Chris Cornell's 'You Know My Name' Fails To Grab A Grammy

Back in early December of last year, CommanderBond.net reported that “You Know My Name”, the James Bond title song for 2006’s Casino Royale performed by Chris Cornell, had earned a nomination for the 50th annual Grammy Awards.

Unfortunately, the 007 title tune failed the grab the award at the show, which took place today in Los Angeles. It lost to “Love You I Do” from Dreamgirls.

“You Know My Name”, written by David Arnold and Cornell, was nominated in the Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media category and competed against the following four songs:

• Falling Slowly (From Once)
  Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova, songwriters (Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova)
• Guaranteed (From Into The Wild)
  Eddie Vedder, songwriter (Eddie Vedder)
• Love You I Do (From Dreamgirls)
  Siedah Garrett & Henry Krieger, songwriters (Jennifer Hudson)
• The Song Of The Heart (From Happy Feet)
  Prince Rogers Nelson, songwriter (Prince)

This was the second nomination for Bond composer Arnold, who had previously won for 1997’s Independence Day (Best Instrumental Composition for a Film).

Cornell, in association with Soundgarden and Audioslave, has 12 previous nominations.

Recent Bond films nominated for Grammy Awards include 2002’s Die Another Day and 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies.

Click here for the complete history of James Bond and the Grammy Awards.

Keep watching CBn for all the latest James Bond news.

Three Bond Themes Inducted Into The Grammy Hall of Fame

Written by Greg Bechtloff

Three James Bond film songs today were announced as new inductees into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

They are:

“The James Bond Theme”
The John Barry Seven & Orchestra
United Artists Single (1962)

“Goldfinger”
Shirley Bassey
United Artists Single (1964)

And

“The Look of Love”
Dusty Springfield
RCA Single (1967)

Other artists with selections announced today include Fred Astaire, Pink Floyd, Etta James, Billy Joel, The Police, Frank Sinatra, Sister Sledge, Barbara Streisand and Willie Nelson.

More significantly though, this is the first time that any music from the James Bond films has been inducted.

Created in 1973, the Grammy Hall of Fame’s mission is to “honor recordings of lasting significance.” Today’s additions bring the Hall of Fame up to nearly 800 titles.

One of the sub-textual meanings of the Grammy Hall of Fame has been to acknowledge that over the years, the Grammy Awards themselves may have missed the mark in the year that the awards were given out.

This was particularly true of the 1960’s and 1970’s when important and lasting artists such as Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin and others were passed over in favor of “safer” music.

While cynics may say that this is a belated “make-it-up-to-you” honor, it needs to be said that new inductees must be screened by a special committee of experts and historians drawn from all branches of the recording arts – think jaded rock critics.

These experts deemed that these three Bond titles are worthy additions to the Hall of Fame. On that we should be thankful.

Bond and The Grammy Awards

Written by Greg Bechtloff

David Arnold and Chris Cornell today were nominated for a Grammy Award as songwriters for the song “You Know My Name” from the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale.

They were nominated in the category of Best Song For a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. Other songs in the category are from the films “Once”, “Dreamgirls”, “Into The Wild” and “Happy Feet”.

They will compete for the music industry’s highest achievement at the milestone 50th GRAMMY Awards in Los Angeles on February 10, 2008.

This nomination is the second for composer David Arnold whose previous nomination for the score to “Independence Day” resulted in a Grammy win for Best Instrumental Composition for a Film in 1997.

Chris Cornell has 12 previous nominations and two wins through his solo work and with Soundgarden and Audioslave.

“You Know My Name” follows onto the theme songs from Die Another Day and Tomorrow Never Dies which also yielded Grammy nominations.

