The only James Bond themes that became number one hits
Music and film have always shared a particularly close bond, going right back to the orchestral accompaniments of the silent film era.
Rarely, however, have those two art forms been so intertwined as within the James Bond franchise, in which the bespoke themes created for each instalment are anticipated almost as much as the films themselves.
It was way back in 1962 that Bond made his first appearance in the Broccoli-produced series, and its soundtrack was instantly essential in establishing the film in the hearts and minds of cinemagoers across the globe. Dr. No, that fateful first film, boasted a soundtrack composed by Monty Norman, whose ‘James Bond Theme’ has been endlessly replicated and interpolated in countless Bond themes and soundtracks ever since.
It wasn’t until the follow-up, From Russia With Love, that the series got its first official, title-specific Bond theme, recorded by the unmistakable voice of Matt Monro. Then, with Goldfinger, Shirley Bassey marked the moment that Bond themes truly entered the public consciousness outside of the silver screen; a feat she would replicate with ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ a few years later.
Those early compositions, regardless of how utterly iconic they remain, are worlds away from the Bond themes of the modern age, in which artists compete for the title theme, and details are fiercely kept under wraps. After all, the much-anticipated Bond theme has become yet another means of sparking excitement over the franchise, over six decades on from its first introduction to the cinema screen.
Everybody from Paul McCartney to Jack White, Beyonce, Tina Turner, and Madonna have created their own James Bond themes over the illustrious tenure of the series but, bizarrely, only a handful of those tracks have ever summited the dizzying heights of the singles charts. Even in the US, only one ever made it to the top spot.
That elusive hit was ‘A View To A Kill’, performed by Duran Duran, composed alongside John Barry, and taken from Roger Moore’s final appearance as the spy hero. That combination of commercial power worked out in the States, where the single reached number one in 1985. Back in Blighty, though, the track peaked at number two, kept off the number-one place by Paul Hardcastle’s anti-war anthem ‘19’.
In Bond’s homeland of Britain, only two of the film’s themes have managed to reach number one, and they are both the most recent additions to the musical landscape of the franchise. Sam Smith’s ‘Writing’s on the Wall’, from 2015’s Spectre was the first to reach the top spot in the UK, whereas it only reached a disappointing 71 in the US.
Billie Eilish’s ‘No Time To Die’, from the film of the same name, is the only other Bond theme to become a number one hit in the UK, and it fared a little better in the performer’s native US, too, reaching number 16.
Whether the next Bond theme continues that trend of consecutive chart-toppers remains to be seen, as details surrounding the upcoming Amazon-controlled instalment of the series continue to be heavily guarded. Bizarrely, though, the rumoured names for the project span the spectrum from Dua Lipa to Oasis, with varying degrees of believability.
