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Your Favorite Rejected Bond theme

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  • Gustav_GravesGustav_Graves
    Posts: 11,119
    Let's not forget all the buzz that surrounded David Arnold and Shirley Bassey's 'rejected theme song' 'No Good About Goodbyes', of which parts of the melody were actually used in the movie:

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  • doubleonothingdoubleonothing Los Angeles Moderator
    Posts: 864
    This is a great idea for a thread.

    For me, it's a tie between "Surrender" and "No Good About Goodbye" (NGAG is not an officially rejected theme, but we all know the deal with this one.) Both would have added something to their respected films if they'd opened them up.

    I also rather like Muse's recent "Supremacy" for Skyfall, but I don't know if we can count that as a "rejected" theme.

    As to the rest, there are some good ones in there, but you can see why they never made the cut.
  • nobodydoesitbetternobodydoesitbetter
    Posts: 1,021
    I did read somewhere that Duffy's RAIN ON YOUR PARADE was also written for QOS. Anyone know if this is true?

  • doubleonothingdoubleonothing Los Angeles Moderator
    edited October 2012 Posts: 864
    nobodydoesitbetter wrote:
    I did read somewhere that Duffy's RAIN ON YOUR PARADE was also written for QOS. Anyone know if this is true?


    I'm not sure about the veracity of this claim, but it is certainly very Bondian. So much so that I have it in my Bond music playlist, along with The Living Tree, by Shirley Bassey.



    I think this would have made a great Bond song and I have a lot of time for Duffy. Duffs, Winehouse and Adele have been/were always high on my list for Bond theme artists. Shame we missed Amy's attempt. I mean, that could have been great if she could have just held her stuff together long enough to record it.

  • nobodydoesitbetternobodydoesitbetter
    Posts: 1,021
    Have to agree. I think Winehouse would have delivered a very good Bond theme. Oh well. On the subject of Bassey - to be be honest I think anything she sings could almost be a Bondsong - its her voice. She could have probably sung AWTD and it would have sounded like a Bond song! :-)
    Just wondering if Duffy will ever get a chance or that time has passed.....
  • db5007db5007
    Posts: 61
    I understand that Eric Clapton did a version of the Bond theme for Licence To Kill with Michael Kamen but it was rejected by the producers. It would have involved Vic Flick. As a EC fan I would love to have heard it. It is not clear whether it was actually recorded. I heard one rumour that it was completed but the only recordings are locked in a safe somewhere!
  • marketto007marketto007 Brazil
    Posts: 3,277
    "Beyond The Ice" and "Tomorrow Never Lies".
  • HASEROTHASEROT has returned like the tedious inevitability of an unloved season---
    Posts: 4,399
    @Gustav_Graves
    @nobodydoesitbetter

    No Good About Goodbye WAS NOT a rejected theme... this is the MI6 article about it back when the song debuted...

    A track on Dame Shirley Bassey's new album "The Performance" has caused a bit of a stir in the James Bond fan community. The song "No Good About Goodbye", written by 007 composer David Arnold and lyricist Don Black, had some fan sites speculating it was a rejected theme song for the last movie "Quantum of Solace". The rumour was solely hooked on the familiarity of the opening string line compared to the movie's score.

    Mr Arnold confirmed to MI6 that the song was not a 'rejected theme' for "Quantum of Solace". Apart from the opening string line, there was no material from the movie soundtrack. Only a few lines of the song were written and it was far from complete by the time Jack White and Alicia Keys were chosen to perform "Another Way To Die", said Mr Arnold.

    When he was asked to produce Shirley Bassey's new album, Mr Arnold teamed up with Don Black if to finish the song for her specifically.

    Arnold has gone on record to say that similarities may have bled over - but it's all coincidence.... it's 6 notes - the rest of the song shares no similarities with the rest of the score at all..

    Bassey also did a song called "The Living Tree" which clearly uses the James Bond Theme note progression during the chorus - is that also a rejected Bond theme??????

    Until i hear otherwise - the only confirming authority on this matter is Arnold, Black, and Bassey - and if Arnold has gone on record as to saying it wasn't written for QOS, then (call me crazy) i tend to believe him, and will continue to do so over anyone else's opinion... he has spoken openly about "Surrender" before - which was originally planned to be TND's title theme, until the producers opted to go with Sheryl Crow instead - they still used KD Lang's song in the film, and on the soundtrack... same thing with "Only Myself To Blame" - both Black and Arnold wrote that one as well, was never meant to be the opening theme, but it still appeared on the soundtrack.... i tend to think if No Good About Goodbye was written by Arnold and Black for QOS, it would've still appeared on the soundtrack (or film) somewhere.....
  • LicencedToKilt69007LicencedToKilt69007 Belgium, Wallonia
    Posts: 523
    From now on, "Forever" by Eva Almer was magnificent. Non-sense of rejection for "Quantum of Solace". Ace of Base's "GoldenEye" was good but too light and pop-lyrics to be chosen. Saint-Etienne's "Tomorrow Never Dies" and Straw's "The World Is Not Enough" were beautiful too. They could have been instead for me.
  • LicencedToKilt69007LicencedToKilt69007 Belgium, Wallonia
    Posts: 523
    I liked the "Die Another Day" of Madonna as the continuation's soundtrack of the action. However, this, as a title song is a non-sense as well. I wished they would create another instrumental, John Barry's style, with violins begin of the sequence. In a dark tune. It would have given much more tension while Bond's torture, without lyrics.
  • Goldeneye95Goldeneye95
    edited December 2012 Posts: 546
    Die Another Day.
  • Baltimore_007Baltimore_007
    Posts: 5,634
    I know Blondie did (I was quite a fan of them back at the time) a version for one of the earlier Bond's, it may have been For Your Eyes Only, and I remember listening, and while not exactly that impressive, I would of taken it over the awful Easton effort that year if indeed that was the year I was thinking of. I don't know all or what was rejected for Die Another Day or QOS, but all I know is, anything would of been better than the final products or what they eventually went with for both releases

