James Bond Theme Song

The dum di-di dum dum song

I realize, how can this site be an authority in the world of theme songs if it does not have the most iconic theme song of all? Yes, we all know that James Bond, or the James Bond/007 series of films, has but one signature theme. While it is true that most of the films in the series—especially those released in the Pierce Brosnan/Daniel Craig era—have very unique soundtracks (which is a business in itself) and songs written especially for them—case in point: the very cool “Another Way to Die” collaboration of Jack White and Alicia Keys—the main theme is reserved for the opening, cartoon-ish credits.

So if you think about it, this song must have been the original, original theme of the very first film. Correct! The very first film in the 007 series is Dr. No, which of course starred Sean Connery. So in reality, the James Bond theme is the Dr. No theme. Cool.

Many consider the theme as being in the genre of surf rock. This is particularly true since in 1962, when Dr. No was released, surf rock was the thing.

There is quite a ruckus as to who composed the song. Two people are involved in this mess—Monty Norman and John Barry. While Monty Norman seems to be on the winning side of things—he has been receiving royalties since 1962 and have won two libel suits—John Barry is the recognized arranger of the original one used in Dr. No.

The original theme was recorded on June 21 1962. The guitar riff was played by a certain Vic Flick—who will go down in history as exactly that. It is said that he was paid a measly one-time fee of 6 Euros for recording that riff. On the other hand, the saxophone part was played by a certain John Scott.

You know, I just wanted to have this iconic theme in our archives and I know the chances of you ever finding this point through the search engines is slim to none. In fact, Wikipedia has an entire entry reserved for the James Bond theme so that alone means “How the hell can I compete with that?” Anyway, all of this is still worth the trouble.

So, without further ado, I bring you  the James Bond theme. The winner, of course, is the original version used in Dr. No. I would have loved to embed the original opening sequence to the film but you can find none of those in YouTube to any of the films in the series.

The same song is part of the original Dr. No soundtrack.

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