Tomorrow Never Dies
3rd April 2013
The theme to Bond's 18th screen outing scraped 19th place in the MI6 survey of 007 title songs
By MI6 Staff
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Sheryl Crow -
Tomorrow Never Dies
MI6 readers voted in their thousands during 2012 to rank all the James Bond title theme songs. Join us as we count down the results... |
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The release of "Tomorrow Never Dies" coincided with a mid-'90s Easy Listening revival, opening up the classic mod sounds of Bond to modern songwriters and performers. A number of candidates were known to be in the running for performing 007's 18th main title song including Saint Etienne, Marc Almond and Pulp, many of whom wrote demo tracks for the producers, using the title as inspiration. Marc Almond described his contribution as "Shirley Bassey by numbers", but despite the formulaic offering, Almond since admitted he was quite pleased with the track. |
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Ultimately it came down to Sheryl Crow, who composed her title song with Mitchell Froom and had it orchestrated by Nicholas Dodd. But the thorn in her side was the haunting song that new Bond composer David Arnold had offered up in opposition. His composition was entitled "Surrender". Before anyone knew what was happening Arnold had composed the brassy track, set it to words by Bond stalwart lyricist Don Black, and looked to country-pop artist K. D. Lang to sing the theme.
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As history relays, Crow's theme made the main titles, but all was not lost for Lang and Arnold. Key motiefs from Arnold's "Surrender" found its way into the score and "Surrender" is used in conjunction with the closing credits. Arnold ultimately approved of the use of Crow's "Tomorrow Never Dies" and described it as "tonally beautiful". But what it lacks is the gutsy horn sections of a classic John Barry composition - something Arnold's tune successfully emulated.
With the help of some of the imagery concocted by Daniel Kleinman for the main titles, Crow shot a music video for the track which sees the artist clambering over the silhouetted lips of other women, an image her co-writer Mitchell Froom later admitted Crow was not so comfortable with.
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Lyrics
Darling I'm killed
I'm in puddle on the floor
Waiting for you to return
Oh what a thrill
Facination's got a law
How you tease
How you leave me to burn
It's so deadly my dear
The power of having you near
Until the day
Until the world falls away
Until you say there'll be no more goodbyes
I see it in your eyes
Tomorrow never dies
Darling you've won
It's no fun
Martinis, girls, and guns
It's murder on our love affair
But you bet your life
Every night
While you chasing the morning light
You're not the only spy out there
It's so deadly my dear
The power of wanting you near
Until the day
Until the world falls away
Until you say there'll be no more goodbyes
I see it in your eyes
Tomorrow never dies
Until the day
Until the world falls away
Until you say there'll be no more goodbyes
See it in your eyes
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