As to the music from the James Bond series itself, the following tunes have produced the following Grammy history:

---

Goldfinger (1964)

John Barry
“Goldfinger” – Nominated for Best Original Score
7th Grammy Awards (1964)

---

Casino Royale (1967)

Burt Bacharach & Hal David
“Casino Royale” – Nominated for Best Instrumental Theme
10th Grammy Awards (1967)

Herb Alpert
“Casino Royale” – Nominated for Best Instrumental Performance
10th Grammy Awards (1967)

Burt Bacharach
“Casino Royale” – Nominated for Best Instrumental Arrangement
10th Grammy Awards (1967)

Burt Bacharach
“Casino Royale” – Nominated for Best Original Score
10th Grammy Awards (1967)

Herb Alpert
“The Look of Love” (1999 version) – Nominated for Best Pop Instrumental Performance
42nd Grammy Awards (1999)

---

Live And Let Die (1973)

George Martin
“Live And Let Die” – Grammy Win for Best Instrumental Arranging With Vocals
16th Grammy Awards (1973)

**Martin is the only person to ever win a Grammy for his work on Bond music**

George Martin & Paul McCartney
“Live And Let Die” – Nominated for Best Original Score
16th Grammy Awards (1973)

Paul McCartney & Wings
“Live And Let Die” – Nominated for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group
16th Grammy Awards (1973)

Guns n’Roses
“Live And Let Die” (1991 Version) – Nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance
35th Grammy Awards (1992)

---

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

Marvin Hamlisch
“The Spy Who Loved Me” – Nominated for Best Original Score
20th Grammy Awards (1977)

Marvin Hamlisch & Carol Bayer Sager
“Nobody Does it Better” – Nominated for Song of the Year
20th Grammy Awards (1977)

Carly Simon
“Nobody Does It Better” – Nominated for Best Pop Vocal Performance Female
20th Grammy Awards (1977)

---

For Your Eyes Only (1981)

Sheena Easton
“For Your Eyes Only” – Nominated for Best Pop Vocal Performance Female
24th Grammy Awards (1981)

Sheena Easton
Winner – Best New Artist
24th Grammy Awards (1981)

(The Best New Artist award is not tied to a specific recording but to an artist who “broke through” in a given year. For 1981, it was Sheena Easton who broke through with her songs “Morning Train” and “For Your Eyes Only”.)

---

Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

Sheryl Crow & Mitchell Froom
“Until That Day – Tomorrow Never Dies”
Nominated for Best Song For a Film
41st Grammy Awards (1998)

---

Die Another Day (2002)

Madonna, Mark Stent & Mirwais Ahmadzaï
“Die Another Day” – Nominated for Best Dance Recording
46th Grammy Awards (2003)

Madonna, Traktor & Jim Bouvet
“Die Another Day” – Nominated for Best Short Form Music Video
46th Grammy Awards (2003)

---

Regarding the dates of this year and previous year’s nominations, the Grammy’s eligibility year is from October 1 through September 30.

Since the music for Casino Royale was released in November 2006, it competes in the 2006-2007 cycle that the 50th Grammy Awards reflects.

Audio Interview: Lyricst Don Black On Writing James Bond Songs

As one of the most successful lyricists throughout the past four decades, Don Black’s extraordinary career continues strongly to this very day. Over the past 40 years, he has become an Academy Award and Tony Award-winner, been awarded the O.B.E. for his services to musical theatre and became a Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee earlier this year.

He is best known by James Bond fans for his lyricist credits on Thunderball, Diamonds Are Forever, The Man With The Golden Gun, Surrender, The World Is Not Enough and Only Myself To Blame.

In a brand new audio interview posted at Stage & Screen Online, Black discusses his varied career with Tommy Pearson. Recorded this month, part one (42 minutes) focuses on how he first got started, working with Matt Monroe, the ever-popular Born Free and his association with the James Bond series–with both John Barry and David Arnold.

Part two (24 minutes) takes a look at Black’s involvement in musical theatre, specifically his work on shows with Andrew Lloyd Webber and John Barry. Billy, Tell Me On A Sunday and Bombay Dreams are just a few of the shows that are discussed.

