How The Potentially Best Bond Theme Became The Worst

Posted by Spider on June 9, 2009 in Cinema | ∞

Once upon a time, back in the 1970s, Bond films were still THE films to see. Not disparaging the films afterwards but for my money you just can’t beat Sean Connery as James Bond. When it came time for the eighth film in the series Sean Connery wasn’t up to it, fearing type casting. Producers had the insurmountable task of finding an actor to replace Mr. Connery. They set their sights on Roger Moore and gave him the role for Live or Let Die.

The Man With The Golden Gun would be the second outing for Roger Moore as James Bond, as he would play the role an unrivaled seven times over twelve years. The failed comedic portions and Kung Fu craze going around Hollywood at the time being incorporated into the film did not help and it was heavily criticized for those reasons.

Perhaps one of the biggest criticisms, and one that would last throughout the life of the series, is that of the theme song. It had become a staple of the series to have a popular artist of the day sing a song for each movie, and that staple lasts to this day. Some movies even had secondary themes during the end title credits. One of the harshest criticisms of a theme song came for the theme from The Man With The Golden Gun, followed by Madonna’s Die Another Day theme song.

During production the band Alice Cooper (not the solo artist as this was before the group had decided to go their own ways) had written and turned in a theme song for the movie. It was edgy but fit the feel of the movies and the main character. Brash yet sophisticated as well as action filled with some romance thrown in, it seemed to be a perfect fit for the film. As Alice Cooper the solo artist tells it the song was to be used right up until the last minute when the producers of the film decided to get a successful if not exactly taken serious singer named Lulu to sing a different version of the theme. (Lulu was and still is quite big in the UK but in the States she was not more than a novelty act outside of a few songs.)

Never heard of Lulu? Here is a sample of her works. Her number one song of all time is “To Sir, With Love”

(Song starts about two minutes in)

Here is one of her other songs which tends to show you more of what she sang then what she did not. “I’m A Tiger”

John Berry, composer of the most music for James Bond films throughout the legacy, regrets the use of Lulu and the theme song to this day stating “It’s the one I hate most… it just never happened for me.” There is speculation among some fans (some Bond, some Cooper) that they wished to use the Berry composed version to reap royalties from the sale of the song which explains why the Alice Cooper version was decided against at the last moment. This is speculation and no official word has ever been given other than about Berry ending up being shamed for using Lulu’s version.

Here is the theme song as sung by Lulu.

The other day I decided to take some time and put together the opening sequence of the film with Alice Cooper’s version to see how it would fit. Working from a non-native format the results were a bit mixed. The title sequence for the film is approximately one minute shorter than Alice Cooper’s version of the theme. As well the quality of edits were not quite up to what I usually employ. Consider this a quick and dirty mock-up that gets the point across.

For this mock-up I decided to leave a small portion of the beginning of the film in, but not all of it. The whole house of mirrors with Tattoo laughing manically is just too weird and too long for this clip. I also had to edit down the length of the Alice Cooper version of the song to fit the titles. I had to trim the intro and the outro.

Here, for your perusal, is how The Man With The Golden Gun might have looked/sounded in 1974. (Click the title screen to play)

[display_podcast]

Which version is better? For my money it is the Alice Cooper version. I am an admitted Alice Cooper fan, which is what led me to write this article and do the quick and dirty work for the video, but overall the song is a better fit for a James Bond film, even one as off-putting as The Man With The Golden Gun. Lulu’s version, composed by John Berry and lyrics by Don Black, is just campy. It wants to be serious yet tongue in cheek at the same time yet comes off flat and completely forgettable except as a laughable attempt.