a main title.

I said, "Oh, my God."

But movies was the thing
I wanted to do,

so I went in and had
a meeting with Monty Norman,

and he played me some stuff,
and I just said,

"If I've got to do this thing
in this amount of time,

"I have to go
with my instincts."

His reply, which I will always remember,
was, "I am not proud."

He certainly wasn't.

So I just went home and worked.

And then we went in the studio,
recorded it.

Some recordings you just know there
was some kind of magic that day.

So, John Barry took Monty Norman's theme,
and he created a radical arrangement

into something
that was dynamic and exciting,

even a little sexy,

that had elements of jazz,
pop and rock in them.

I was at the premiere,
and when Sean says...

Bond.

And the music begins...

James Bond.

...the reaction was amazing.

There was no way
anybody could tell

that that would become one of
the most famous melodies in cinema.

And the rest, as they say,
is history.

BARBARA: Monty Norman's theme
in John's hands

became the most
recognizable in the world

and has been for 60 years.

JASON: Bond songs are sort of
chemistry experiments.

You don't quite know what
they are until you hear it,

and you say, "Yes, that's it."

♪♪ He always runs
While others walk ♪♪

It's an extraordinary task
to write one of those.

There's sex, there's death,

there's duty,
there's sacrifice,

there's a kiss,
there's a murder.

(GASPS)

And that's all got to be
in a 3.5-minute pop song

that intones the name of the film.

If any of those ingredients is missing,
it's not a Bond song.

SHEENA: I think what made the whole
Bond franchise different to begin with

was adding that element
of that amazing theme song.

When a new Bond film was coming out,
you got excited wondering,

"What's the song gonna be,
who's singing it?"

DON: The song, it should be
provocative,

a kind of guilty pleasure
for the audience.

"I shouldn't be here, but I am,
and I'm gonna wallow in it."

Lure of the forbidden.

HANS: There's a seductive quality
in all the songs.

They're like a perfume in the air,
and they promise you things.

They promise you inevitably
that your heart will be broken.

And you can't wait
for them to break your heart.

MARYAM: It sort of plunges you
into the Bond world.

The mystery, the intrigue,
the adventure, the sensuality...

It's haunting because Bond is a
loner at the end of the day,

and he always
ends up on his own.

It gives you an absolute open
doorway to the story

and you have to incorporate
the story into the song,

so that they are married.

A really good title song
will do that.

The songs have an emotional
backbone for the film.

They'll be involved
and tethered into the score,

as it is with Billie Eilish
and No Time to Die.

It had to be an ode
to the music from Bond.

It couldn't be either/or,

it had to be a perfect mix
to feel like Bond,

and also had to feel like me.

DAVID: The DNA of a Bond song
is timeless.

There's plenty of incidences
of how broad that church is.

If you look at Madonna's
Die Another Day,

Nobody Does It Better,
Live and Let Die,

they're completely different,
yet they're all Bond songs.

But for me,

the blueprint of the Bond song
was John Barry and Shirley Bassey.

And that was really with
Goldfinger.

Dr. No obviously had
the James Bond theme.

Russia with Love
had an amazing song,

but it wasn't
until the end of the movie.

John got to do the score but not the song
for From Russia With Love.

It was when he came to
Goldfinger,

having done a great job
with the two previous films,

that Harry and Cubby said he could
write both the song and the score.

JOHN: Goldfinger was
the name of the villain,

so it was a weird thing
to have to write a song about.

So, I sat down and wrote
this rather strange melody,

just based on the word
"Goldfinger."

JON: And so, he's working
on the tune at his London flat,

and Barry was great friends,

and very often, lunchtime mates,
with Terence Stamp and Michael Caine.

John and I became
very, very close friends.

He's one of my closest and oldest friends,
and a marvelous guy.

Stamp and Caine
had been roommates.

And there was some to-do

whereby, apparently, there was
a little too much female traffic

going in and out of his flat,
and Caine was tossed out.

CAINE: I came to a situation

where I didn't have anywhere to sleep
for two weeks,

so John said,
"Come and stay with me."

I said,
"Great. Thank you, John."

He had a lovely flat.

And I went to sleep.

(SNORING)

And I was woken up
about an hour later by the piano.

John was composing.

All night long,
he was on the piano.

My first night, I thought,

"I'm here for two weeks.
I'll never get any sleep.

"He's gonna be on the piano
every night."

(ALARM RINGING)

In the morning, I got up,
I went down for breakfast,

and he was still on the piano.

I went into the room,
said, "Do you want tea?"

He said, "No. I finished."

And I said, "What were
you composing last night?"

He said, "This."

And he played me Goldfinger.

(GOLDFINGER THEME
PLAYING ON PIANO)

So I was the first person in the world
ever to hear Goldfinger,

and I heard it all night.
(LAUGHING)

It wasn't an obvious hit
because it was a strange song.

But I felt like if you could
get a singer who had conviction,

you could sing
the telephone book.

And Shirley Bassey fit so well
in with that whole James Bond style.

John Barry had
not only known Shirley Bassey,

he had actually been
on concert tour with her.

We struck up a relationship.

Then we did a tour together,
and he conducted for me.

And it was at the end of the tour,
he said to me,

"I've just written the music
for the next Bond film."

I went to his apartment
and he played me the music.

I hear that...

(VOCALIZING GOLDFINGER THEME)

And I just got goose pimples,
you know.

Just... Um...

I said, "I don't care what the words are.
I'll do it."

JOHN: I remember when
Shirley came into the studio,

she said,
"What is this song about?"

I said, "It's a villain.
Don't ask too many questions.

"Just get in front of the mic
and belt it."

♪♪ Goldfinger

♪♪ He's the man
The man with the Midas touch

And she was terrific.
She was the ideal person for a Bond song.

♪♪ A spider's touch ♪♪

SHIRLEY:
John just let me do it my way.

The Bond films, they're
so masculine,

because they're
on the violent side,

and spectacular side,
and they're glamorous,

I felt a woman singing
about Bond was right.

♪♪ But don't go in ♪♪

During the recording sessions,
John insisted on take after take,

and really wanted her
to belt it out.

