And The Winner Is… Bond, James Bond
The James Bond 007 series has become one of the most well-known and popular movie franchises in the world. The films themselves have provided audiences on numerous continents the chance to sit back, escape the daily troubles of life, and take a wild ride with a most famous British agent. Thus, with the series spanning over 40 years, awards have often played a part in the development of these films.
Burt Bacharach and Hal David receive Oscars
The Academy Awards have played an integral part in shaping the popularity of these films. Many of the James Bond films have been nominated, and some have won. 1964 saw the nomination and the win of Norman Wanstall for Best Special Effects for Goldfinger. One year later, the monumental Thunderball won Best Visual Effects for John Stears, much to his delight.
The glossy 1967 Bond spoof, Casino Royale won a nomination for Best Song: “The Look of Love” by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. A few years later, 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever won a nomination for Best Sound.
Roger Moore’s first James Bond film, Live and Let Die won a Best Song nomination for it’s popular title song for Paul McCartney and wife, Linda. In what many considered to be the best Bond film in quite some time, 1977 saw The Spy Who Loved Me taking an impressive three nominations. They were for Best Song: title song “Nobody Does it Better” by composer Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager. Best Original Score by Marvin Hamlisch. And finally for the spectacular Art Direction by Ken Adam, Peter Lamont, and others.
Vinyl of “Live & Let Die” by Paul McCartney and Wings
1979 saw the out of this world Moonraker, which won a nomination for it’s awe-inspiring Visual Effects, to Derek Meddings and Paul Wilson — who would continue to work on the James Bond films. The next James Bond film, For Your Eyes Only also took a nomination in the Best Song category for Composer Bill Conti and lyricist Mick Leeson.
Most James Bond films are accompanied with a title song that plays over the main title opening sequence. A large amount of them have charted on the Billboard charts, with several soaring for the coveted #1 spot, and one of them finally reaching it.
In The Roger Moore era, the title songs for two of his films: Live and Let Die (Paul McCartney and Wings) and The Spy Who Loved Me (Carly Simon) respectively charting at the #2 spot, the highest for the series up that point. Moore’s final film, A View to a Kill finally had the honor of a title song, brilliantly crafted by Duran Duran, reaching the #1 spot.
Other title songs such as “For Your Eyes Only” (#4), “Goldfinger” (#8), “The Living Daylights” (#5), “Die Another Day” (#8) and many others have charted as well.