Finally, after nearly a week ranking the Bond theme songs by actor era, here it is — the definitive Pop Goes the Culture countdown of all 2 current EON produced James Bond film theme songs.
#25 – Die Another Day
#24 – The Living Daylights
#23 – The Man With The Golden Gun
#22 – Another Way To Die, from Quantum of Solace
#21 – Moonraker
These songs are aggressively bad and/or don’t feel like they belong as the theme song to a Bond film. Avoid at all costs!
#20 – You Know My Name, from Casino Royale
#19 – You Only Live Twice
#18 – Diamonds Are Forever
#17 – From Russia With Love
#16 – The World Is Not Enough
This tier of Bond theme songs are pretty forgettable. None of them are outright terrible — they jut sit there.
#15 – License To Kill
#14 – We Have All The Time In The World, from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
#13 – All Time High, from Octopussy
#12 – For Your Eyes Only
#11 – Writing’s On The Wall, from Spectre
This middle tier is exactly that… middle of the road Bond theme songs. That doesn’t mean they’re not good songs. Listening to all back-to-back very much sets a particular melodic mood. If that’s the particular mood you’re in, these are great songs to have on in the background.
#10 – No Time To Die
#9 – Tomorrow Never Dies
#8 – Goldfinger
#7 – Thunderball
#6 – James Bond Theme, from Dr. No
This tier has strong showings from classic theme songs and modern era Bond theme songs. We’re squarely in the “songs to have on your playlist while playing video games” playlist (which I might have done in the past). No Time To Die cracks this second tier — we’ll see if it holds up as well as the others in this group over time.
#5 – Live And Let Die
#4 – Nobody Does It Better, from The Spy Who Loved Me
#3 – Skyfall
#2 – Goldeneye
#1 – A View To A Kill
If someone wanted to argue swapping Goldeneye and A View To A Kill, I wouldn’t protest too much. These five are the best of the best. Put them on anytime and enjoy the best of the Bond catalog.
What did we get right? What did we rank too high? What did we sleep on? Let us know in the comments below!