    Some intros such as Sheryl Crow, McCartney and Wings, Cornell or even Garbage, I wouldn't swap with anything
  • SuperheroSithSuperheroSith SE London
    Posts: 578
    Surrender by K.D Lang is probably the best end credit song ever! Shame they chose that God-awful Sheryl Crowe BS over this.
  • SuperheroSithSuperheroSith SE London
    edited December 2012 Posts: 578
    Baltimore_007 wrote:
    Some intros such as Sheryl Crow, McCartney and Wings, Cornell or even Garbage, I wouldn't swap with anything

    You kidding me?
  • SuperheroSithSuperheroSith SE London
    Posts: 578
    doubleonothing wrote:
    This is a great idea for a thread.

    For me, it's a tie between "Surrender" and "No Good About Goodbye" (NGAG is not an officially rejected theme, but we all know the deal with this one.)

    Agree. Have you also heard Alice Coopers TMWTGG? The man who made the awesome hit Poison doing a Bond song? Great.
  • SirHenryLeeChaChingSirHenryLeeChaChing
    Posts: 3,494
    SuperheroSith wrote:
    Surrender by K.D Lang is probably the best end credit song ever! Shame they chose that God-awful Sheryl Crow BS over this.

    Easily, I couldn't agree more.

  • Sam90Sam90
    edited January 2013 Posts: 5
    For Searching for the Golden Eye I think you have the Motiv8 Moneypenny mix. I havSame CD still available new or used on that well known online retailer whose name I won't mention! (there is a review which pretty much echo's my view that this should have been used on the film - even if just over the closing credits).e a CD which has the Motiv8 Airplay mix (3m56) - this is so Bond and gets my vote when I first heard Supertramp Cannonball I did wonder (although absolutely no evidence other that sounding sooo like a Bond theme)
  • Sam90Sam90
    Posts: 5
    Same CD still available new or used on that well known online retailer whose name I won't mention! (there is a review which pretty much echo's my view that this should have been used on the film - even if just over the closing credits).
  • Sam90Sam90
    Posts: 5
    Sorry last one from me! when I first heard Supertramp Cannonball I did wonder (although absolutely no evidence other that sounding sooo like a Bond theme)
  • JWESTBROOKJWESTBROOK
    Posts: 5,745
    @Sam90,

    We have an edit button; it appears in line with your user-name on your post. Please use it to add updates to the one post, and do not post multiple times in order.

    It spams the thread, and can be avoided using the edit button.

    Thanks!
  • bigladiesmanbigladiesman
    Posts: 1,009
    Sam90 wrote:
    Sorry last one from me! when I first heard Supertramp Cannonball I did wonder (although absolutely no evidence other that sounding sooo like a Bond theme)

    I find Don't Leave Me Now to me more "Bond-esque"

    Wasn't Pet Shop Boys' This Must Be The Place I Waited Years To Leave supposed to be a main theme for TLD?

  • MayDayDiVicenzoMayDayDiVicenzo Here and there
    Posts: 5,080
    Although it was used in film, it was originally going to be used for the title theme, but I love Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang by Shirley Bassey!
  • DoggieGaloreDoggieGalore
    Posts: 86
    MayDayDiVicenzo wrote:
    Although it was used in film, it was originally going to be used for the title theme, but I love Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang by Shirley Bassey!

    I prefer the Dionne Warwick version.... :D
  • Pajan005Pajan005 Stockholm, Sweden
    edited April 2014 Posts: 432
    I'd say "No Good About Goodbye" and "Forever".
  • bigladiesmanbigladiesman
    Posts: 1,009
    In one of those obscure books from my country, I read Johnny Mathis recorded a rejected song for Moonraker: Think Of Me.
  • bondsumbondsum
    edited October 2015 Posts: 3,333
    That's right @bigladiesman. I've read the same. First Think of Me was offered to Frank Sinatra who turned it down. The Johnny Mathis version was then recorded, lyrics by Paul Williams, but Barry and co didn't think it worked. It was then offered to Kate Bush who also turned it down. Barry says himself "We recorded MOONRAKER in Paris and we were back in L.A. The following day when we decided this American singer was not working for us - through no fault of his, it’s just one of those things - I was having lunch in a Beverly Hills hotel and who should walk into the lounge? Shirley Bassey. I didn’t even know she was in town. I invited her and had Cubby Broccoli on the phone and we were in a studio within a week. It was virtually the same arrangement, everything the same and we were very pleased."
  • bigladiesmanbigladiesman
    Posts: 1,009
    Thanks so much, @bondsum. Many times, www 2.0. info tends to be misguiding, but this time they got it spot-on.
  • jake24jake24 Sitting at your desk, kissing your lover, eating supper with your familyModerator
    edited December 2015 Posts: 10,588
    My vote would go to Radiohead's "Spectre", though both their's and Sam Smith's efforts are equally stellar. It was a wasted opportunity to not put this song to use at some point in the film IMO.
  • bigladiesmanbigladiesman
    Posts: 1,009
    Lorraine Chandler's YOLT, the song that became Pet Shop Boys' This Is The Place I Waited Years To Leave, rejected from TLD and Chris Rea's Shadows Of The Big Man from TWINE. However, I think they all three were rightfully rejected.
  • TreefingersTreefingers Isthmus City, Republic of Isthmus
    edited January 2016 Posts: 191
    Radiohead's, I can't beliebe it wa so close though (despondent emoji).

    Pulp's song for B18 was also a missed opportunity. If greenlit, DA would have fleshed it out and we might have gotten a little classic.
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