Was Nobody Does It Better written for James Bond?

We’re digging into the Far Out Magazine vault to bring you a very special performance form one of our favourite artists, Radiohead, as they take on a classic.

The history between Radiohead and James Bond isn’t as recent as you might think. The band wrote a theme tune for the 2015 film Spectre, which was inexplicably and wrongly turned down(The band instead then offered it out as a free gift to their fans). But actually, their connection with 007 goes back to 1995 when they covered Carly Simon’s ‘Nobody Does It Better’ for MTV.

After being launched into the cultural mainstream with their 1993 hit ‘Creep’, Thom Yorke and Radiohead suddenly found themselves at the centre of the MTV hysteria which surrounded British artists at the time. With Blur and Oasis bringing Britpop to the masses Radiohead was often lumped in the same boat as the feuding bands. Naturally, it was a grouping the band didn’t particularly enjoy.

Something that Oasis and Blur could never really do, however, is cover a classic song yet make it completely and utterly feel like their own—excluding ‘I Am the Walrus’. That brings us to Radiohead’s performance in August of 1995 where they took on the 1977 Bond film theme tune ‘Nobody Does It Better’ and turned it into something utterly unique.

Originally performed by the iconic singer Carly Simon, for the now cult-classic James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me starring Roger Moore. The song is special, not only because it is the first Bond theme tune to not share the film’s title but because of the powerhouse performance that came with it. The track has since become synonymous with the secret agent’s past, present and future.

While Simon’s version may have some big power notes and operatic conditioning, Radiohead manages to deliver a subversive and ultimately beautiful rendition of the song, with Thom Yorke’s vocal in, particularly fine form.

Riffs rage from the back as the song swirls to its crescendo ending with the kind of cultured anarchy that would define their early career. It’s a triumph.

The highly creative American musician won three Oscars, four Emmys, four Grammys and a Tony Award, and wrote smash hits both for Broadway musicals (such as ‘A Chorus Line’) and a host of movies (such as ‘The Sting’ and ‘The Way We Were’).

He was also very well-known to James Bond fans, of course, as the composer of the soundtrack to Roger Moore’s third 007 movie ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ (1977), with its hugely popular theme song ‘Nobody Does It Better’. The memorable song, on which Hamlisch collaborated with his then-wife Carole Bayer Sager, was sung by Carly Simon and was nominated for an Oscar in 1977.

Hamlisch was originally approached by Cubby Broccoli for ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ after longtime Bond composer John Barry was unavailable. Hamlisch was able to persuade the Bond producer that Carole Bayer Sager should be given a chance to write the main song. When Cubby agreed, Hamlisch and Sager called Carly Simon. When Carly sang the song she apparently ‘loved it’. The rest, as they say, is musical history: the song went to no.2 in the U.S. music charts in the summer of 1977, and reached no.7 in the U.K. pop charts shortly after.

Hamlisch revealed some years later that his inspiration for some of the music for the soundtrack to ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ came not only from the modern Disco craze of the time but also from some of his favourite classical composers, such as Mozart and Bach. It also emerged that the original title for the song ‘Nobody Does It Better’ came from Carole Bayer Sager, who approached the song as if she was writing a ‘love letter’ to James Bond.

Interestingly, at first, the Bond production team were not too keen on the title ‘Nobody Does It Better’, as it did not initially reference the film’s actual title. Carole Bayer Sager resolved this by carefully integrating the film’s title into a verse of the lyrics. Marvin Hamlisch was very disappointed that the song did not gain an Oscar, and, when performing his piano music live on stage in later years, he often included it in a medley of ‘All the Greatest Songs that have Lost the Academy Award’.

Written by Carole Bayer Sager (words) and Marvin Hamlisch (music) for “The Spy Who Loved Me,” the Bond theme was the first to be titled differently from the movie.

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"Nobody Does It Better" is a song composed by Marvin Hamlisch with lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager. It was recorded by Carly Simon as the theme song for the 1977 James Bond film 'The Spy Who Loved Me'. It was the first Bond theme song to be titled differently from the name of the film since 'Dr. No', although the phrase "the spy who loved me" is included in the lyrics. The song was released as a single from the film's soundtrack album.

"Nobody Does It Better" became a major worldwide hit, spending three weeks at #2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 but was kept out of the top spot by Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life" and #1 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart. It also reached #7 on the UK Singles Chart. The song was certified Gold by the RIAA, signifying sales of one million copies in the US.

The song is Simon's longest-charting hit. Her earlier hit "You're So Vain" spent three weeks at #1; however, its chart run was two months shorter than that of "Nobody Does It Better." The title of the theme was later used for Simon's 1999 greatest hits compilation, 'The Very Best of Carly Simon: Nobody Does It Better'.

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Who wrote the song Nobody Does It Better?

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