John got upset because she kept
cutting it off, running out of breath.

SHIRLEY: To do it over and over again,
it was an all-night session,

and towards the end, I mean,
I had this restricting bustier on.

She said, "Just a minute," and suddenly
her bra came over the top of the thing.

She said,
"Now try it. Try it again."

So I let it all hang out,
and I felt much more comfortable.

And I was able to
hit the note better anyway.

♪♪ He loves gold ♪♪

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

In the early days, it felt like
it was a creative explosion

of the language
of a Bond movie,

which hadn't really
found its feet,

I think, until Goldfinger.

Bond music became a universe
of its own.

JOHN: Goldfinger, to me,
is the most favorite.

The first time
I was allowed to do everything.

The whole Bond formula,
it culminated in Goldfinger.

Barry sets it up with the song,

then the song becomes
the foundation of the score.

(GOLDFINGER
INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)

When we had the big Fort Knox sequence
at the end, I used the motif...

I kept repeating it throughout
with the trumpets and horns.

The integration from Goldfinger,
Thunderball, You Only Live Twice,

they weren't just
opening songs and forget it.

They ran throughout
the whole vein of the movie.

(PUNCHES THUDDING)

Since the time of John Barry,
the Bond title song has always been woven

into the score of the rest of the film.

But No Time to Die
is the first time the singer's voice

has actually been used
as an instrument in the film itself.

STEVE: You always have the main song
appear somewhere in the score,

but I don't think it was for a few weeks
that we discovered

that should be our love theme.

-No, I knew.
-Okay, he knew.

-He didn't tell me for weeks.
-I knew there was a moment

which was gonna slay you
when it came back.

It's so funny, hearing
Hans talk about it.

"Nobody liked this.
They didn't understand the song."

"But I liked it."

"I thought it was pretty good.
I thought it was okay."

(LAUGHTER)

People were going, "Hang on a second,
but it's not this movie."

I'm going, "Of course not.
They haven't seen this movie.

"Get them on a plane."

-Literally landed, drove to a studio...
-With our suitcases.

With our suitcases,
so jet lagged, so tired. So tired.

Sat in this little room,
and watched

-whatever there was of the cut.
-The cut.

-It was great. Awesome.
-It was amazing.

Then the next couple of days was
going meeting Hans and working with him.

We all sort of hunkered down
at AIR Studios,

which had sort of become the home
of Bond over the years now as well.

(SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)

BILLIE:
Hans has this way about him

that just makes you so comfortable
and very at ease.

When you're with him,
you're, like,

literally fucking crazy that
this dude is, like, such a...

-Legend.
-Dorkball, and he's...

No, but...
And he's, like,

just the sweetest, you know,
goofiest, ridiculous man.

HANS: AIR is such a beautiful environment.
It's such a beautiful acoustic.

I just got Billie to just sing
as quietly as possible.

Not even the song,
just some singing.

(VOCALIZING)

Could I maybe try it one time
without the song in the background?

-HANS: Yeah, sure. We can do that for you.
-Great.

(VOCALIZING)

BILLIE:
Hummed a little song.

Kind of hummed a bunch of random stuff.
Just a few little notes.

Did some a cappella,
you know, verses and choruses.

I just did them
and forgot about them.

(VOCALIZING CONTINUES)

HANS: I was just gathering
ammunition, as it were.

I just knew that
this was gonna be good.

Dude, being at the premiere...

-REPORTER: Hi!
-Hi.

And there's 2,000 people
in this beautiful theater in London,

and the whole cast
is there on stage...

And throughout the movie,

in the most vulnerable
and emotional parts of the film,

is my voice.

I have to finish this.

For us.

I know.

(VOCALIZING)

I'll just be a minute.

I've got them.

This might come in handy.

HANS:
Billie's actually a ghost.

She's a beautiful ghost
in the movie.

Impossible to talk about a Bond song
without talking about the lyric.

It's 50% of the experience.

DON: I've always loved lyrics.
I've always loved words.

The way I write is instinctive.

You don't analyze it,
you go with your heart.

People always want an anecdote
when it comes to songwriting,

and, most of the time,
there isn't one.

But there's quite a few
with Bond songs.

It's a chemistry that
somewhere, something happens.

There isn't a rulebook
of how you do.

TIM: Lyrically, most Bond songs
have something to do with the storyline.

Most used the title of the film.
Some haven't, like Nobody Does It Better.

John Barry rang me and said,
"Would you like to do a Bond lyric?

Took me about 0.06 seconds to say yes.

And then I said,
"What's the title of the film?"

thinking it might be romantic.

And he said, "Octopussy."
And I went... (GASPS) Ah!

(LAUGHING)

We were always glad we got
A View to a Kill

and not
A Quantum of Solace.

"Quantum of Solace"
is a hard thing to put in a song.

There's not a lot
you can rhyme with "solace."

"Got lovely bollocks."

For No Time to Die, the lyrics
really just came to us perfectly

because we knew
what we were writing about.

We met with Barbara.

She told us
about the beginning,

where Madeleine
gets set up,

and that James thinks
that she betrayed him.

But the main thing she said
was she was set up.

And I can't tell you
how important that was for us.

We just took that and ran,
and wrote a song about that betrayal.

"Was I stupid to love you?"

Like, "Was I dumb?
Am I blind?"

And I think that's a thing
we've all experienced.

It just is a much higher stakes
in James Bond.

But it really wrote itself.

DAVID: I think it was
a natural thing in the '60s

for the Bond films to turn
to theatrical composers and writers.

Because Anthony Newley, Lionel Bart,
Leslie Bricusse and Don Black

delivered fantastic songs.

When I got asked to do
my first Bond song,

my immediate thought was,
"Call Don Black."

DON: The title was terrific.

It was enigmatic,
but I couldn't think of the next line.

I walked around a few parks,
I can tell you.

I stared out of
a lot of windows.

And one day, my wife, Shirley,
shouted out to me,

"Postman's just come, Don.
And you've got an OBE!"

And I automatically said,

"It's not a knighthood, but it's
the perfect way to start."

And I thought,
"Hey, that's it!"

And that's how I like
to write lyrics.

