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Serenade to a spy
 Some of the big name stars behind four decades of Bond theme songs |
The music for Bond movies is part of the mystique surrounding 007. The BBC's John Hand speaks to the latest custodian of the 007 scores, musician and fan David Arnold.
Music has always played a key role in the success of the Bond movie franchise.
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Starting with Matt Munro's rendition of From Russia With Love in 1963, through to Shirley Bassey's Goldfinger and Sheryl Crow's Tomorrow Never Dies, the movie's songs have been no stranger to the charts.
 David Arnold joins an auspicious list of composers |
Making his debut in 1987's Tomorrow Never Dies, he's written the score for The World Is Not Enough and co-penned the title track sung by Scottish-American rock band Garbage.
"It's the first time they've let me write the theme song, so obviously I'm very excited about hearing that in the cinema with all the visuals, all the various female forms writhing about the way they do.
"I wrote it in January with Don (Black) who wrote the lyrics for Thunderball and Diamonds Are Forever. We wrote it in classic Bond style - a double-edged sword. A song of duality about dark and light, a dark, brooding sort of cinematic sweeping thing.
 Chart-topper Sheryl Crow is one of the latest big names to sing a Bond theme |
"And it helps that she can sing and is into the whole Bond thing as well."
Arnold's first encounter with Bond was in 1997 when he released an album of his reworkings of classic Bond themes after first compiling a list of singers he wanted to work with. It included Jarvis Cocker, kd lang, Iggy Pop and Chrissie Hynde and not one of them turned the job down.
The album was called Shaken And Stirred and it was a labour of love for David, after 25 years of devotion to the films and music of 007.
It all started when Arnold, who hails from Luton, saw You Only Live Twice as a young boy. He recalled: "I was only seven or eight and it was not perhaps the movie to be showing to small children.
"I was at the Luton British Royal Legion Christmas party for children and they wheeled this 16mm projector out.
"The first three minutes of that film - you hear a bit of the James Bond theme, you hear the song You Only Live Twice, you hear the Spacemarch - and I just remember being completely sideswiped by the whole thing and it was probably from that moment on that I wanted to write music for film."
 Voice of the latest Bond saga: Shirley Manson of Garbage |
After failing to get into the National Film School, David was undaunted and instead offered to write music for free for the films made by the students who did get in.
Eventually he teamed up with an equally ambitious young film-maker, Danny Cannon, who just happened to have grown up around the corner from him in Luton.
Cannon landed the director's job on The Young Americans, gave David responsibility for the music and both men's careers took off.
Over the next five years, David's reputation soared as he wrote the scores for some of the biggest blockbusters Hollywood could throw at him - Stargate, Independence Day and Godzilla to name just three.
But his biggest thrill came when he finally got the call he had been waiting for all his life and was asked to score Tomorrow Never Dies.
And unlike George Lazenby it was to prove more than a one-off assignment. David is happy to admit he would be thrilled to do the job for a long time to come: "I think the Bond movies are special and the people who make them are special.
 The album was a labour of love for 007 fan Arnold |
And after being a fan for so long, he has a definite view on the best Bond movie.
"Goldfinger had everything in it. The classic villain, the classic song, the classic confrontation at the end between Pussy Galore and Sean Connery. And Shirley Eaton sprayed in gold laying on a bed. You won't get a finer moment," he says.
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