Sam & Spectre
Tuesday, September 8, 2015 at 8:36AM 
Grammy winner Sam Smith has finished recording his James Bond theme song. It's called "Writing's on the Wall" and hopefully that's not in reference to Daniel Craig hanging up the suit.
The choice of musical artist and song for the 24th "official" Bond film (there are actually 26 of them) is historic in two different ways.
1. Smith is the first male solo artist doing a Bond song since 1965, aka when Tom Jones sang "Thunderball" (you'll remember that Paul McCartney and Wings doesn't count as a solo artist for 1973's "Live and Let Die")
2. It's the first time an out LGBT artist has done the song duties
Less notable though we'll still note it is that this is only the fifth time that the theme song does not share the film's title. 007 movies didn't always have the traditional opening titles theme song. That tradition, as we know it, really began with the third film Goldfinger (1964).
Do you think Sam Smith will benefit from the Adele love-in of 2012 and snag the series only its 5th nomination for Best Original Song? It'll be interesting to see if Spectre finds any favor at all with the Academy. Did Skyfall change things with it's 5 nominations or will AMPAS go back to ignoring the franchise as they always had before - it's worth remembering that the entire franchise averaged less than ½ a nomination per film before that 50th anniversary blockbuster.
Here's the new poster...
Reader Comments (17)
I think Sam Smith's popularity could help the song garner another Oscar nomination. However, I don't think the film will be as big as 'Skyfall' and I could easily see the film falling short.
I'm actually fond of this choice!
I'm not a huge James Bond fan and even I really enjoyed Skyfall. It felt more accessible than some of the other recent entries. The Academy also started to show a lot of tech love for action films in recent years (remember The Bourne Ultimatum winning Best Editing over three Best Picture nominees and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly?), which certainly helped something so polished as Skyfall.
Whether or not Spectre gets the song nomination is really contingent on how much the public responds to the song. "Skyfall" was a straight up pop radio hit, which can't be said for any of the other recent Bond songs. Sam Smith's popularity and respect in the music industry could help.
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1. Smith is the first male solo artist doing a Bond song since 1965, aka when Tom Jones sang "Thunderball" (you'll remember that Paul McCartney and Wings doesn't count as a solo artist for 1973's "You Only Live Once)
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Paul McCartney & Wings did "Live and Let Die" - not that movie you just made up..."You Only Live Twice" came out in '67, song by Nancy Sinatra.
Also, Chris Cornell, who wrote and performed "You Know My Name" for Casino Royale might take issue with your claim here...
Outside of Never Say Never Again, are you counting the original Casino Royale as an unofficial-official Bond movie?
"You Know My Name" isn''t a bad song...but it is forgettable....
That's a terrible poster. Just looking at Daniel Craig, "Buffalo Stance" should be the theme song.
Who cares if he is gay,plenty of us are,it's the "let's do the cool thing" when really it's the uncoolist thing they could have ever thought of.
Sean -- i did not make up a movie. LOL. I just got the names twisted. corrected.
3rtful -- the unofficial movies are CASINO ROYALE (1967) and NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN (83). There was also apparently a TV episode of an anthology series CLIMAX! in 1954 called "casino royale" and that's not official either.
I think Skyfall will prove to be an aberration in the Bond canon. Its artistic stature likely will not be repeated. It was clear all involved were swinging for the fences for the 50th milestone. Smith could get a nomination, but like others have said, only if it's a hit.
I'm not sure if this is a good fit. Smith is pretty damn morose as a vocalist and musically his songs are terribly downbeat. I hope I'm wrong.
"Smith is pretty damn morose as a vocalist and musically his songs are terribly downbeat" - which is why it could fit perfectly. Bond films of late have fallen into the grim, Nolan-esque Batman aesthetic of recent years, going as grim and dark as possible. The fun, cheeky Bond of yore, aside from a few moments here and there in the recent movies, is no more.
Nat, you still need to correct the fact that Chris Cornell did the theme song solo for Casino Royale.
Sam Smith.... ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ......
Am I the only person who finds Sam smith absolutely unbearable? His voice is so fucking grating. And he gets all these comparisons to Adele just because he’s fat and sad and has a soulful voice but he’s really not even a quarter as good as her.
Anyway, I basically heard this news like a year ago, and at the time it was between him and Lana Del Rey (who I love, and I think aesthetically fits 'James Bond theme song' to a T), but ah well. Hopefully it's a good song and he proves me wrong, but I really don't like this choice. I feel like the Adele comparisons he gets put him in the running since she did the last theme song.
AK -- hmmm. that stat is directly from the Official Bond press release.
Philip, cosign. The constant comparisons to Adele are laughable. She's a genius and he's boring as hell. I especially don't like the continued success enjoyed by a mediocre artist who won major Grammys for a song that a judge ruled he plagiarized. Unbelievable.
Bit late to this so it might not matter now, but the Official Bond press release makes the point that Sam is the first BRITISH male solo singer to record a Bond theme.
The first British male solo artist since 1965 is a weird stat. What point are they trying to make? In any case, this choice is uninspired - and I don't like Smith's work. But title songs and the quality of the film don't really have much relationship with each other.