There's the movie, right?
There's the movie.

Two lines, job done. Brilliant.
That's why you work with Don Black.

He's a great lyricist.

He's had number-ones
with Michael Jackson.

He won an Oscar with John Barry
for Born Free.

He's a huge name.

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

Not only is Diamonds Are Forever
the best Bond song, it's his best song.

♪♪ Diamonds are forever ♪♪

Diamonds Are Forever, I thought,
was brilliant on nine different levels.

♪♪ They can stimulate
And tease me ♪♪

I always say that luck plays such
a major part in a songwriter's career.

Because Diamonds Are Forever
almost never happened.

♪♪ Desert me ♪♪

Looking back on
Diamonds Are Forever,

again, I'm looking
at a blank page

and I've got
John's tune in my head.

Don wrote it. He said,
"What do we sing about?"

I said, "Why don't we...

"treat a diamond...

"like it's the male sex organ?"

And so, he said, "Yeah?"

I said, "Well, just sing about a diamond
like it's a you-know-what."

And when you read the lyrics,

"Touch it, caress it."

I mean, if you submit that thought,
you'd probably enjoy the song again.

(CHUCKLING)

It was a song with a wink.

Then we had the big day
at John's apartment

when we had to play it to
Harry Saltzman.

JOHN: Cubby Broccoli
and Harry Saltzman came over

to my apartment
to listen to it.

Harry Saltzman,
God rest his soul,

he was a difficult man,
let's put it that way.

And after we played Diamonds Are Forever,
Harry made it very clear that he hated it.

"We can't have that
goddamn song in the movie!"

He had a very colorful
vocabulary.

He said, "It's filthy.
'Touch it, stroke it, and undress it'?

"Can't put that in a lyric.

"I don't like the music,
either."

And then John's
Yorkshire bluntness came out.

I said, "Harry, you hated Goldfinger.
You are tone-deaf!"

He went as red
as the red socks he wore.

And he just steamed
out of the room, my apartment.

Just went out,
slammed the door, left.

(DOOR SLAMS)

There's this silence.

And then Cubby said,

"Do you have any Jack Daniels?"

And I said, "Yeah."

So we all hit
the Jack Daniels.

I thought that
was the end of it.

"We had a go, he hates it.

"He hates John Barry.
He hates life. He hates everything."

Cubby said, "I think it's terrific.
You should go ahead."

(VOCALIZING)

♪♪ Diamonds are forever

♪♪ Sparkling round
My little finger

♪♪ Unlike... ♪♪

And then we played it to Shirley Bassey,
and she loved it.

I loved the song,
'cause it was a song from my heart,

because I love diamonds.
(CHUCKLES)

♪♪ ...your grave for

♪♪ I don't need love

♪♪ For what good
Will love do me? ♪♪

DON: Shirley Bassey is
one of the great storytellers.

"Diamonds are forever.
They are all I need to please me."

Straight away,
you're in a world.

You're taken there
from the first couple of lines.

♪♪ They'll luster on

My own feeling is that Shirley
Bassey should sing them all.

♪♪ Forever, forever... ♪♪

That outrageous, mannered,
marvelous, provocative style she has.

She's everything that
Bond should be.

Shirley Bassey is Bond.

♪♪ And ever... ♪♪

(MUSIC STOPS)

Shirley Bassey was one of
the only examples I had growing up

of a Black British singer
that sang with that huge voice.

Without her, I don't think I would
have felt like I could do what I do.

There's something about
the music of the '60s

that possesses
so much feeling.

CAINE: If you think of the '60s
as a revolution in England,

it was music-led.

Beatles led the rock and roll,
and John led the movie music.

John Barry was a major part
of the Swinging '60s.

The whole Swinging '60s
was amazing.

I was the luckiest guy
on the face of the Earth,

because I couldn't have been on a more
successful kick than the Bond movies.

John Barry was so much a part
of the DNA of these films.

That Bond sound is clearly him.

Whether it's the guitar, the horns,
whether it's any of those things,

they were so evocative
of that era.

Bond wouldn't be Bond
without that.

He probably is the first person
that took the big band swing brass...

...and merged that
with the orchestra.

(ORCHESTRAL MUSIC PLAYING)

JON: If you had had a traditional
orchestrally-based score,

it might have been serious,

but it wouldn't have had that sassy feel
that we got from John Barry,

particularly in the way
he wrote for brass.

(ROMANTIC MUSIC PLAYING)

That is a significant step forward
for film scoring in the 1960s.

NEIL: The sex that was on the screen

was so there in the music.

This is John Barry
in his pomp.

That makes two of us.

The muted horn, muted brass

is the signature of Bond.

So it's bold and it's brassy,
but there's just a little dampener on it.

It's like a silencer of a gun.

It's the musical equivalent.

ANNA: I love that John Barry
grew up in a cinema.

His father ran a cinema,
and he also played trumpet,

so he has an inherent understanding
of cinema and music.

I think he's one of those geniuses
that has an instinct for it.

John Barry then ended up emigrating,
living in Oyster Bay, on Long Island.

I get the feeling that you could
take the lad out of Yorkshire

but you couldn't take the Yorkshire
out of the lad, or his music.

I've always had a slight theory

that there's a whiff
of the Colliery Band

about John Barry's
obsession with brass.

(BRASS BAND PLAYING)

When you hear John Barry play,
something that I just adore in music

is the melancholic,
reflective side of music.

And Barry, you can hear that
right throughout his scores.

You know, Bond...

You can't have a Bond, for me,
without that feeling.

DAVID: John Barry created
the sound of James Bond.

Jill?

And over the next 25 years,

he was the reigning king
of James Bond music.

He did 11 of them.

And I think, where other composers
have taken on that job,

the biggest success stories
have always been

people who have had an awareness
about Bond music

and about how wonderful
John Barry's stuff is.

CELESTE: When I was younger,
I used to work in this charity shop.

I volunteered there
because they had loads of vinyl.

And so, I first found a John Barry vinyl,
and it was actually From Russia With Love.

When I first started writing,
I would always reference John Barry.

DON: He invented this style.

He couldn't help but be
incredibly elegant about his music.

