007 Music: Kevin McClory's films

[MacNimon]

The opening title song of Thunderball was sung by Tom Jones, but it wasn't the song which was originally planned to be the title song. John Barry had struggled to come up with a song using the word "Thunderball" or about the story of the film, so he wrote a song about 007 himself using as it's title a phrase an Italian journalist had used to describe Bond:"Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang". Two versions of this track were recorded for the film, the original sung by Shirley Bassey then the re-recorded version by Dionne Warwick. Ultimately neither version was used as Cubby Broccolli wanted a song with "Thunderball" in the title so we got Tom Jones instead. Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang did made the film's score though, albeit as an instrumental.

YouTube links:
Thunderball - Tom Jones
Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - Dionne Warwick
Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - Shirley Bassey

Was it the right decision to replace this song with Thunderball? Which song do you think was the strongest? And if they had stuck with the original plan, which version do you think they should have used...Bassey's or Warwick's?

Kevin McClory was the co-author of Thunderball, he was basically the creator of SPECTRE and Blofeld, and owned the rights to the story (details can be found here). He remade the film in 1983 as Never Say Never Again, and although it's not considered an official Bond film because it was made by a different film company, it's still worth the mentioning. It had a title song of it's own, Never Say Never Again sung by Lani Hall.

NeverSay Never Again - Lani Hall

What do you think of this song? Is it of the same standard as the 60s songs, or is it a disappointment?

[SiHart]

Dionne Warwick for me. I'm not a huge fan of Tom Jones' Thunderball, although the last note is pretty damn awesome.

Si xx

[SiHart]

I'd never heard the Shirley Bassey version of Mr Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang before BTW. It's nowhere near as good as Dionne Warwick's version.

Si xx

[MacNimon]

While I like the music from Thunderball, I'm not really a huge fan of the song itself. I love the instrumental versions, though. I think Dionne Warwick's version of Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang would have been a perfect choice for the film. I had never heard of Shirley Bassey's version either until recently, Si, and I don't think it's as good. I don't know whether that's why they re-recorded it or not, or whether they just didn't want to use Bassey for two films in a row.

I think Never Say Never Again is a catchy enough song in it's own right, but just not in the same league as the earlier songs. There have certainly been poorer Bond title songs.

[Rob McCow]

Hardly a winning bunch, especially by Bond film standards! Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang sound pretty awful to me no matter who's singing it. Thunderball isn't great either. I quite like Never Say Never Again though, so it'll have to be that one.

[MacNimon]

I can't say I agree there, Steve. I've always liked Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (thanks to Geoff Love's Big Bond Movie Themes album) but I never actually heard a version of the song until the early 90s when the Dionne Warwick recording appeared on one of those Bond compilation albums. It was even better than I ever expected it to be. Shirley Bassey's version is very disappointing though, and I actually only found out about it a few weeks ago. Thunderball is one I loved on Love's album but was disappointed with when listening to Jones' song....and that's still the case today!

I agree with your assessment of NSNA though...it definitely falls into that 'quite like' category, doesn't it?