I think we had this one in the old forums. Updated for 2018, only including songs played during main title sequence (excludes Dr. No).
Honorable mentions: “Surrender” (the true theme song to Tomorrow Never Dies), “If You Asked Me To” (end titles track for Licence to Kill, better than the main title song), “No Good About Goodbye” (Shirley Bassey’s rejected theme for Quantum of Solace), "We Have All the Time In the World (Louis Armstrong’s lyrical theme for OHMSS), “From Russia with Love” (Matt Munro, main theme of FRWL, but played over end credits).
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“Skyfall”: Adele’s haunting ballad is the best song in the Bond cannon. The song describes Bond’s mood during the film. Accompanied by the franchise’s greatest MTS, the film screams classic Bond and Adele’s vocals make the haunting song come to life like no other. Simply, an instant classic.
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“On Her Majesty’s Secret Service Main Theme”: To date, the last instrumental main title song. The song does a great job setting the mood for the rest of the film. It is a fun and classic entry.
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“Live and Let Die”: Arguably the most famous of the Bond themes, Paul McCartney still plays it regularly at shows. The song matches the voodoo setting of the film and does a great job of getting you into the mood. Even non-Bond fans know this one. It’s that popular.
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“You Know My Name”: Chris Cornell lends his iconic voice to Bond’s rebirth. The song accurately describes Bond’s transformation from rookie to secret agent. Its bombastic and raw just as Bond is in Casino Royale.
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“A View to a Kill”: The only Bond song to reach number one on the Billboard hot 100, its backstory is legendary. The song doesn’t much describe the film, but that’s probably for the best. The song is very much a Duran Duran song and screams 80s. The song will make anyone want to rock out.
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“Nobody Does It Better”: The James Bond theme notwithstanding, this may be the franchise’s unofficial theme song. Carly Simon does a brilliant job gushing praise on James Bond. The song is sung from the perspective of Anya Amasova and contains the perfect mix of 70s pop and ballad. An excellent song to accompany the franchise’s finest entry.
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“The World Is Not Enough”: Garbage sings the best of the Brosnan era themes. The song does a great job of describing Bond’s relationship with Elektra. Shirley Manson gives it her all and is able to stand with the best of Bond vocalists. If only the rest of the film were as good as this.
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“Goldfinger”: The gold standard (pun intended) for Bond themes, Shirley Bassey defines what a Bond theme should be. Describing the film’s villain, the song foreshadows a sinister character that will go toe-to-toe with Bond. The song is loud and bombastic and gets you pumped for what is to follow. Other songs have done it better, but there is no denying this song’s (and film’s) legacy.
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“You Only Live Twice”: Nancy Sinatra gives an excellent performance on the most beautiful song in the Bond cannon. The song has a unique flavor that matches the film’s Japanese setting. The lyrics are decidedly dream-like and paint a picture of Bond’s transformation over time. Sinatra sings them with such grace and sounds as if she could be singing to Bond herself.
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“The Living Daylights”: After the success of Duran Duran’s theme, a-Ha were brought in to continue that success and they delivered one of the better themes, that charted high around the world (but not in the US). Whlie not as in your face as “A View to a Kill”, “The Living Daylights” has a distinct flavor not found in other Bond themes. However, it doesn’t really have much to do with Bond or the film it is attached to. As such, it achieves greatness, but falls short of excellence.
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“Thunderball”: A loud, bombastic song, for a loud, bombastic film. Its a very good song, however, it only seems to be trying to outdo the superior “Goldfinger.” The film does a great job of describing Bond and Tom Jones gives it his all. However, song of the lyrics just don’t make sense and are only there to include the title of the film. What does “and he strikes like Thunderball” mean exactly?
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“DIamonds are Forever”: The second-best of the Bassey themes. The song is upbeat and matches the tone of the film, which may be its biggest flaw. The film shouldn’t have been light-hearted and fun and neither should its theme. That said, Bassey hits the highest of notes as she always does. A classic song, its just wrong as the follow-up theme to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
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“For Your Eyes Only”: A good song, but not memorable. The song works to describe the relationship between Bond and Melina, however, nothing about it is particularly great. Sheen Easton gives a passable performance, but the song evokes memories of the awful “Morning Train.”
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“Tomorrow Never Dies”: Not a bad song by any stretch, however, it is completely overshadowed by its much better cousin “Surrender”. The song is very slow, but the lyrics do a great job describing Bond. I think this song would be higher if someone other than Sheryl Crow had sung it. I like Sheryl Crow, but here, her voice is just too scratchy. A good song, but it never should have been the main song.
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“Goldeneye”: I know this is a popular one, however, I personally don’t like it. The song sounds too much like her song from Thunderdome. The melody is very harsh. Goldeneye needed something more bombastic and this is too grunge-y.
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“Licence to Kill”: Gladys Knight does what she can to save the longest of all the Bond themes. It, along with its sister song “If You Asked Me To” both sound very late 80s, which isn’t a bad thing. However, the film doesn’t fit the tone of Licence to Kill. It is too much of a ballad for a very violent movie. Not a bad song, but disappointing.
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“Writing’s on the Wall”: Sam Smith delivers a very much vanilla Bond theme. It certainly has certain features of classic Bond themes and the lyrics have grown on me. However, the falsetto just completely ruins this song. If Smith had performed it without that, the song would’ve been higher. Still not sure how this won for best original song.
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“The Man with the Golden Gun”: A very provactive and violent song that does describe Scaramanga well, however, doesn’t do much else well. While the song is loud and bombastic, it doesn’t sound like a Bond song. As it is, TMWTGG is one of the series’s weakest soundtracks and it is headlined by this monstrosity.
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“Opening Titles: From Russia with Love”: Nothing inherently wrong here, however, nothing inherently great either. The track is an amalgation of different pieces of music and really just comes off as meh. The Matt Munro song would’ve worked much better over the main titles.
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“All Time High”: Too jazzy. The song fits the theme of Octopussy, however, the song is decidedly un-Bondlike. I only listen to this one when I watch Octopussy.
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“Moonraker”: The worst of the Shirley Bassey Bond themes. Not much good to say about it, even Bassey sounds bored while singing.
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“Die Another Day”: This was the worst Bond song until AWTD. The song is way too techno and doesn’t fit with the theme of DAD. The one saving grace is the less-techno and less-harsh version played over the end credits.
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“Another Way to Die”: Absolute garbage, can’t believe this song was picked over Shirley Bassey’s song. This is the only MTS that I actively skip when I watch the film. The song sounds very un-Bondian and really I’d rather listen to nails on a chalkboard. bleep this song.