5 James Bond Themes That Almost Were

4. Best Three Out of Five: The Two Shirley Bassey Rejects

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4m9ptFefwo Shirley Bassey is the only singer to return to sing not only two, but three theme songs for the franchise, making her the undisputed voice of the series (unless Adele gets asked back for Bond 24). She's the magic behind the most classic Bond song ever, Goldfinger, and returned to perform the haunting Diamonds Are Forever, giving all jewelry salesman working the engagement ring counter and almost expected conversation piece to drop on window shopping couples. Bassey returned once more for Moonraker and did her best with a theme the producers still insisted carried the title somewhere in the lyrics. However, she has actually performed a song for a James Bond film five times. Following up Goldfinger, the producers asked Bassey back to perform the title song for Thunderball, written by John Barry and Leslie Bricusse, entitled Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It was a fantastic song, but two things happened that tempted fate to seize around this song's throat. The first was that Bassey's version was rejected and recorded again with Dione Warick, causing some ill-feelings between the two parties, which was made up for by a prolonged time in court. The second was, the producers demanded the title be in the song. Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was scraped and the film Thunderball was closely reaching its release date. Just short of desperation Barry teamed up with Don Black who wrote the lyrics we all know. At the last moment Tom Jones was brought in to record Thunderball. He nailed it in one take and fainted on the last high note. But Bassey would return one last time after Moonraker. In 2009, she released a song entitled No Good About Goodbye with music by David Arnold (composer for Tomorrow Never Dies through Quantum of Solace) and lyricist Don Black. Throughout the entire song she repeats the word "quantum" several times. The rumors are still flat out denied by all parties even to this day, but please, we fans are not that stupid.