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| A View to a Kill | ||||
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| Soundtrack album by | ||||
| Released | 1985 | |||
| Length | 38:23 | |||
| Label | EMI (UK) Capitol (US) | |||
| James Bond soundtrack chronology | ||||
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| Singles from A View to a Kill | ||||
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A View to a Kill is the soundtrack for the film of the same name,the 14th instalment in the James Bond film series.
The theme song "A View to a Kill",was written by John Barry and Duran Duran,and was recorded in London with a 60-piece orchestra. "A View to a Kill" is the most successful Bond theme to date. In 1986 Barry and Duran Duran were nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.
Duran Duran was chosen to do the song after bassist John Taylor (a lifelong Bond fan) approached producer Cubby Broccoli at a party,and somewhat drunkenly asked "When are you going to get someone decent to do one of your theme songs?" [1] [2]
The single was released in May 1985,and on July 13 it hit number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart,and as of 2014 [update] remains the only Bond theme to do so. On May 25,it made it to number two in the UK Singles Chart,also a record for Bond themes until "Writing's on the Wall" by Sam Smith made it to number one in 2015. The b-side was an instrumental piece orchestrated by John Barry,titled "A View To A Kill (That Fatal Kiss)". The song was the last track that the original five members of Duran Duran recorded together until 2001.
The video for the single was directed by the duo Godley &Creme,with shots of the band at the Eiffel Tower intercut with scenes from the movie,so that it appears that Roger Moore and Grace Jones are participating in the same storyline. The singer ends the video with a parody of James Bond,introducing himself as "Bon. Simon Le Bon."
During the opening teaser,a cover version of the 1965 Beach Boys song "California Girls",performed by Gidea Park (a tribute band),is used during a chase in which Bond snowboards;it has been suggested that this teaser sequence helped initiate interest in snowboarding. [3]
The film features Vivaldi's The Four Seasons ,which is performed during the reception that Bond attends undercover at Zorin's stud in France.
In the remastered CD edition,the third track is incorrectly labeled "May Day Jumpers" on the back of the case.
Composer John Barry utilises four leitmotifs on the soundtrack,that recur in two or more of the tracks listed. One is pinned to the theme songs by Duran Duran,one is pinned to henchwoman May Day,one is pinned to the action set-pieces and one appears more generally throughout the film. Barry often called the secondary themes he composed as "action themes" that underscored the action on the screen with hints of the film's theme song,the "James Bond Theme" itself,or simply another theme used only in that particular film. Such themes were occasionally reused,such as his "007 Theme",originally composed for From Russia with Love but brought back for four subsequent Bond pictures. The action theme composed for this film is easily a memorable as those secondary themes he used in You Only Live Twice (the "Space March"), Diamonds Are Forever (a similar space-themed piece,and the "Bond Meets Bambi and Thumper" theme which echoed both the "James Bond Theme" and the title song) among others. The action theme used within A View To A Kill (in the pieces "Snow Job","He's Dangerous" and "Golden Gate Fight") was similar in its basic composition to that used in On Her Majesty's Secret Service ,although it features a wailing electric guitar in the background - at this point Barry was using more contemporary sounding instrumentation within the Bond soundtracks,something he would take further in his next and final score for The Living Daylights .
A View To A Kill Theme
"Set-piece Theme"
May Day Motif
Pegasus' Theme
The Best of Bond... James Bond is the title of various compilation albums of music used in the James Bond films made by Eon Productions up to that time. The album was originally released in 1992 as The Best of James Bond, as a one-disc compilation and a two-disc 30th Anniversary Limited Edition compilation with songs that had, at that point, never been released to the public. The single disc compilation was later updated four times in 1999, 2002, 2008, and 2012. The 2008 version was augmented with the addition of a DVD featuring music videos and a documentary. Another two-disc edition, this time containing 50 tracks for the 50th anniversary of the franchise, was released in 2012.
John Barry Prendergast was an English composer and conductor of film music.
The Living Daylights is a 1987 British spy film, the fifteenth entry in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, and the first of two to star Timothy Dalton as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by John Glen, the film's title is taken from Ian Fleming's short story "The Living Daylights", the plot of which also forms the basis of the first act of the film. It was the last film to use the title of an Ian Fleming story until the 2006 instalment Casino Royale. The film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli, his stepson Michael G. Wilson, and co-produced by his daughter, Barbara Broccoli. The Living Daylights grossed $191.2 million worldwide, and received mixed reviews from critics.
