Paul McCartney’s Iconic James Bond Theme Almost Didn’t Happen

“Live and Let Die” may be the most iconic of all the James Bond theme songs, the the famous tune almost didn’t happen. In the new Prime Video documentary, The Sound of 007, composer/producer George Martin and Paul McCartney spoke about the creation of the song for 1973’s Live and Let Die and revealed that while the film’s producers Albert R Broccoli and Harry Saltzman wanted McCartney to write a song for the film. they wanted someone other than McCartney to sing it.

In the documentary (via CinemaBlend), McCartney recounted how he was given the Ian Fleming book to read and write the song from and then he worked with Martin to get the song to Saltzman— who in turn started asking who they might get to sing it.

“And I thought, ‘Well, he’s gonna look me over.’ And at the end of it, he said, ‘By the way, who do you think we should get to sing the song?’ I said, ‘Well, you do have Paul McCartney,’” Martin said. “[And he said,] ‘Yeah. Yeah. What do you think of Thelma Houston?’ I said, ‘I think she’s great, but Paul…’ [Harry continued] ‘How about Aretha Franklin?’ I said, ‘Fantastic.’ But Paul and I had suddenly realized that I had to put it to him, as delicately as I could, that if he didn’t take Paul, he wouldn’t get the song.”

Ultimately, Saltzman and McCartney both sort of won out. McCartney’s version of “Live and Let Die” became the main title version for the film, but a second version, performed by B.J Arnau, appears in the film itself.

Who will be the next James Bond?

Following the departure of Daniel Craig from the iconic role after No Time to Die, the search is on for the next actor to play 007. However, at this time, no one has been cast — and the process to find the right fit is a significant one.

“When you change the actor, you have to reimagine the direction the film’s gonna go in. When you hire an actor, you’re hoping you’re going to spend a decade at least with them and make four or five or six films with them. So, you have to think through, ‘what is the trajectory? What is that actor going to bring? How are you going to move the series into another direction?’” Barbara Broccoli told Empire, adding that the casting process is not as easy as the endless fancast picks online make it seem: 

“It’s not just flicking through Spotlight and saying, ‘Oh, there’s a guy who’s 6’1,’” Broccoli continued. “We’re going to take our time. We want to get a sense of where we want to go with the series, and we want to do that before we bring anybody else on. We’ll start the process probably with [writers] Rob [Wade] and Neil [Purvis] and we’ll see where we go!”

What do you think about McCartney’s “Live and Let Die” almost not becoming an iconic Bond song? Let us know in the comment section.