Linda and a Bond theme?

[fabtastique]

I couldn’t find any reference to this on the forum but does anyone know if Linda was ever approached to do a Bond theme song?

I’d have though that in the late 70s and 80s she would have been a prime candidate to do this.

[rick]

fab, this is what I could find on the Forum on that subject, but it was in the General Music Discussion. Some enterprising young fellow asked the question there.


'Best of Bond Themes' Updated thread

Oct 17, 2020 1:03:56 GMT -5 fabtastique said:

Interesting that Linda never recorded a Bond theme ..... anyone know if she was ever offered one?

Oct 17, 2020 1:16:04 GMT -5 rick said:

Fab --

My guess is that if a Bond theme were offered to Linda it would likely have been around the time of Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better" for "The Spy Who Loved Me." It was written by Marvin Hamlisch, who was hot off "The Way We Were," "The Sting" and "A Chorus Line." I have heard that it was offered to Barbra Streisand but she turned it down. Not sure how true that is. As much as I love Shirley Bassey, I can't imagine Linda wanting to perform songs like "Diamonds Are Forever." There is usually a bombastic style of the Bond themes and, although I can imagine Linda being able to sing anything, am not sure she would want to. She might also not have been a fan of the violence and the T&A in the Bond films.

Oct 17, 2020 17:58:45 GMT -5 erik said:

Quote by rick re. Linda doing 007 theme songs:

There is usually a bombastic style of the Bond themes and, although I can imagine Linda being able to sing anything, am not sure she would want to. She might also not have been a fan of the violence and the T&A in the Bond films.

I agree; and although one of her current favorites, Adele, did the theme song for the 2012 007 opus SKYFALL, this probably wouldn't have been something she would have done.

And compared to so many other artists of her generation, as well as before and since, Linda really hasn't done all that many film songs, this even though one of the biggest hits of her career was a film song: "Somewhere Out There" (for AN AMERICAN TAIL).

[eddiejinnj]

Linda could have done "Nobody Does It Better" well, imo. I like the tune by Carly but there are a couple notes that are just in tune like when she sings the word "quite" towards the end. I think I did buy or somehow had the single when I was a lad, lol!! At the time, I kinda thought it wasn't like a Bond song maybe because of songs like Bassey's Bond song that was bombastic and dramatic. I think Bassey did an excellent job on her Bond song but it was not a Linda style song (at least not the arrangement that was released). I, like others, believe Linda can sing anything well but "Diamonds Are Forever" would probably not have been a first choice kind of song for Linda.

eddiejinnj

[fabtastique]

Ha ha … I’m obviously going senile as I completely forgot about that ! 😂😂😂

Thanks for reminding me !

[Linda fan 5]

She was likely approached for everything in the late 70s. My guess is she might have turned down “Nobody Does It Better.” It’s confirmed that she turned down “Help Me Make It Through The Night” and “I Don’t Know How To Love Him.” I recall that when she did “Dreams to Dreams” she had to kind of wrestle it away from Celine Dion. At Least it didn’t leave us with 2 simultaneous versions of DTD like when Leann Rimes and Trisha Yearwood both had “How Do I Live”

[PoP80]

Personally, I would have loved to hear Linda sing "Set Fire to the Rain." Adele's version is killer, but Linda could have slayed it, too!