Song:Thunderball
Album:Greatest Hits
Anyone who has read my song of the day on this blog will know that I like to feature what I call "orphan" songs that are not part of an artist's overall discography. And I have written about several James Bond themes because James Bond is a unique music genre. Jones recorded the theme for the 1965 film Thunderball right after he had a big hit with the theme from the film What's New Pussycat?. So he was hot at the time. But the interesting thing about the theme from Thunderball is how it came together at the last minute. The original theme Mr. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang was written by Bond composer John Barry and Leslie Bricusse. A journalist used that term to describe the James Bond character. Barry didn't think he could write a song about Thunderball. So he wrote a song about the character instead. Dionne Warwick recorded the song but they weren't happy with her delivery. So Shirley Bassey was brought in to record it. Of course her theme from Goldfinger was very successful. The producers were going to use Shirley's recording over the opening credits and Dionne's over the end credits. But then United Artists insisted that the theme should have the word Thunderball in the title. So Mr. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang was scrapped. Shirley's recording is on a 30th Anniversary James Bond box set. So Barry wrote Thunderball with Don Black and Tom Jones was brought in to sing. Apparently Jones fainted when he hit the final high note. This was all done at the last minute. So Barry was forced to record new music for the film. Thunderball reached #25 on the Billboard Hot 100. It did not appear on a Tom Jones album. And the Thunderball soundtrack album was delayed because of the last minute changes. That album is still available on CD. But you can get Thunderball on this Tom Jones budget comp which covers his entire career including his 80s hits. Here's Tom Jones performing Thunderball at the 2012 Bafter Awards to commemorate the 50th anniversary of James Bond.
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