We start off very much
with what John had given us,

and then slowly branch off
into our own style,

but there's always John Barry.

He is the center of this universe
as far as music is concerned.

With the song,
the casting is complex,

in the sense that many people
have ideas about who would be suitable.

TAYLOR: I think it's become
a really interesting song contest.

For me, I like dramatic,
edgy pop.

And that's what we get every time
a new Bond film comes out.

They've made some really interesting
choices over the last 20 years.

JASON:
The fight to do a Bond song is

as big as the fight to be cast
as Bond, if you're a musician.

To do a Bond song is
like doing Hamlet.

It's a top achievement.

DAVID: I felt like I'm casting,
when looking at singers.

You make an informed choice
about who it is you'll get to sing it.

You agree that with Barbara, Michael,
and the director,

and then they let you go away
and do it.

SAM: With Skyfall we all wanted
to being British artist.

Was a synergy about it.

The 50th Anniversary, 2012,

UK feeling great about itself,
for a change,

the Olympics,

and it all went into the movie,
that sense of pride.

Adele was very much
part of that.

PAUL: I think Adele's
the perfect singer for it 'cause

she's done her music history.

She grew up with Bassey songs.

The way she finishes the lines,
so authentic.

She's the heir to those people,

and yet she's also very contemporary,
she has her own thing.

Ours had to be classic.
The brief was...

"50th Anniversary, baby."

It's got to be a classic,
you know?

With Paul, it just kind of...

Normally, I go in with an idea,
and you have an idea ready.

We throw them at each other,
and something happens,

it happened with Skyfall.

I gave her the script. "I loved it!
I went in the bath to read it.

"By the time I got out,
my bath was cold."

And then she went quiet.

Halfway through the shoot,
she sent us the song.

It was like, "That's fantastic."

I don't think we changed a word
or a note.

When you approach an artist,

it's because you love
what that artist does.

We were blown away when Bono and
the Edge said that they wanted to do it.

When we heard what they
came up with, we loved it.

They told us
they didn't wanna perform it.

They thought it should be
a female vocalist.

And who better
than Tina Turner?

TINA: I was sitting at my home in Zurich,
and Bono sent me the worst demo.

He kind of threw it together
as if he thought I wasn't gonna do it.

I think he was hoarse.

♪♪ ...move through
Smoke and mirrors...

I don't think he really meant
for me to sing it.

♪♪ ...in the crowd

♪♪ Other girls
They gather around him ♪♪

He said, "I cannot let
anyone else write the song.

"Me and my wife spent our honeymoon
at Ian Fleming's place, GoldenEye."

♪♪ Golden eye
Not lace or leather

♪♪ With the Golden eye
Take him to the spot ♪♪

He said,
"It's a little bit rough."

And I thought,
"How do I put this together?"

It wasn't showing me
what the melody was.

He said,
"Dear Tina, this is rough.

"You probably won't get it.
In the studio, we'll get it together."

And, true enough,
it came together in the studio.

♪♪ ...Be denied

♪♪ It's a gold and honey trap ♪♪

I sung it how I would sing it.

And even Bono was impressed.

He said, "I should have known.
I remember sending you that,

"and after I sent it,
I realized that it was really bad."

♪♪ ...Got you in my sight ♪♪

Looking around for people
who could sing the song

in The World Is Not Enough.

Looking at Shirley,
and her attitude and energy,

it was like she could be in this film.
Maybe she should've been in it.

♪♪ I think I'm paranoid

♪♪ They call me... ♪♪

She was so potent
and unflinching,

it felt like she had the strength
to make that lyric a proper event.

We were in London. David asked
if he could meet for coffee.

I went into a Starbucks
across the road from our hotel,

and he said,
"What do you want?"

And I said,
"I'll have a skinny latte."

He brought it to the table,
plopped it down, and sat in front of me.

He said, "Do you want to know
why I've brought you here?"

And I went, "Yeah, I do."

He went, "Do you want to sing
the next Bond theme?"

(LAUGHTER)

She screamed in a way that I'd
never heard anyone scream before.

I think she wanted to do
one of those all her life as well.

I mean, I don't think
I literally screamed like...

But I was freaking out.

For any vocalist to be asked
to do that is a huge deal.

I couldn't really take it in very well,
but of course, I said yes.

I had the wherewithal to say, "Yes.
I would like to do that. Thank you."

With No Time To Die,
it seemed right

that we have a song which was
from the female point of view.

And I went to see Billie and Finneas
when they were performing.

♪♪ She'll pity all the men
I know

-♪♪ So you're a...
-CROWD: ♪♪ Tough guy

♪♪ Like it really rough guy

♪♪ Just can't get enough guy

-♪♪ Chest always... ♪♪
-♪♪ ...So puffed guy ♪♪

BILLIE: She came to
one of our shows,

which was perfect
'cause it was the best one.

I was excited
she saw a good show.

Said, "Love to hear what you
come up with," but if it's terrible...

It'd be crazy if they said,
"We haven't heard it,

-"but you got it."
-Totally.

It was an audition.
It should've been.

The worst is if they don't choose it,
you think, "I could've done a better job."

At least in our case,
I was like,

-"I love this song."
-We did our best.

"If they don't choose it, that's okay,
but this is the best we could do."

It was awesome. We didn't hear
anything for two months.

(BOTH LAUGHING)

Then they were like, "Fly to London.
See the movie and work with Hans,"

-which was awesome.
-So cool.

-So badass.
-But it was crazy to not hear anything,

then, "Get on a plane."

I'm happy when we get talent.

And the talent's good.

And it has, fortunately, been incredible
while I've been doing it.

I want the best song
and the best score that we can get.

I felt very lucky to work with
the talent that we had.

JASON: When you take part
in Bond music,

you're very aware of the history
of what you're getting into.

You are in charge of the baton,
but just for a little while,

then you're handing it
on to the next leg.

(CRICKETS CHIRPING)

JON: I think that the most
successful Bond scores

are those that seamlessly combine
elements of the Bond theme

and then whatever new music
the new story requires.

The number of instances

of the Bond theme
being revisited through the years

is just extraordinary.