Thunderball

When first asked about how he came to be involved with the Bond songs, Black tells how John Barry approached him one day wondering if he wanted to do the lyrics for Thunderball, which was the upcoming James Bond film at the time.

‘The first thing I did when I wrote Thunderball was to look it up in the dictionary and it wasn’t there,’ says Black. ‘So, there isn’t a word called Thunderball and I didn’t know what to do … in the film, it’s kind of a code word, so I used the “strikes like thunderball” bit. It doesn’t bear close examination, but it has that kind of danger and law of the forbidden thing that is essential in any Bond song.’

Black also mentioned that when working, Barry would create the melody and Black would come up with the words that delicately sit on top of it. ‘God knows how many hundreds of songs I’ve written with him over the years. It’s so easy to write with John Barry…’

‘The first thing is that you have to serve the movie. And then, of course, you do have one eye on the charts. The Bond people want to get a hit; very much so now, particularly today. Whoever is the hottest person in the world’s record business, they want to hire them to sing the new Bond song.’ – Don Black

Diamonds Are Forever

For Diamonds Are Forever, Black remembered that producer Harry Saltzman was not at all keen on the Shirley Bassey tune, calling it too provocative and filthy. ‘Well, John Barry said “well, what the bloody hell do you know Harry?” and Harry went out slamming the door and that was that.’

When asked what it was like to work with Bassey, Black delightfully replied: ‘All you want to do is give her a song that she can rip to pieces.’

The Man With The Golden Gun

Speaking about his third Bond assignment, Black recalls that John Barry was never as happy with The Man With The Golden Gun musically as the others. ‘I don’t know why because I think it stands up as the right Bond song for the moment and Lulu did a great job of it,’ he adds.

Surrender

‘I hate to say this really, but why not, you get to a certain stage in your life where you say what you feel, but I do think one of the best things I’ve written is Surrender from Tomorrow Never Dies that I wrote with David Arnold. It became the end-title and k.d. Lang sang it and it’s such a good piece. A lot of people have emailed me and said it should have been the title [song]. That sort of thing aggravates you because it was written for the front-title and then Sheryl Crow was brought in to write it. I mean… no hard feelings about it, but that is life.’

‘If I had my way, I think Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey should sing all the Bond songs. Don’t bother with all the Sheryl Crows and the Madonnas because, with all due respect to these people, it’s a Tom Jones or Bassey job. You need someone like that.’ – Don Black

And lastly, which of the Bond songs is Don Black’s favourite? ‘I think it would have to be Diamonds Are Forever because as soon as it starts with John Barry’s wonderful introduction–that’s another signature of Barry–you don’t have to wait for the song to start. As soon as you hear the first note or two, you’re there.’

What if Shirley Bassey performed The World Is Not Enough? What was Black’s first encounter with Steven Spielberg like? There’s much more… Head over to Stage & Screen Online to listen to this outstanding interview in it’s entirety. The interview is also available to download as an MP3 file.

Keep watching CBn for all the latest James Bond news.

David Arnold To Attend LSO Film Night On 6 January 2008

James Bond film composer David Arnold will be appearing at London’s Barbican Hall as part of the London Symphony Orchestra’s Film Night on Sunday, 6 January 2008.

The composer, best known by 007 fans for his work on the most recent four films in the series (and set to return for next year’s Bond 22) will be taking part in the pre-concert talk along with fellow composer Patrick Doyle and chaired by Tommy Pearson.

An evening of music from the movies, including soundtracks from Hollywood golden oldies Lawrence of Arabia) and Dr Zhivago) , as well as more recent classics Titanic) , Dances with Wolves) , John Williams’s Raiders of the Lost Ark) and music by David Arnold and Patrick Doyle.

Pre-concert Talk: Composers David Arnold (James Bond, Independence Day) and Patrick Doyle (Harry Potter, Bridget Jones’s Diary) join presenter Tommy Pearson to discuss their music and the art of film scoring.

