Shaken, Not Stirred: 50 Years of James Bond

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It’s crazy to think that super spy extraordinaire, 007, has been shaking and stirring things up since Ian Flemming created his James Bond character back in 1953.  My mom has been a long time fan of Mr. Bond and I remember when my parents brought home “The Connery Classics” 007 video collection (part of it is pictured above).  I believe the very first Bond movie I watched was either From Russia With Love or Goldfinger, but I’ll have to admit that I only really started paying attention when the theme music started to include artists that I knew like “For Your Eyes Only” as performed by Sheena Easton and of course “A View To a Kill” by Duran Duran.  It was very interesting to read in John Taylor’s book In the Pleasure Groove how Duran Duran got involved with doing the theme for A View To A Kill:

I went with Janine [one of John Taylor’s ex-girlfriends] to a party Michael Caine was having at Langan’s in honor of that year’s Wimbledon tennis final, and I recognized Cubby Broccoli, the producer of the James Bond films, sitting at a table.

Janine introduced me and we got to chatting.

I said, “When are you going to have a decent theme song again?”

He said, “Well, do you want to write the next one?”

I said, “Absolutely.”

When I got home, I called the guys, told them “I think we have a crack at the next Bond film.”

– From the chapter “Megalomania At The Wheel”

I was just looking at the list of Bond movie theme songs and honestly, I completely forgot that A-Ha did the “The Living Daylights” theme (I’ll have to go back and listen to that).  I will have to say that other than “A View To A Kill”, Adele’s “Skyfall” is my favorite Bond theme. She was amazing on the Oscars.

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I’ve been thinking about “the spy who loved me” recently because of the 50th anniversary, and I just realized that my husband and I have seen the last three James Bond movies together.  We have really taken a shine to Skyfall, which we saw in the theaters last November (he loved it so much that he brought home the DVD, pictured below).  What I enjoyed about Skyfall is that it felt more like the old James Bond movies in that it had a bit of cheekiness to it.  Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace felt very heavy and dramatic compared to any of the ones with Pierce Brosnan just prior.  Skyfall had a touch of that cheekiness, mainly due in part to the interaction between Daniel Craig and Naomi Harris.  It made me finally believe that Daniel Craig was James Bond.

Cheers to James Bond and his adventures in the last 50 years and those to come.  I’m raising my martini in your honor 007!

(This post was written in collaboration with Veronica Stone.)

6 comments

  1. My husband, a HUGE James Bond fan, rolls his eyes when I mention that “A View to a Kill” is my favorite James Bond theme song. I knew John Taylor was always a huge fan of the character (I remember reading he had a silver Aston Martin which replicates Bond’s original car) but cool to know about how writing the theme song really came about.

  2. Several years ago, for fun, I made my own James Bond movie theme song compilation cd! I stopped it in 2007 so I would have to update it. I also have the surf rock and ska version of the theme song. 🙂

    I have to admit that my favorite JB theme song is Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die” (the movie featured a very young and beautiful Jane Seymour, circa 1973) and coming in at a close 2nd is of course, Duran Duran’s “A View to a Kill”. Loved the video!!!!!

    The special effects are primitive by today’s standards. My 12 year old daughter asked, “What’s that?” when Simon LeBon was holding this ‘ancient looking device’….it was a WALKMAN!!!!! ha ha!!!!!

    1. Live and Let Die is a good one! Clever you are for making your Bond mix tape, lol!

      When I was at The Lab, this kid around your daughter’s age was talking to his dad. He said, “Dad! Do you have your Walkman? I want to buy some of these vintage cassette tapes!”

      Oh my…vintage??!!

      xoxo

  3. Sometimes when I forget to set my ipod to shuffle, it goes automatically to alpha order bands and the first song that goes on is always, A-Ha’s, “The Living Daylights”!

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