Singing a Bond theme is an honour. It's a privilege. It should be one of the highlights of your career; admission into a select band of artistes.
As such, as far as I'm concerned, there is an absolute: put your Bond theme on your Greatest Hits. I don't care if you're a "serious" artist, I don't care if it didn't actually do as well as some of your other tracks. You sang the theme to a James Bond film; it is a career high point.
Does every performer do this, though? I decided to have a whizz through some of the Greatest Hits albums available on Amazon, and see if the singers in question have kept their end of the bargain. There will be harsh stares if they haven't.
Artist: Matt Monro
Song: From Russia With Love
Album: The Very Best of Matt Monro
Is The Bond Theme There?: YES
That album is absolutely worth buying, by the way. He's a fantastic crooner.
Artist: Shirley Bassey
Songs: Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, Moonraker
Album: The Greatest Hits: This Is My Life
Is The Bond Theme There?: YES
Well, obviously. She IS The Voice Of Bond, after all.
Artist: Tom Jones
Song: Thunderball
Album: Greatest Hits
Is The Bond Theme There?: YES
Did you know Tom fainted when he did that final end note? No? In that case, welcome to Earth, recently-arrived alien.
Artist: Nancy Sinatra
Song: You Only Live Twice
Album: The Very Best of Nancy Sinatra
Is The Bond Theme There?: YES
It's lucky they could find space to squeeze YOLT on there, what with Nancy's many, many other hits *side eye*
Artist: Louis Armstrong
Song: We Have All The Time In The World
Album: The Very Best of Louis Armstrong
Is The Bond Theme There?: YES
You could legitimately make a case that a legend like Louis Armstrong didn't need to include the underperforming We Have All The Time In The World, but there it is.
Artist: Paul McCartney and Wings
Song: Live and Let Die
Album: Wings Greatest
Is The Bond Theme There?: YES
I always liked that Macca.
Artist: Lulu
Song: The Man With The Golden Gun
Album: Erm...
Is The Bond Theme There?: Sort of.
It seems that Lulu has a somewhat complicated history of "Greatest Hits". Her work with various different record companies means that songs are scattered all over the place. The top hit on Amazon, Greatest Hits, doesn't have TMWTGG. But it also doesn't have The Man Who Sold The World or Boom Bang-A-Bang or Independence. The next one, Best of, has TMWTGG and The Man Who Sold The World, but there's no To Sir With Love or Boom Bang-a-Bang or Independence. The third hit, also called The Best Of, has all those songs... but no The Man With The Golden Gun. I think we're going to have to give Lulu a "could do better". Sort it out, woman.
Artist: Carly Simon
Song: Nobody Does It Better
Album: Nobody Does It Better: The Very Best of Carly Simon
Is The Bond Theme There?: Clue's in the title, folks.
I did have a minor panic, because the very first hit on Amazon is for The Best of Carly Simon, which doesn't include Nobody Does It Better. The shock of this sent me to Wikipedia, where I discovered that album was in fact released in 1975. Phew.
Artist: Sheena Easton
Song: For Your Eyes Only
Album: The Best of Sheena Easton
Is The Bond Theme There?: NO
Even though I'm pretty sure the cover art is from the publicity for her Bond Theme, Sheena doesn't include For Your Eyes Only on her Best Of. RUDE. However, I think this may be another Lulu-esque rights issue, because a different Greatest Hits, The Gold Collection, does have FYEO on it. Meanwhile I'm wondering how Sheena Easton can have more than one Greatest Hits collection.
Artist: Rita Coolidge
Song: All Time High
Album: 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: Rita Coolidge
Is The Bond Theme There?: YES
Of course it's on there. In fact, there's a 1993 collection that's actually called All Time High.
Artist: Duran Duran
Song: A View To A Kill
Album: Greatest
Is The Bond Theme There?: YES
Track 3, in fact, ahead of many of their bigger hits.
Artist: a-ha
Song: The Living Daylights
Album: Time and Again: The Ultimate a-ha
Is The Bond Theme There?: YES
It seems that in the years between recording the song and releasing their Greatest Hits, a-ha have mellowed towards their Bond theme: the version on this album is John Barry's mix, not the far more synth-heavy version they petulantly put on Stay On These Roads.
Artist: Gladys Knight
Song: Licence To Kill
Album: The Greatest Hits
Is The Bond Theme There?: YES
This is slightly complicated by Gladys's work with the Pips; most of the Best Of collections cover her work as a group, with maybe an odd solo effort. This album seems to have the best of both worlds. Unfortunately I'm not sure if it's the long mix from the LTK soundtrack or the superior single mix.
Artist: Tina Turner
Song: GoldenEye
Album: All The Best
Is The Bond Theme There?: YES
Tina's a classy lady. Of course she'll include her Bond theme.
Artist: Sheryl Crow
Song: Tomorrow Never Dies
Album: The Very Best of Sheryl Crow
Is The Bond Theme There?: NO
I know Sheryl wasn't over keen on her Bond theme, but really? On an album with 17 tracks, there wasn't room for Tomorrow Never Dies? Compounding the omission is the fact that this is the "UK/Japan" version, and TND was one of her bigger hits in those countries. How dare you, Ms Crow. This is just further evidence that Surrender should have been the title song.
Artist: Garbage
Song: The World Is Not Enough
Album: Absolute Garbage
Is The Bond Theme There?: YES
SEE, SHERYL? TWINE isn't a typical Garbage song, but they still put it on THEIR Greatest Hits. They're CLASSY like that.
Artist: Madonna
Song: Die Another Day
Album: Celebration
Is The Bond Theme There?: YES but see below
There were two versions of Celebration: a single disc version and a 2 CD version. DAD doesn't make it to the single CD version, but for once, that seems fair enough: it's MADONNA. Squeezing all her hits onto a single disc is difficult enough. Die Another Day is on the two disc version (and is also on the earlier GHV2), and yet it still misses out True Blue and Causing a Commotion and Dear Jessie and Rain and other big Madge classics. SEE SHERYL - MADONNA COULD'VE GOT AWAY WITH NOT INCLUDING HER BOND THEME AND YET SHE STILL STUCK IT ON THERE.
Artist: Chris Cornell
Song: You Know My Name
Album: The Roads We Chose
Is The Bond Theme There?: YES
Chris Cornell doesn't actually have a commercially available Greatest Hits album: The Roads We Chose was a promotional CD that received a very limited release. But fair play, You Know My Name is on there.
And that's the end of the line, because Jack White, Alicia Keys, Adele and Sam Smith are yet to release Greatest Hits albums. At a guess, I'd say Skyfall and Writing's On The Wall will take pride of place on their singers' Best Ofs, but Another Way To Die will be quietly skipped past; it's extremely atypical for both artists and, as a duet, it's not going to be as important as their solo work. I hope I'm wrong. Come on, Jack and Alicia. Don't be a Sheryl.
PS: in case you was wondering, Patti Labelle's Greatest Hits does include If You Asked Me To, but The Pretenders, Eric Serra, k d lang and Scott Walker have left their Bond songs off their respective Best Of albums. Somewhat bafflingly, I can find no record of a Tim Feehan Greatest Hits.