The pre-concert talk is free to the public and will take place at 6:15 PM. The concert, in which the London Symphony Orchestra will play music created by an array of well-known composers, including Arnold and Doyle, follows at 7:30 PM.

Tickets to the concert range in price from £6 to £30. For further information or to purchase tickets, visit the official website.

Fans of Arnold will also want to check out the recent three part audio interview in which he describes his work on the past four James Bond films and a little bit of what is in store for Bond 22: Part One and Two | Part Three.

Keep watching CBn for all the latest James Bond news.

David Arnold Discusses James Bond In Audio Interview

The name’s Arnold, David Arnold. Stage & Screen Online has posted online a two-part interview recorded this month with the composer best known in the 007 community for his work on the past four James Bond films.

Totaling over 70 minutes in length, the first part of the interview with Tommy Pearson (which runs for 43 minutes) centers on Arnold’s beginnings and early student films with director Danny Cannon. His pre-Bond work, including Stargate, Independence Day and Godzilla.

Part two (29 minutes) focuses on Arnold’s association with James Bond. Arnold discusses how the popular Shaken & Stirred project came about as well as John Barry’s reaction to it.

Arnold then goes on to explain his process for creating the music in his debut Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies, which he summed up as ‘a love letter to all things that are great about James Bond music.’

The World Is Not Enough (‘…a lot to live up to with a 17-minute opening pre-title sequence’) and Die Another Day (‘both the film and the music reached the zenith…’) follow.

‘I wanted to make a song and a sound that reflected the way that Daniel Craig was [James Bond],’ says Arnold while explaining what was so different about Casino Royale. ‘I wanted it to sound the way that he looks and he is. He hadn’t become James Bond yet, so why have the James Bond theme? Why would we be ahead of him?’

Tons and tons of other details on 007 are discussed, including the differences between the spectacle of Die Another Day and Casino Royale as well as the fact that Arnold provided the music for all the screentests for the Bond #6 candidates.

And what about Bond 22? ‘I haven’t seen the script yet, but I met with the director, Marc Forster, and we had a very brief chat … in a way, I feel that this next one is the toughest one yet. It was much easier following up Die Another Day with a film where the general media response [regarding Craig’s announcement as the new 007] was “he’s not going to work…”. Following up something as commercially and critically successful as Casino Royale is a much tougher job. I think expectactions are much higher now.’

Head on over to Stage & Screen Online to listen to the complete two-part interview with David Arnold. The interview is also available to download as an MP3 file.

Part three, focusing on Arnold’s work on Stoned, Venus, Amazing Grace and Hot Fuzz, will be available next week.

Keep watching CBn for all the latest James Bond news.

John Barry Homage At The International Festival Of Music And Cinema

The music of famed James Bond composer John Barry will be the center of attention at the upcoming International Festival Of Music And Cinema in France this November.

JamesBond-fr.com reports that the event will be featuring a one and a half hour concert homage to John Barry, showcasing his well-renowned music from the James Bond films, Out Of Africa, Dances With Wolves and other notable films. Barry is best known by Bond fans as the composer of 11 scores for the series, starting with 1963’s From Russia With Love and finally ending with 1987’s The Living Daylights.

The orchestra will be under the direction of conductor Nicholas Dodd, who has worked with David Arnold on some of the most recent 007 films including Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day and Casino Royale.

The International Festival Of Music And Cinema, which is taking place in Auxerre, Yonne, France, will be running from 14 to 18 November 2007. The John Barry homage concert will be taking place on the 17th.

Reservations can be made at the Offices of Tourism located at the Auxerre, Avallon, Joigny, Sens and Saint-Florentin communes. To buy online, visit Ticketnet.fr.

For further information, visit the official website for the International Festival Of Music And Cinema.

Keep watching CBn for all the latest James Bond news.

