I have a Tina Turner playlist on my iPhone that I shuffle when I'm sewing. "Golden Eye" is in there (the longer version from the US edition of Wildest Dreams).

I feel like maybe this has been talked about before, although a long time ago.

Do we know for sure if Prince was ever asked to do a James Bond theme? It seems that the early 90s when he was using big arrangements (eg: "Diamonds and Pearls," "3 Chains O' Gold"), or even earlier with things like "Crystal Ball," or cinematic takes like the Parade album that he would've been perfect to tap for a theme song.

I don't really know if there's an existing song that could truly serve as a 007 theme (although apparently anything seems possible after something like "Die Another Day" by Madonna, which - in retrospect - feels like a sore thumb), but surely he could've challenged himself to come up with something amazing.

I would also hope that even after the challenge of Batman that he'd still be open to at least offering a theme song for a movie. He did for Girl 6. Bond is another animal of course. It's specific in that there are elements that belong in a Bond song. I think "Golden Eye" and "Skyfall" certainly pull in those elements more than "Die Another Day."

Well Winehouse was a drunk. And although Prince was addicted to drugs, he got work done.

Either way: I agree about Batman. But the better songs were written new, IMO. I don't think it's the weakest of a decade considering the mesh and old song rehash of Graffiti Bridge was a year later. And do we mean the 80s in general? Or from 88-98? Either way, I think it's a strong album; stronger than GB but on level with Diamonds and Pearls. Anyhoo...

I do think if Prince was given a purpose, he'd have lived up to it. He was versatile enough to record not only every kind of song around, but write one specifically for an artist's genre. I can see him being fully capable, based on that, of writing a Bond theme. I'm not sure it'd be as Bond-y as "Goldeneye," Live and Let Die," "Skyfall" or even "A View to a Kill" which seems to be a great mesh of Bond elements as well as Duran's aural aesthetic (and was a #1 for them).

I can see it being a PRINCE song, ya know, but he was good at borrowing, paying homage, or whatever. So if he had to put some Bond shit into a song, he could've done it.

I'm interested to know if he was ever asked, and passed on it for whatever reason. Not sure anyone would know, or they just haven't said so yet.

TrivialPursuit said:

Well Winehouse was a drunk. And although Prince was addicted to drugs, he got work done.

Either way: I agree about Batman. But the better songs were written new, IMO. I don't think it's the weakest of a decade considering the mesh and old song rehash of Graffiti Bridge was a year later. And do we mean the 80s in general? Or from 88-98? Either way, I think it's a strong album; stronger than GB but on level with Diamonds and Pearls. Anyhoo...

I do think if Prince was given a purpose, he'd have lived up to it. He was versatile enough to record not only every kind of song around, but write one specifically for an artist's genre. I can see him being fully capable, based on that, of writing a Bond theme. I'm not sure it'd be as Bond-y as "Goldeneye," Live and Let Die," "Skyfall" or even "A View to a Kill" which seems to be a great mesh of Bond elements as well as Duran's aural aesthetic (and was a #1 for them).

I can see it being a PRINCE song, ya know, but he was good at borrowing, paying homage, or whatever. So if he had to put some Bond shit into a song, he could've done it.

I'm interested to know if he was ever asked, and passed on it for whatever reason. Not sure anyone would know, or they just haven't said so yet.

He did do an orchestral score for Batman soundtrack, so I recall. But Tim Burton passed on it, favoring Danny Elfman instead. That didn't stop Prince though, who resorted to rollerskating to get it out of his system.

TrivialPursuit said:

Well Winehouse was a drunk. And although Prince was addicted to drugs, he got work done.

Sheesh....you make it sound like he addicted to drugs for just for kicks.

eye could see the live undertaker guitar jam being a theme song for a bond movie called the undertaker ... p could easily put a bond theme flourish over the two note crawl that anchors the song .. other songs from that era such as days of wild and the ride would work well in club scenes ..

TrivialPursuit said:

Well Winehouse was a drunk. And although Prince was addicted to drugs, he got work done.

