Bond. James Bond Covers.

I'm quite excited about Casino Royale, which comes out today and seems to have generated some good buzz. Though after the invisible car, CGI parachute-surfing, Halle Berry-plagued, Madonna-themed antics of Die Another Day (as in "please don't let the Bond series end on this note"), anything is an improvement. I'm sorry Pierce Brosnan, but the Bond films haven't been exciting since Goldeneye (not your fault). People have been ragging on the new Chris Cornell theme song, with some proclaiming "worst Bond theme ever". Honestly, did everyone suddenly forget Madonna's Die Another Day? Gah! Just thinking of it makes me shiver. Or All Time High? All time low of the Bond theme canon is more like it, though perhaps at the time the songwriter really was on an all time high. I was in the Sony store the other day and in their big screen home theatre area they had an instrumental version of the new theme song playing on an endless loop over clips from the film. It was actually pretty sweet and had me psyched to see Casino Royale. Back in January I posted some Bond theme covers as the answer to one of my "Cover Riddles," a feature on this blog that seems to have gone the way of George Lazemby. Now, to celebrate the release of Casino Royale: some more Bond theme covers.

Bond on Bond [originally by Monty Norman]
The all-girl string quartet called Bond performs their namesake. Definitely not your grandfather's string quartet.

Shirley Bassey - Goldfinger [Propellerheads remix]
This comes from a pretty sweet Shirley Bassey remix album, Diamonds Are Forever. I love this remix by the Propellerheads who also do a nutso 9 minute version of On her Majesty's Secret Service. Here there is a low-key, funky intro that leads up to the explosive first notes of the original Bond classic.

Mr. Bungle - Thunderball [originally by Tom Jones]

The new theme song You Know My Name, follows in the footsteps of these Bond songs that also do not share their name with the film:

Radiohead - Nobody Does it Better (live) [originally by Carly Simon; from The Spy Who Loved Me]
There are several covers of this song around, but Radiohead actually tries to live up to the title. It worked.

Pulp - All Time High [originally by Rita Coolidge; from Octopussy]
Considering the original, this is quite listenable.

Tindersticks - We Have All the Time in the World [originally by Louis Armstrong; from On Her Majesty's Secret Service]

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Bonus Bond-like theme songs (or more accurately, Shirley Bassey Goldfinger-like theme songs):

Blessed be the Guy That Bonds [McBain end theme from the Simpsons]
Scorpio [from the Simpsons]
Brian Song [from Monty Python's Life of Brian]
Weird Al Yankovic - Theme from Spy Hard [from Spy Hard]