It's absolutely unique
in the history of film music.

Well, hi there.

(LIVE AND LET DIE THEME PLAYING)

JON: When you hear
George Martin's arrangement,

it's a much harder-edged rock
version than we'd heard before.

(THE SPY WHO LOVED ME
THEME PLAYING)

When Marvin Hamlisch does it,
it brings the sound of disco and Studio 54

into the world of Bond.

(TOMORROW NEVER DIES
THEME PLAYING)

(GUNSHOTS)

And when David Arnold updates
the theme,

he throws a little techno
into the mix,

making Bond not only orchestral,
but also electronic.

Classic sound,
modern approach.

And, of course,
in No Time To Die,

the James Bond theme
is brilliantly deconstructed

so that there are elements of it
throughout the film.

Done by somebody with more experience
with action pictures than anybody.

Hans Zimmer.

It might be noise to you,
but to us, it's making a living.

(ALL LAUGHING)

Hans Zimmer, he was very keen to
bring in a lot of the old theme.

He was like,
"It's good. We'll use it."

But then he adds
Hans Zimmer to it.

(GUNSHOTS)

(BRAKES SCREECHING)

(ENGINE REVVING)

Zimmer comes to this new project
well-versed in the history of Bond music.

I don't think
I'd ever heard the Bond theme

used in such clever and creative ways
in any Bond film to date.

(TIRES SCREECHING)

What people want
is that sense of familiarity,

but turned so it catches the light
in a slightly different way.

It occurred to both of us
that the...

You couldn't put that into Skyfall.
It was just too outgoing.

So the issue was,

how do you acknowledge Bond
without the meter going to 11?

I think you lost your nerve.

Well, what do you expect,
a bloody apology?

You know the rules of the game.
You've been playing it long enough.

Tom was looking all the time for ways
to weave the Bond theme in.

A good example
is at the beginning of Skyfall.

Daniel's out-of-focus figure appears
at the end of the corridor.

There's that brass stamp...

And you're like, "I'm in."

He's back! James Bond is back!

That's what's great
about the idea.

There are those moments
that the fans love.

You know they're gonna love it
'cause they're plain fun.

We've been trained
for 60 years

to recognize what the music
is doing with the Bond films

in a way that is not the case
with any other long-running franchise.

In Casino Royale, the conception
is to save the Bond theme

for the very end of the movie.

The whole point of Casino Royale
was about this man who becomes

the James Bond we all have come
to know and hopefully love.

(GRUNTS)

So it was very important to us
that he earned that theme.

The studio were very concerned
about it, obviously.

DAVID: The thing that
maybe worried them slightly was,

"Why are we watching a James Bond film
without the theme?"

They thought that was an intellectual step
too far for an audience,

that they wouldn't understand.

Number one,
you have a brand-new Bond.

Nobody's seen Daniel Craig
do this before.

So the thought was,

"Maybe we need the Bond theme
to remind us of who he is."

My counterpoint was,

we can't be ahead of where
James Bond is in the film,

but what would be
more interesting

would be teasing those elements
throughout the film.

When he first puts on the tuxedo
in the bathroom...

and he sees himself
and considers himself in the reflection.

And in that shot,
you're thinking about 20 other movies.

You're thinking about all the other times
you've seen Bond in a tuxedo.

(CHUCKLES)

We're looking at him like,
"He's getting closer."

Then at the end,
the first time he says the line,

there's been an opportunity to
say, "Bond. James Bond."

Welcome to the Hotel Splendide.
Your name, sir?

James Bond. You'll find the
reservation under "Beach."

Same with ordering the drink.

Vodka martini.

Shaken or stirred?
Do I look like I give a damn?

DAVID: So we are done
with convention in this film.

Then, right at the end,
when Mr. White says, "Who are you?"

He says, "The name's Bond.
James Bond."

We've been waiting
two hours for that.

So when Mr. White
gets out of his car,

I'm not really playing
what's happening to Mr. White.

We're on the audience's side now,

waiting for this to happen.

-Hello?
-MAN: Mr. White.

We need to talk.

Who is this?

-(GUNSHOTS)
-(GRUNTS)

He gets shot in the knee.

(GROANING)

He's coming up the steps.

There's even a tambourine in it,
the famous rhythm for the Bond theme.

Then the trombones start.

Then you see Bond's feet on the steps
as he crawls up towards him.

So you know you're kind of
careering towards this moment.

And we need access to it.
We need permission.

The name's Bond.

James Bond.

(BOND THEME MUSIC PLAYING)

I've seen it three or four times
in the cinema, and everyone went nuts.

I didn't even write it,
you know.

All I did was position it in such a way
that enabled that to happen.

The recording of the James Bond theme
at the end of Casino Royale

was the most exciting recording experience
I'd had in any film I'd done.

The band were waiting
for that moment,

and this thing just exploded
out of the speakers.

He's back, and the music's back,
and the theme is back.

We used the David Arnold arrangement
and recording at the end of Skyfall.

There was a moment where I thought,
"Should I be writing something else?

"A different arrangement?"
But it barked so well.

It was just a great performance.

I was gonna be chasing it,

try to make it as good,
in which case, why bother?

Or doing something different
for the sake of it,

and, you could argue, why bother?

DON: After Arnold had created
that version of the Bond theme,

it wound up being
used again and again

because, to cop a phrase,
"Nobody does it better."

(MUSIC ENDS)

(ALL CHEERING)

Sounded great, that one.
Thank you, guys.

If you look at the entire
history of Bond music,

there are so many fascinating
tales of incidences

that happened during
recording sessions.

PAUL: It's such a big opportunity,
doing a Bond theme.

There is a spirituality to
how these things happened in the studio.

One story is that
Nancy Sinatra came to London

to record You Only Live Twice.

NANCY: I was really scared
going there

because I knew this was
nitty-gritty, hardcore singing.

There was literally 20, 25 photographers
and press people in the studio,

which is an impossible way
to record.

If John Barry
hadn't been there,

I would have just turned around

and run back to the hotel
because I was so scared.

I think I tried to squeak out
two or three takes.

I was a wreck.

They had to piece the recording together
from as many as 25 different takes.