Either way: I agree about Batman. But the better songs were written new, IMO. I don't think it's the weakest of a decade considering the mesh and old song rehash of Graffiti Bridge was a year later. And do we mean the 80s in general? Or from 88-98? Either way, I think it's a strong album; stronger than GB but on level with Diamonds and Pearls. Anyhoo...

I do think if Prince was given a purpose, he'd have lived up to it. He was versatile enough to record not only every kind of song around, but write one specifically for an artist's genre. I can see him being fully capable, based on that, of writing a Bond theme. I'm not sure it'd be as Bond-y as "Goldeneye," Live and Let Die," "Skyfall" or even "A View to a Kill" which seems to be a great mesh of Bond elements as well as Duran's aural aesthetic (and was a #1 for them).

I can see it being a PRINCE song, ya know, but he was good at borrowing, paying homage, or whatever. So if he had to put some Bond shit into a song, he could've done it.

I'm interested to know if he was ever asked, and passed on it for whatever reason. Not sure anyone would know, or they just haven't said so yet.

When someone says "the decade", they usually mean the '80s (or '70s or '90s or whatever the case may be),

I believe he's saying of the run of 1980s albums, from Dirty Mind through Batman, Batman was the weakest. I strongly agree.

Yes, Graffit Bridge was weak too, but that was a '90s album. If we're talking the decade of the '80s, then Batman is at the bottom of the list.

Milty2 said:

I can see for a future Bond film the song 'Vicki Waiting' used as the theme tune - with P's vocals digitally altered to sound like Shirley Bassey. In the film Bond is too busy killing bad guys and getting off with other women to remember Vicki exists. So she is kept waiting.

BlueShakooo said:

LoveGalore said:

BlueShakooo said:

LoveGalore said:

Milty2 said:

Sheesh....you make it sound like he addicted to drugs for just for kicks.

Sometimes the truth hurts. Prince was a drug addict.

None of know the truth about his addiction. Having said that, I believe he wasn't addicted to drugs simply for fun. Yes, he was in pain and he became addicted to relieve that pain. At least he tried to find help.

Milty2 said:

LoveGalore said:

Milty2 said:

None of know the truth about his addiction. Having said that, I believe he wasn't addicted to drugs simply for fun. Yes, he was in pain and he became addicted to relieve that pain. At least he tried to find help.

I don't think anyone here has said Prince was a drug addict for fun. That's your own narrative. Folks can mention his drug addiction without the need for others to come to his defense. Everybody here loves Prince regardless of his struggles. Edit to add: Amy Winehouse wasn't an addict for fun either and she also sought help multiple times. [Edited 5/16/22 5:16am]

No narrative building on my part. I have a couple of friends who have struggled with terrible addiction and sometimes it's not as easy as just saying "so and so was a drug addict". You didn't say that but yeah I just don't like people tossing off those kinds of comments in particular of Prince.

fortuneandserendipity said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Well Winehouse was a drunk. And although Prince was addicted to drugs, he got work done.

Either way: I agree about Batman. But the better songs were written new, IMO. I don't think it's the weakest of a decade considering the mesh and old song rehash of Graffiti Bridge was a year later. And do we mean the 80s in general? Or from 88-98? Either way, I think it's a strong album; stronger than GB but on level with Diamonds and Pearls. Anyhoo...

I do think if Prince was given a purpose, he'd have lived up to it. He was versatile enough to record not only every kind of song around, but write one specifically for an artist's genre. I can see him being fully capable, based on that, of writing a Bond theme. I'm not sure it'd be as Bond-y as "Goldeneye," Live and Let Die," "Skyfall" or even "A View to a Kill" which seems to be a great mesh of Bond elements as well as Duran's aural aesthetic (and was a #1 for them).

I can see it being a PRINCE song, ya know, but he was good at borrowing, paying homage, or whatever. So if he had to put some Bond shit into a song, he could've done it.

I'm interested to know if he was ever asked, and passed on it for whatever reason. Not sure anyone would know, or they just haven't said so yet.