Discuss this James Bond music news in this thread on the CBn Forums, the largest James Bond 007 forum on the internet. With thanks to Guillaume.

David Arnold Confirmed For 2007 BBC Electric Proms

James Bond composer David Arnold has been confirmed for this year’s BBC Electric Proms event.

Arnold will be teaming up with Kaiser Chiefs on 26 October for a new approach to the arrangement and performance of some of their best-known tracks. In an article posted at NME.com, Arnold said: ‘Hopefully under the umbrella of the Electric Proms we can throw away the rule book of what you can or can’t do with a rock band and a bunch of musicians that you may not expect to seem on stage with them.’

Other notable performers at the event will include Candie Payne, Terry Hall, Jamie Cullum and Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess. Producer Mark Ronson will also be performing alongside Lily Allen and the BBC Concert Orchestra.

The 2007 BBC Electric Proms will run from 24 to 28 October at venues around Camden.

Festival director Lorna Clarke said: ‘I am delighted that the first artists on this year’s line up have embraced the central challenge of the Electric Proms–to create new moments in music.’

‘I know that they will give our broadcast audiences across the country something truly special.’

Tickets for the event go on sale at noon on 12 September. For ticket availability and further details, visit the official website.

Keep watching CBn for all the latest James Bond news.

Discuss this James Bond 007 news in this thread on the CBn Forums, the largest James Bond 007 forum on the internet.

'John Barry – The Man With The Midas Touch' Coming In Autumn 2007

According to an update from JohnBarry.org.uk, the upcoming book John Barry – The Man with the Midas Touch, has been completed and is due for release in autumn 2007.

The biography consists of ‘approximately 260 pages of text split into 30 chapters, 16 pages of colour photos and 16 pages of black and white photos.’ Also included is a definitive film / discography and a foreword especially written by lyricist Don Black.

007 fans best know Barry for his work as composer on the scores for 11 James Bond films, starting with 1963’s From Russia With Love and finally ending with 1987’s The Living Daylights.

Ordering details on John Barry – The Man with the Midas Touch will be released in the upcoming future.

Keep watching CBn for all the latest James Bond news.

Discuss this James Bond 007 news in this thread on the CBn Forums, the largest James Bond 007 forum on the internet. Thanks to CBn Forum member ‘alan more.’

Lyricist Don Black Inducted Into Songwriters Hall Of Fame

Lyricist Don Black, who has written the title themes for several James Bond films over the years, will be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame tomorrow along with Jackson Browne, Irving Burgie, Michael Masser and the songwriting team of Bobby Weinstein and the late Teddy Randazzo–reports USA Today.

007 fans know Black best for his lyricist credits on Thunderball, Diamonds Are Forever, The Man With The Golden Gun, Surrender, The World Is Not Enough and Only Myself To Blame.

Some of his famous non-Bond work includes the theme for Born Free (which earned him an Academy Award) and the title song of the 1972 horror film Ben, which centers on a lonely boy whose only friend is a rodent named Ben.

‘When it came to writing about a rat, I said, “You can’t write about a rat.” I mean, I’m not going to use words like “cheese,”‘ laughed Black. ‘I thought the best thing to do is write about friendship.’ The song, performed by Michael Jackson, proved to be an enduring pop classic.

Discussing Kanye West’s rap hit remake of Shirley Bassey’s Diamonds Are Forever, Black said the reinvention of the song was ‘great fun.’

‘That’s the way you keep a song going. I thought he did a fantastic job. Obviously it isn’t my world but it made me very trendy with my son. I started wearing bling.’

Black, who is also a Tony Award-winner, told The Associated Press that receiving the Songwriters Hall honor ‘means more to me than you can imagine. When I was growing up in the east of London as a little boy, all my heroes were the people who are on this invitation,’ he said.

Keep watching CBn for all the latest James Bond news.

Discuss this James Bond 007 news in this thread on the CBn Forums, the largest James Bond 007 forum on the internet.