In some ways, Thunderball
is my favorite story

because Tom Jones comes in,

has to hit this huge note at
the end and hold it forever.

TOM: John said,
"The last note...

"the music will go on,

"but hold it
as long as you can.

Okay, here we go, live."

As soon as I hit "ball," I closed my eyes,
I can't hold it any longer.

The room was spinning.

I had to hold on to the sides of the booth
to stop myself falling over.

John said,
"That's it. We got it."

DON: He did it in one take
because he couldn't sing that again.

It's become part of
Bond's mythology.

SAM:
With Writing's on the Wall,

me and Jimmy
wrote it in 20 minutes,

recorded it 20 minutes later,
that was it.

We were actually re-recording
a vocal to my song Lay Me Down.

Jimmy just played some chords,
and it just flowed.

After writing it,
we went next door...

...to RAK Studio 1
and recorded it.

And that was the take.

The vocal is the demo vocal,
the first vocal I ever did for the song.

You can hear
the piano in the back.

We're playing
just live in the room.

It was very special
that it was the first take.

It's all just in that moment.

♪♪ The writing's on the wall

♪♪ The writing's on the wall ♪♪

When I heard that all come together,
it was a really magical day.

Such a big deal, a Bond song.

It's the dream gig to get.

DON: If you think
about it historically,

it must be the series that has stayed
relevant and timeless for the longest.

At the same time, it's managed to do that
by not actually staying timeless,

but embracing wherever we were
at whatever point in time we were.

FINNEAS: It's a snapshot.

The coolest thing about the Bond franchise
is it's set in present-day,

so it's got to reflect the world
that we live in.

If you went theme song
by theme song chronologically

throughout Bond history

you also get a sense of human
pop culture at the time.

Once you switch from Sean Connery
and the big John Barry classics,

it's the Roger Moore era,
which required different themes.

And the music of the Roger Moore era
signals a little step shift.

We'd got into the songwriter-performers,
like Paul McCartney,

who would compose the song
and sing it themselves,

and they would do it
in their style.

♪♪ When you were young and
Your heart was an open book ♪♪

Broccoli and Saltzman

had wanted a good theme tune.

One of the team asked Paul McCartney
if he would write a song.

PAUL: I said, "Okay, send me
the book around."

They didn't have a script then,
I don't think. He sent me the book.

I read it. I thought
it was pretty good.

And that afternoon
I wrote the song.

It was co-produced
with George Martin.

I worked with George,
which I hadn't done since the Beatles.

George took
an acetate of it out to,

I think they were filming it
in the Bahamas.

He took it to Harry Saltzman.

GEORGE: And I thought,
"Well, he's gonna look me over."

And at the end of it, he said,
"By the way,

"who do you think we should
get to sing the song?"

I said, "Well, you do
have Paul McCartney."

"Yeah. Yeah. What do
you think of Thelma Houston?"

I said, "I think she's great,

"but Paul..."

"How about Aretha Franklin?"

I said, "Fantastic."

But Paul and I,

we suddenly realized that I had to
put it to him as delicately as I could,

that if he didn't take Paul,
he wouldn't get the song.

George said,
"This is the real track, lads.

"Hope you like it."

♪♪ To live and let die

♪♪ Live and let die

♪♪ Live and let die ♪♪

It was rock and roll.

You hadn't had a Bond song
that sounded like that.

That blew me off my seat.

I remember Dad playing
the Paul McCartney song.

He had big speakers
in the living room.

My sister and I
just going crazy.

Going absolutely crazy.

It's a bit of everything.
There's a strange reggae interlude.

It's not my favorite part of the song,
I confess, but it's there.

♪♪ What does it matter to ya ♪♪

"What's it gonna matter..."
No! Paul, what are you thinking?

Shouldn't make sense,
but it does.

And it remains
one of the great Bond themes.

Wouldn't you agree?

MAN: Live and Let Die, which got
to number 9 in the summer of 1973.

With James Bond's changing,
you get a change in the music.

Things that bring him along
every time into a new era.

Again, John Barry's not available
for The Spy Who Loved Me,

so what do they do?

They get the hottest young composer
then working in America,

Marvin Hamlisch.

Just got back from London.
Yes. Just got back.

I like it very much. I worked on
a wonderful new picture,

-which is the new James Bond picture.
-WOMAN: Hey!

I thought that was the reason
they hired me, because of the similarity

(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)

between myself and James Bond.

-And James Bond?
-Yes.

Marvin Hamlisch was a character.

He was a performer-composer,
and he was another musical genius.

I remember Marvin Hamlisch
sitting at our piano

we had in the upstairs kitchen

where he banged out Nobody
Does It Better and sang it.

His voice was very different
to Carly Simon.

(LAUGHING)

But, boy, did you know then that
that was an incredible song.

(PIANO MUSIC PLAYING)

It's so wonderful to hear it that way,
before you orchestrate it,

before you get
a professional singer,

and you see the enthusiasm
that the composer has for it.

I was thinking about this film,

about how everything is bigger-than-life
on a Bond film,

everything is bigger-than-life,
so I went just the opposite.

Is this really
what they do in Siberia?

Yes, but not how they do it.

I suppose he wanted to get away
from the John Barry style

and make his own style.
I think he succeeded.

It's very romantic.

This is where we get to see Bond
emotionally stripped bare.

It was the song that did that.

MARVIN: I was working with
my lyricist Carole Bayer Sager.

I said, "What do you think
could be said about James Bond

"after all these years?"

She came up with the title,
a modest title

called Nobody Does It Better.

We decided it was that vein,
we should have Carly Simon sing it.

♪♪ Nobody does it better

♪♪ Makes me feel sad
For the rest ♪♪

You're moving with the times
into a pop era.

I remember hearing on my aunt's car,
Nobody Does It Better.

You think, "Wow,
that's a James Bond song."

Such a smart thing to do.
You're drawing in so many other people.

♪♪ I wasn't lookin' but
Somehow you found me

♪♪ I tried to hide from your
Love light

♪♪ But like heaven above me

♪♪ The spy who loved me ♪♪

There's something about it feeling like
it's from the woman's perspective,

that it's both celebratory
and also slyly satirical.

