@LinerNotes

The second outing for Daniel Craig as James Bond kept things somewhat close to the tailored vest of its predecessor. Amy Winehouse had been working on a piece for this film, but it was ultimately opened by the first duet in James Bond title song history. "Another Way to Die" from Quantum of Solace shared the heavier intoned theme of Casino Royale's "You Know My Name." Naturally, loud music can often sound even more interesting when distilled to its acoustic essence.

Casino Royale was a reboot not only for the James Bond character and film series, but for Bond theme songs as well. Grittier and edgier are buzzwords which not only describe Daniel Craig's take on the character, but Chris Cornell's theme song as well. Imagine what happens then if you take the electric bite out of the song.

And so we arrive at one of the most divisive title songs in the James Bond canon. "Die Another Day" by Madonna sold well, charted well and remains in a three way tie (with "Goldfinger" and "Skyfall" ) as the fourth highest charting James Bond themes in the US. Critical reviews of it were sharply divided into "love it or loathe it" categories. If you share the opinion of the latter, the good news is, there are a pair of improvements upon the original which might just change your mind about the song.

The last James Bond film of the 20th century featured a curious blend of new and classic when it came to the theme song. "The World is Not Enough" was composed by David Arnold with lyrics by Don Black, the man behind the words of such Bond classics as "Thunderball," "Diamonds are Forever" and "The Man with The Golden Gun" (he also wrote k.d. lang's closing theme to Tomorrow Never Dies but that's a story for another day). Performed by alt rockers Garbage, the song blends the band's post-grunge and trip hop aesthetic with orchestral elements to create a melodramatic theme, which gets even more interesting when a unique trio of artists set their sounds to it.

Tomorrow Never Dies features a theme song performed by Sheryl Crow which, while it went unnoticed by the pop charts here, made it to #11 in the UK in 1997, making it tied with "You Only Live Twice" as the eighth highest charting James Bond title songs at the time. The song was among a dozen themes submitted for consideration to open the second big screen Bond adventure for Pierce Brosnan. I was hoping to find a unique cover version which would elevate this piece in the minds of its detractors. My ears (and hopefully yours, too) were not disappointed.

One would think as we explore the more modern James Bond title songs it would become harder to find interesting covers of them. That is definitely not the case with 1995's GoldenEye . Composed by Bono and The Edge of U2 for Tina Turner, this is a Bond theme that does exactly what it needed to: transition fans from the previous film era into a new one, complete with a new actor in the role of 007. Not only are there a trio of takes on the song worth checking out, but a rare demo version by the song's creators is especially interesting to hear.

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The title song for Timothy Dalton's second and final film outing as James Bond could have been very different. A duet was recorded by a pair of guitarists, including Vic Flick, the man who gave birth to the signature guitar sound of Monty Norman's "James Bond Theme" and the legendary Eric Clapton. The producers instead went with Gladys Knight's "License to Kill. Similarly to the previous Bond theme, there are relatively few examples of covers of this song.

1987 brought us a new James Bond and an attempt to replicate the MTV/radio-driven success of the previous Bond movie's title song. This time, composer John Barry worked with Norwegian synthpoppers, a -h a. The song failed to enter the Hot 100 charts the way their peers Duran Duran had done two years previously, but it did reach #5 in the UK. Chart success isn't necessarily indicative of popularity within a fandom, but it could explain why there is only a single cover of "The Living Daylights" to be found.