Mister 8

We all know that the next James Bond movie is in pre-production, perhaps pending sale to another studio, and that eventually there will be a frenzy over who will be the new Bond girl, the new villain, etc. etc. The tabloids have already started printing rumors.

One of the more fun things to guess is who the Bond producers will choose to sing the title song. And every time a new Bond film comes out, I have my own ideas about who should do the tune. Because I’ve accidentally just participated in a similar thread at CommanderBond.net, I thought I’d make this the first post in a weekly series that I’ve been considering for awhile, where I ask a question, give some thoughts on it, and open the floor for comments (or really, open the comments section for comment!).

So this week’s question: Who should sing the next Bond theme? I’ll offer three picks of my own, and you can make suggestions in the comments section below.

1. Sharon Jones (and the Dap Kings)

The best Bond themes are explosions of raw sex, brass and strings. A list of the best themes, for me, probably begins and ends with Shirley Bassey, with Nancy Sinatra appearing somewhere in the middle. The more overproduced the Bond theme, the worse it is. I was excited about the Jack Black / Alicia Keyes pairing, knowing the work the two were capable of separately, but the eventual output was disappointing — Led Zeppelin meets John Barry, sure, but a predictable, paint-by-numbers sort of affair that was worsened in the mix.

If the theme for the next Bond film needs a kick in the pants, I can think of no one better to do it than Sharon Jones, who has been quietly building a reputation for herself as the Queen of Soul-in-Waiting. She can belt like no one’s business, and the raw emotion of her voice tells a story of experience that I feel other artists who have been suggested, like Duffy, don’t quite have.

2. Mark Ronson and someone who is not a drug-addled crazy person

Amy Winehouse famously lost her chance at doing a Bond theme with Quantum of Solace, but I thought the real shame was in not hearing what the other part of the package, producer Mark Ronson, would have done. He occasionally seems a bit like a rich boy prick, sure, but the man knows his way around using a horn section in a pop song, which is something that I wish the Bond themes would return to doing. If you do have to have a neophyte chanteuse like Duffy, it would be better to place her under the wing of someone like Ronson who can seamlessly integrate the 60s stylings of classic Bond themes with contemporary production. (The above song is performed by Candie Payne, who needs a little more oomph in her voice before she could tackle a Bond song, but I feel the arrangement is quite Bondian).

3. Elvis Costello

I’ve wanted to hear a Costello version of a Bond theme since hearing the song above, “I Want You” — if you only listened to the falsely saccharine sweet beginning, listen to the whole song (and feel free to ignore the hilariously inappropriate images) before discounting it. I think Costello is one of the greatest living songwriters, and has a unique voice that would bring some truth to what has otherwise been a fairly vacuous run of Bond themes. And, as evidenced by “Watching the Detectives,” and “I Don’t Want to Go to Chelsea,” the man knows his way around a twangy Jazzmaster.

YOU DECIDE! Who should sing the next Bond theme? Comment below!