Over the years, Nobody Does It Better
has become synonymous with Bond.

Even to this day,
when plugging Bond films,

you see Nobody Does It Better.

♪♪ Baby, you're the best ♪♪

Two-three-three, take one.

We were nearly 20 years into Bonds,
and there'd been a lot of big hits.

If you've got 60 years
of Bond songs,

not all, however many there are,
will be number-one standards.

I still never know sometimes why
things just don't come together.

SHIRLEY:
That song didn't work.

Hated it. That's why I've never
sung it in my act.

(STATIC OVER RADIO)

I suppose everybody thinks, "If only ours
was as strong as Goldfinger."

All Time High was a nice song.

Yeah, it's all right,
you know?

It's not my favorite.

The gentle ones have
never been what I gravitate to,

but it works
in the romantic sense of it.

I think they were lacking edge.

And it all seemed a bit M.O.R.

I'd have said anything
to get a foot in the door.

(LAUGHING)

I rolled up to this party
and I saw Cubby Broccoli across the room.

And I had that
confidence of youth.

I said, "When are you gonna have
a decent theme song again?"

(LAUGHING)
And he said,

"You wanna do it?"

I said, "Hell, yes!"

Excuse me.

-Aren't you...
-Bon.

Simon LeBon.

(POP MUSIC PLAYING)

Duran Duran, I thought
that song modernized Bond.

It was hipper than it was
getting to be at that point.

They were perfect for it.

They were the embodiment of the '80s,
that sophistication, the suits.

It was just like,
"Yeah, of course."

They were big, big Bond fans.

John telling you everything
about every Bond movie imaginable.

I was getting the whole
Bond experience.

I fell in love with the cars,
the clothes, the girls.

But over time you realized
how impactful the music was.

John Barry was the guy
that gave pathos to Bond.

I must have written over
100 songs with John Barry,

but I've never written anything
with him in the same room.

He wasn't very good at collaboration
in the traditional sense.

John was amazing, I thought.

He was a dick,
but he was an amazing guy.

Sometimes the collaborations
that we had him get involved with

were challenging for him.

They just used to...
I said, "How do you guys work?"

"We'll meet you at this rehearsal room
at 11:00 one morning." We went in there.

And then they
used to sit around.

Play a bit here, play a bit there,
throw out ideas.

It was a totally
alien way of working.

He was a tricky guy,
but he knew what he wanted.

He didn't know
how to get it politely.

-But the song was number one, so...
-(CLEARS THROAT)

♪♪ Until we dance
Into the fire

♪♪ That fatal kiss
Is all we need ♪♪

The piece of music we made was
a Duran Duran piece of music.

It had beat, that...
(IMITATING DRUM BEATS)

There's a lot of energy in our Bond theme
that is still a bit of a rarity.

JOHN: I wrote them as long as I could
find something slightly new to do.

You had to keep within the bounds,
and I think I exhausted the bounds.

And that's when
I thought I better...

I better cut out
of the situation.

In 1987, Variety did a special issue
commemorating 25 years of James Bond,

and John Barry took out
a full-page ad

to congratulate
his old pal Cubby Broccoli,

uh, and to say thank you for
the opportunity that it had presented.

It was a nice way to go out.

He always would be the man
who created the sound of Bond.

But I can entirely see why there
came a point where he just went,

"Not anymore."

And had an exquisite
later career.

We've all got a list of people we think
should've done a Bond song and never did.

Although, never say never.

Why hasn't Beyonce done one?
She'd be fantastic.

Prince, or... Whitney Houston
would've killed it.

Lana Del Rey. She should be
the next Bond girl.

Stormzy.

I think Laura Mvula.

A Rihanna Bond song.
Rihanna Bond song would be awesome.

Why didn't Queen
get a Bond song?

Rami had to say Queen.
It's just in his contract.

He has to promote Queen almost always.
His contract's up in a year.

Missed opportunity? Perhaps.

There are people that have
written and recorded songs

that for some reason never
found favor.

Blondie,

Ace of Base,

Alice Cooper,

Pulp, Saint Etienne,

Radiohead.

With Spectre,
we were talking to Radiohead.

Obviously, Sam and Daniel
were huge fans.

This song is called Spectre.

Not to be confused
with the James Bond film.

(CROWD LAUGHING)

Radiohead came in,
all five of them, to talk about it.

I was slightly starstruck.
And they did write something.

Which we couldn't use
because they'd already...

They'd never released it, but it
had been played on a live album.

And that wasn't the brief.

It needs to be an original song,

otherwise it's not eligible
for Academy Awards.

But also it deserves
to be a song,

you want to feel like
it's written just for the movie.

We had to say, "We can't use this,"
even though it was great.

And we went off and explored
other possibilities, one of whom was Sam.

Then Thom Yorke said,
"We've written another song."

It was like, "Oh, no!

(LAUGHING)

"Now you tell me."

And he played it,

and it was absolutely beautiful
and very melancholy.

♪♪ I'm lost

♪♪ I'm a ghost

♪♪ Dispossessed

♪♪ Taken host ♪♪

I loved it. I still play it because
I love Radiohead so much.

It probably would've
worked brilliantly,

but it was a beat too late
by that time.

We have to do the graphics
for the main title

and the images have to match
the words.

Even the fact that we had a conversation
with Radiohead is for me a...

It was a dream come true.

♪♪ Spectre has come for me ♪♪

SHIRLEY:
I love that Radiohead song,

but, you know,
you just get lucky sometimes,

and you get unlucky sometimes,
too.

It's not a barometer of whether
you're better than anyone else,

it's just whether you get
that lucky call.

Please.

DON: We think about all of these things
that might have been.

And maybe, most of all, what if

Amy Winehouse had been able
to do the song for Quantum of Solace?

MARC:
Barbara and Michael and I,

we sat down and discussed
different artists.

We thought Amy
would be a great choice.

She had the smoky Soho
British roots.

There was a danger to Amy Winehouse
that would've tied very well with Bond.

Amy would've done
a brilliant one,

given her influence
across British music since.

There's definitely influence from her
within Adele's delivery, I think.

