20 Things You Didn’t Know About Thunderball (1965)
8. Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Originally, composer John Barry considered the word “Thunderball” (a military term for an atomic mushroom cloud) too difficult to use in a song. Instead, he and lyricist, Leslie Bricusse wrote “Mr Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang”, based on an Italian journalist's description of James Bond in Dr. No.
Shirley Bassey recorded the song, but it was too short for Maurice Binder's titles sequence, so a longer instrumental section was devised. As Bassey was unavailable to rerecord it, her American contemporary, Dionne Warwick sang it instead.
Nevertheless, Cubby Broccoli insisted that the song use the word “Thunderball”. Eon Productions declined a submission from Johnny Cash in favour of a collaboration between Barry, lyricist Don Black [who later worked on Diamonds Are Forever, The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), and The World Is Not Enough (1999)], and Sir Tom Jones.
However, the instrumental backing to Mr Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang features throughout John Barry's soundtrack for the film, most notably at the Kiss Kiss Club, whilst Warwick’s and Bassey's versions of the song were released in the 1990s.