He did do an orchestral score for Batman soundtrack, so I recall. But Tim Burton passed on it, favoring Danny Elfman instead. That didn't stop Prince though, who resorted to rollerskating to get it out of his system.

According to the people who have heard some of his "score" for Batman it was mainly Madhouse type material.

Milty2 said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Well Winehouse was a drunk. And although Prince was addicted to drugs, he got work done.

Sheesh....you make it sound like he addicted to drugs for just for kicks.

Drug. One painkiller....and we don't know when it started (all evidence is the early 2000s during the second marriage).
Not like Tom Petty who died with a cocktail of drugs, including nonprescribed Fentanyl, in his system.

laytonian said:

Milty2 said:

Sheesh....you make it sound like he addicted to drugs for just for kicks.

Drug. One painkiller....and we don't know when it started (all evidence is the early 2000s during the second marriage).
Not like Tom Petty who died with a cocktail of drugs, including nonprescribed Fentanyl, in his system.

You don't know that it was one drug or not. And one drug is one too many. It only took one to kill him.

Milty2 said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Well Winehouse was a drunk. And although Prince was addicted to drugs, he got work done.

Sheesh....you make it sound like he addicted to drugs for just for kicks.

I don't know where you got that in what I said. My point was that Prince was a working and functioning addict. Winehouse was much less interested in her music versus her addiction.

fortuneandserendipity said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Well Winehouse was a drunk. And although Prince was addicted to drugs, he got work done.

Either way: I agree about Batman. But the better songs were written new, IMO. I don't think it's the weakest of a decade considering the mesh and old song rehash of Graffiti Bridge was a year later. And do we mean the 80s in general? Or from 88-98? Either way, I think it's a strong album; stronger than GB but on level with Diamonds and Pearls. Anyhoo...

I do think if Prince was given a purpose, he'd have lived up to it. He was versatile enough to record not only every kind of song around, but write one specifically for an artist's genre. I can see him being fully capable, based on that, of writing a Bond theme. I'm not sure it'd be as Bond-y as "Goldeneye," Live and Let Die," "Skyfall" or even "A View to a Kill" which seems to be a great mesh of Bond elements as well as Duran's aural aesthetic (and was a #1 for them).

I can see it being a PRINCE song, ya know, but he was good at borrowing, paying homage, or whatever. So if he had to put some Bond shit into a song, he could've done it.

I'm interested to know if he was ever asked, and passed on it for whatever reason. Not sure anyone would know, or they just haven't said so yet.

He did do an orchestral score for Batman soundtrack, so I recall. But Tim Burton passed on it, favoring Danny Elfman instead. That didn't stop Prince though, who resorted to rollerskating to get it out of his system.

Prince writing an orchestra score consists of him playing a melody and sometimes bassline on his keyboard and paying Clare Fischer do the actual work to make it sound interesting. Prince could not and did not "write scores" for any orchestra.

PJMcGee said:

One song that comes to mind is Alexa de Paris. That has the feel of Bond, I think. I can imagine him singing to it. Another Lonely Christmas with new lyrics might work. (Not that you would do that to the song, but the grandiose style would fit, I think.) The opening to Shhh. Maybe the whole song, with new lyrics. Anna Stesia, tho it's really hard to imagine such a personal song in another context.

Ohhhhh, "Alexa De Paris" or even "Venus De Milo" with a bit of extra pomp would be good choices.

and yeah, I'd love to hear some solid ass lyrics and melody over "Alexa de Paris," but solely for this reason.

tomds said:

He did a great job with "song of the heart" for happy feet. He is a genius to mix movie scenes into his song. I liked that with Batman as well. So he can really create a song to fit into a movie.

That wasn't my question, though. He's done a lot of songs for movies. My question was has he ever been asked to do a Bond theme, and maybe is there an existing song that could viably work as a 007 theme song.

He's not the first person to lend a song to a movie, or have some cross pollenation in their promotion of the song.

TrivialPursuit said:

Bond songs are normally written specifically for the film after the synopsis/narrative of the film is shared with the songwriter so that the newly written piece actually fits the film.