We had a meeting,

and she was extraordinary.

She was a combination
of effervescence and fragility.

And we sat at the table,

she wanted to know
the emotional theme of the film.

And she asked for a notebook
and she was writing...

during the whole time
I was talking, taking notes.

And Quantum of Solace was about
him having his heart broken

and him realizing that
revenge doesn't fill the void.

And when she left,
she left the paper behind,

and she had just
written "Blake."

"Blake, Blake, Blake, Blake,
Blake, Blake, Blake."

She clearly wasn't in a place
where she could do her work.

She was exceptional,
exceptional talent,

and seemed like
a really sweet, lovely person.

I'll never forget it.
I'll never forget her.

The loss of Amy Winehouse
leaves a kind of lingering shadow

that the Jack White song
really couldn't escape.

He's a longtime Bond fan,

so he comes in and does
Another Way to Die,

which is a duet with Alicia Keys.

First time that there's a duet
in the history of Bond songs.

The best thing about it
being the only duet,

strictly for pub quizzes
in Britain.

That's its number-one appeal.

It was really raucous.

That's what I like about it.
In your face, very bold.

♪♪ Yeah, a door left open
A woman walking by

♪♪ A drop in the water
A look in the eye ♪♪

I'd always wanted to do it,
and here it might happen.

I thought,
"This is also a great time for me

"to put things in that
they would never have approved of

"if they had a year to think about it."
(CHUCKLING)

The guitar solo alone,

you would never expect
a guitar solo like that

to be part of
any major Hollywood production,

let alone a James Bond song.

CELESTE: I am a huge fan
of both of them.

I just really appreciated
that Bond was daring enough

to bring these
two people together,

whether it was going to work
for everybody or not.

It's great when they choose people
who will try to break it a little bit,

which is important with Bond.

It's the number-one most
divisive thing I've ever been a part of.

I remember telling the engineer,
"Some people won't like this song."

SHIRLEY: It doesn't matter how good
the song is, you get so much shit.

It's funny 'cause when it happened to us,
we got so much pushback.

It was almost, I would say,
embarrassing.

It felt embarrassing how awful
people were about the song.

You're joining into
this plethora of a billion fans

that a portion of them
cannot be satisfied.

When I met Prince, he said,
"I like that James Bond song you did."

I said, "Wow, really?
Thank you. That's incredible.

"I'm glad to hear you say that.
A lot of people dislike it."

I remember exactly the way he said it,
"I thought it was real strong."

(CHUCKLING)

When you're in there,

it's better to go down in flames
than to try to play it safe.

I wanted it to be dangerous and strange,
live in its own world,

but also be part of the family.

It's the strange cousin
who came to visit.

Bond is really big on legacy.

The films have got a
60-year history to draw on now.

Just as the films nod to the past,
the music has to acknowledge it, too.

No other film series
has that shorthand

because no other film series
has that history.

The fun of making a Bond film
is you can tap into the history of Bond.

That's the joyful, if it's the cars,
sound, songs, score,

whatever it is,
one has to do that.

JAMES: Modern composers,
modern filmmakers

are very keen to nod to that...

and to reference those songs

because Bond is all about
the 60-year history.

Hans and I wanted to take it
back to what John Barry did.

No Time to Die was very much akin
to On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

That was the first Bond
that tackled his emotional life, really,

and his love life and loss.

I love you.

I know I'll never find
another girl like you.

Will you marry me?

On Her Majesty's Secret Service
has this wonderful love theme called

We Have All the Time in the World,
which is a line from the end of the movie.

I said to Cubby Broccoli,

"I'm trying to think who can bring
some kind of irony to that title."

I said, "I think
it's Louis Armstrong."

So, Cubby was
very, very for it.

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

Armstrong had just come out of hospital,
where he'd been for a year.

JOHN: And we came to New York
and recorded it.

To finally walk in the studio with him,
it was like, "Oh, my God."

He was an absolute dream
to work with.

You're talking about
a musical legend.

The man who has brought
so much to music.

Here's a tune, folks,
that I happened to sing

in the soundtracks
of one of James Bond's pictures

that just opened in New York.

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

♪♪ We have all the time

♪♪ In the world

♪♪ Time enough for life

♪♪ To unfold
All the precious things

♪♪ Love has in store

♪♪ We have all... ♪♪

JOHN: And what almost
broke my heart at the end

is when we were all through,
he thanked me.

I was very moved,
and I felt rather stupid.

But it was such a nice thing
of him to do.

I get teary-eyed when I think about it
because it was the last thing he did.

Out of all the songs,
I like that probably the best.

It was the least Bondian
of all the songs that we wrote.

♪♪ Only love ♪♪

We Have All The Time In The World
is not just the love theme,

but it underscores
the tragic finale.

There's no hurry, you see.
We have all the time in the world.

James Bond has
just gotten married

and his new wife has
just been murdered by Blofeld.

It is a shocking ending
to the movie,

but an emotionally rich one.

There's gravitas in that song
and there is history in that song

and there's history to Bond.

It's timeless, with some nostalgia
and some heartbreak in it.

It just seems such an
appropriate way of telling you

the history of the franchise
and where it's going.

Can you go faster?

We don't need to go faster.

We have all the time
in the world.

Daniel Craig says the line

and then we are immediately catapulted
back into another era of Bond.

Louis Armstrong recorded that
and was very close to death himself,

and therefore the music has
a lot of emotion attached to it.

That's gold dust for any composer
to twist it and turn it

and to incorporate it
into the soundtrack.

We hear We Have
All the Time in the World,

which is a kind of
frightening premonition

that things may not work out
as we hope.

DANIEL: I wanted it
from the very beginning, that song.

Knowing where we were headed
with the script,

it felt so right
for this to end everything.

It does have hope, that song.

As sad as it is,
it has hope in it.

It's so important to keep Bond fresh,
to keep Bond current,

but also to keep referring
to the old Bond themes,

so, on No Time to Die,
you have the Billie Eilish theme,

which becomes the love theme
of the movie.

You have the James Bond theme,
which is brilliantly deconstructed

so that there are elements of it
throughout the film.