A View to a Kill is a 1985 spy film and the fourteenth in the James Bond series produced by Eon Productions, and is the seventh and final appearance of Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Although the title is adapted from Ian Fleming's 1960 short story "From a View to a Kill", the film has an entirely original screenplay. In A View to a Kill, Bond is pitted against Max Zorin, who plans to destroy California's Silicon Valley.
The James Bond film series from Eon Productions has featured numerous musical compositions since its inception 1962, many of which are now considered classic pieces of British film music. The best known of these pieces is the "James Bond Theme" by Monty Norman. Other instrumentals, such as "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", and various songs performed by several notable British or American artists, such as Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger", Nancy Sinatra's "You Only Live Twice", Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die", Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better", Sheena Easton's "For Your Eyes Only", Duran Duran's "A View to a Kill", Tina Turner's "Goldeneye" also become identified with the series and Madonna's "Die Another Day", a dance hit around the world. Three Bond songs have won the Academy Award for Best Original Song: "Skyfall" by Adele, "Writing's on the Wall" by Sam Smith and "No Time to Die" by Billie Eilish, with Writing's on the Wall also becoming the first Bond theme to reach number one on the UK music charts.
The "James Bond Theme" is the main signature theme music of the James Bond films and has featured in every Eon Productions Bond film since Dr. No, released in 1962. Composed by Monty Norman, the piece has been used as an accompanying fanfare to the gun barrel sequence in every Eon Bond film besides the 2006 reboot Casino Royale.
Maximillian Zorin is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the 1985 James Bond film A View to a Kill. He is portrayed by Christopher Walken.
Jonathan Elias is an American composer, record producer, and musician best known for his film soundtracks, production for several pop and rock acts, and his award-winning advertising music.
Stacey Sutton is a fictional character in the 1985 James Bond film A View to a Kill. She is played by Tanya Roberts.
"A View to a Kill" is the thirteenth single by the English new wave and synth-pop band Duran Duran, released on 6 May 1985. Written and recorded as the theme for the James Bond film of the same name, it became one of the band's biggest hits. It remains the only James Bond theme song to have reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100; it also made it to number two for three weeks on the UK Singles Chart while stuck behind Paul Hardcastle's "19". The song was the last track recorded by the most famous five-member lineup of Duran Duran until their reunion in 2001 and was also performed by the band at Live Aid in Philadelphia, their final performance together before their first split.
Thunderball is the soundtrack album for the fourth James Bond film Thunderball.
From Russia with Love is the soundtrack for the second James Bond film, From Russia With Love. This is the first series film with John Barry as the primary soundtrack composer.
Goldfinger is the soundtrack of the 1964 film of the same name, the third film in the James Bond film series, directed by Guy Hamilton. The album was composed by John Barry and distributed by EMI. Two versions were released initially, one in the United States and the United Kingdom, which varied in terms of length and which tracks were within the soundtrack. In 2003, Capitol-EMI records released a remastered version that contained all the tracks within the film.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service ("OHMSS") is the soundtrack for the James Bond film. It was composed, arranged, and conducted by John Barry; his fifth in the series.
The Living Daylights is the soundtrack title for the film The Living Daylights and the eleventh and final Bond soundtrack to be scored by composer John Barry. The soundtrack is notable for its introduction of sequenced electronic rhythm tracks overdubbed with the orchestra – at the time, a relatively new innovation.
The soundtrack to Licence to Kill, the 16th Eon Productions James Bond film, was released by MCA Records in 1989.
A View to a Kill are two separate video games released in 1985 and based on the James Bond film A View to a Kill. The first, an action game titled A View to a Kill: The Computer Game, was developed and published by Domark. It was available for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, MSX, and Oric. The second game, James Bond 007: A View to a Kill, is a text-based adventure for MS-DOS, Macintosh, and Apple II. It was developed by Angelsoft, and published by Mindscape.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to James Bond:
The Bond Collection, a.k.a. Bassey Sings Bond, is a 1987 studio album by Shirley Bassey, notable for having been released without the artist's consent and subsequently withdrawn from sales by court order.
A View to a Kill is a 1985 James Bond film.
