Jul 29, 2008

Official: Jack White And Alicia Keys To Record Bond Theme Song

Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood reports that Sony and MGM have finally put to rest scads of speculation and officially announced that the theme song for Quantum of Solace will be performed by Jack White (of The White Stripes) and Alicia Keys. The song is called "Another Way To Die," (which I kind of feel like they should have saved to use as an actual title to a future Bond movie!) and was written by White, who also plays drums on the track. I'm a little disappointed that composer David Arnold wasn't involved in the composition, since his best scores integrate his own theme songs throughout the movie, but you couldn't really ask for a better songwriter than White. Overall, I'm very pleased. (Although I would have liked to hear an Amy Winehouse Bond theme as well, and I hope she gets her act together in time for Bond 23.) According to Finke (and coming from the official press release), "The soundtrack to Quantum of Solace will be released by J Records on October 28th." Since these announcements were made together, I would assume that means that the song will actually be featured on the soundtrack, like all the other Bond scores up until Casino Royale, which weirdly omitted Chris Cornell's title track from the soundtrack disc. (For contractual reasons, I presume.) Speaking of Cornell's song, "You Know My Name," this now makes two songs in a row that don't share a title with the film. Up until now, that was a pretty rare occurrence!

In related news, massive layoffs are expected at all the British tabloids, each of whom seem to have employed entire departments devoted to making up rumors about who would be singing this theme song!

4 comments:

Paul Bishop said...

Very cool. Thank goodness the speculation can stop. Cool title -- I guess it was tough to work quantum of Solace into the lyrics.

Thanks for getting this out.

Ted said...

Solace sorta rhymes with "Lotus"... perhaps Craig gets to drive an underwater car in this one.

I was pulling for Portishead but The White Keys might work. (Pity about Casino Royale, fantastic animated title sequence, average theme song. Should have stuck with Bacharach and Herb Alpert!)

Keith said...

That's cool. I'm a fan of both of them, so it will be interesting to hear their song. I am glad the speculation is over now. I was ready to see who was going to do the song. Yeah, that would have been a good title for a movie. I guess Quantum of Solace just didn't cut it for a song. I would love to see Amy Winehouse do a Bond song if she can get straightened out.

Tanner said...

Yeah, I'd still love to see Amy Winehouse do one, and of course Portishead would be amazing, but I've long since given up on that. I don't think they're big enough anymore for the producers to go for them, but Beth Gibbons' mournful vocals would sure suit the Craig tone so far wonderfully! I actually really liked Chris Cornell's song. It's classic Bond, even if he says it's not! And CERTAINLY better than Madonna's, which in my opinion is the worst Bond song ever. Looking forward to hearing whatever White and Keys come up with...