Movie Music Monday – Live and Let Die

On this day in 1927, Sir Roger Moore was born. I was introduced to him by my mother, who loved watching James Bond movies. I am ashamed to admit that as a kid, Roger Moore was the only James Bond I knew. It was years later when I found out that Sean Connery was the previous 007!

Moore would play James Bond seven times in films. His first time was in Live and Let Die.

It was Paul McCartney who was approached to write the movie’s theme song for someone else to record. He agreed to write it only if his band Wings could perform it. He received a copy of the Ian Fleming novel. This was to give him an idea of what the film would be about. In 2010, Paul said:

“I got the book and it’s a very fast read. On the Sunday, I sat down and thought, OK, the hardest thing to do here is to work in that title. I mean, later I really pitied who had the job of writing Quantum Of Solace. So I thought, Live And Let Die, OK, really what they mean is live and let live and there’s the switch. So I came at it from the very obvious angle. I just thought, ‘When you were younger you used to say that, but now you say this.'”

Wings drummer, Denny Seiwell, remembers:

“We were up at the house one day and he had just read the book the night before, and he sat down at the piano and said, ‘James Bond… James Bond… da-da-dum!’, and he started screwing around at the piano. Within 10 minutes, he had that song written. It was awesome, really. Just to watch him get in there and write the song was really something I’ll remember the rest of my life.”

The song was voted the best Bond theme ever in a poll of BBC Radio 2 and 5 Live listeners conducted in 2012. The poll was done to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the release of Dr. No.

Happy Heavenly Birthday, to Sir Roger Moore!