Why Lulu was convinced she sang the worst James Bond theme: “Not a great song”
There has always been a strong cultural fascination with James Bond as a franchise, which has become one of Britain’s biggest cinematic exports. While the early Bond movies were slightly camp and over-the-top productions, the series eventually crossed over to Hollywood, becoming big-budget blockbusters surrounded by plenty of fanfare.
Besides the endless discussion regarding who will become the next Bond every time a new one is set to be announced, fans also love to speculate over who will perform the theme song. Usually undertaken by a huge star, the greatest Bond themes have gone down as iconic songs in their own right, like Wings’ ‘Live and Let Die’ and Shirley Bassey’s ‘Goldfinger’, and three have even taken home Oscars, too, although this didn’t occur until 2013 with Adele’s ‘Skyfall’.
Unfortunately, there’s been a handful of rather forgettable Bond songs since the franchise first hit screens in the early 1960s, and there’s one artist who believes that she performed the worst one. In an advertisement for Vauxhall, the British singer Lulu reflected on her experience of performing the Bond song ‘The Man With the Golden Gun’ from the 1974 film of the same name.
“Except I think mine was probably the worst one ever. Mine was not a great song,” she said, and she’s not alone in that opinion. Compared to the success of many other 007 theme songs, Lulu’s failed to even chart, and it remains one of the most forgettable entries to the Bond theme canon.
The singer had risen to prominence as a teenager in the 1960s with her cover of ‘Shout’, making her a pop sensation. While she would find significant success, by the time she was asked to perform the Bond song, it seemed as though people weren’t as interested. Not only that, it appeared that certain listeners had a problem with the lyrics, which were penned by Don Black. The words were seen as too sexually-charged by many, with lines like “His eye may be on you or me/ Who will he bang?/ We shall see, oh yeah!” rife with innuendo.
Lulu wasn’t the first choice to perform the theme – Elton John was even considered instead – but in the end, it was the pop songstress who landed the job. Considering the fact that she had earned the best-selling single in America in 1967, producers certainly thought Lulu was in for a better chance of success, but it simply didn’t work out.
However, Lulu doesn’t think she was the only terrible Bond theme singer. In the same interview, she claimed that Madonna’s ‘Die Another Day’ was also a poor effort. “Hers was pretty bad,” Lulu admitted, “Me and Madonna. That’s the only time Madonna and I could be together on anything.” Madonna’s song was admittedly much more successful than Lulu’s, even if it is considered one of the less enduring Bond songs out there. The American pop icon hit number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 with the song, which is a lot more impressive than Lulu’s track, which didn’t chart at all.
