"A View to a Kill" is the thirteenth single by Duran Duran,
released in May 1985.
It was a stand-alone single, created for the James Bond
movie
A View to a Kill, and it remains the only James Bond
theme song to have reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100; it also
made it to #2 for 3 weeks on the UK Singles Chart, held off the
top spot by "19" by Paul Hardcastle. In 1986, John Barry and
Duran Duran were nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best
Original Song for
A View to a Kill. Many fans around the world acclaim it
by its famous phrase, "Dance Into The Fire".
The song was the last track that the original five members
of Duran Duran recorded together until their reunion sixteen
years later, in 2001. It was played at their final 1985
performance together before splitting for the very first time,
at Live Aid in Philadelphia. The single was at #1 on the
Billboard Hot 100 at the time they performed it on that
historic event.
The song was written by Duran Duran and John Barry, and
recorded at Maison Rouge Studio and CTS Studio in London with a
60-piece orchestra.
Duran Duran was chosen to do the song after bassist John
Taylor (a lifelong Bond fan) approached producer Cubby Broccoli
at a party, and somewhat drunkenly asked "When are you going to
get someone
decentto do one of your theme songs?" This inauspicious
beginning led to some serious talks, and the band was
introduced to Bond composer John Barry, and also Jonathan Elias
(whom Duran Duran members would later work with many times). An
early writing meeting at Taylor's flat in Knightsbridge led to
everyone getting drunk instead of composing.
Singer Simon Le Bon said of Barry: "He didn't really come up
with any of the basic musical ideas. He heard what we came up
with and he put them into an order. And that's why it happened
so quickly because he was able to separate the good ideas from
the bad ones, and he arranged them. He has a great way of
working brilliant chord arrangements. He was working with us as
virtually a sixth member of the group, but not really getting
on our backs at all."
The song was finally completed in April 1985, and was
released worldwide in May the same year.
The song was accompanied by a tongue-in-cheek video filmed
in June 1985. It was directed by the duo Godley & Creme
(who had also directed their 1981 video for "Girls on Film".)
The video cast the band members as spies and assassins
scampering all over the Eiffel Tower, in a rather tangled
thicket of half-sketched storylines. Band members execute many
actions: Roger Taylor sends out his probe-cams from inside his
mobile HQ to patrol around the whole Eiffel Tower, Nick Rhodes
takes pictures with his spy cam, John Taylor supposedly gives a
"helping hand" to Bond (Roger Moore) by shooting at May Day
(Grace Jones) with his hidden "binnoculars-camouflaged" gun
while Andy Taylor directs his sonic accordion attacks upon Nick
as Simon Le Bon wanders about, using a portable cassette player
to set off a series of explosions elsewhere in the world. These
shots are intercut with a few scenes taken from the
A View to a Killfilm, including those featuring Moore
and Jones on the Eiffel Tower, so that it appears the actors
and the band are participating in the same storyline.
At the end of the video, a woman approaches Le Bon asking
him "Excuse me! And you?", then he finishes with a spoof of
Bond's signature introduction, smarmily introducing himself:
"Bon. Simon Le Bon." After saying this, he looks at his fake
cassette player only to notice it programmed the Eiffel Tower
to explode inmediately. However, instead of the entire tower
collapsing, a postcard with a picture of Eiffel Tower, that is
being sold at a tourist stand on the ground floor explodes as a
gunbarrel closes to end the video.
The b-side was an instrumental piece orchestrated by John
Barry, titled "A View To A Kill (That Fatal Kiss)".
It is thought that there was no 12" remix for the song
because the band ran out of time. However, Capitol Records did
commission and receive at least one remix of the track.
In addition BBC Radio 1 (in the UK) played one extended
version of the track which included the well-known "I expect
you to die" quote from Goldfinger as a one-off promotion around
the time the single was released. An unofficial DJ Service
remix called "A View to a kill (Art of Mix)" has appeared on
various DJ and bootleg compilations. There is also a fan-made
remix which combines the whole Duran Duran's version with some
sampled scores from its film and an orchestral score completely
based upon that of the band's. It was named as "A View To A
Kill (Saint Ken Extended Remix)".
Cover versions have been recorded by popular Welsh band
Lostprophets, Canadian punk band Gob, and Australian band
Custard. In 2006 the Chilean band Los MOX! recorded a new and
heavier version of the song for their album titled "... con
cover" Another cover version of the song was created in 1985 by
a euro disco group called DJ's Factory. This cover of
A View to a Killhas a more disco/house sound as compared
to that of Duran Duran's. Shirley Bassey covered the song, as
she did with all of the Bond songs (up to GoldenEye) for an
album- however, she wasn't satisfied with the quality, so the
album was never released. Finnish Melodic Death Metal band
Diablo has covered the song, so has Finnish symphonic metal
cover supergroup Northern Kings. In 2008, the song was covered
with a bossa feeling by former Morcheeba singer Skye on the
cover album
Hollywood Mon Amour.
Måns Zelmerlöw performed a live version of the song at the
beginning of the Andra Chansen round of Melodifestivalen 2010
in Örebro, Sweden.
Albums:
·
·
·
, Andy Taylor ·
Warren
Cuccurullo ·
Sterling
Campbell ·
Stephen Duffy ·
Simon Colley ·
Andy Wickett ·
Alan Curtis ·
Jeff Thomas
Duran Duran ·
Rio ·
Seven and the Ragged Tiger ·
Notorious ·
Big Thing ·
Liberty ·
Duran Duran ·
Thank You ·
Medazzaland ·
Pop Trash ·
Astronaut ·
Red Carpet Massacre
Live at Hammersmith 82! ·
Arena
Carnival ·
Master Mixes ·
Decade: Greatest Hits ·
Greatest ·
Night Versions: The Essential Duran Duran ·
Strange Behaviour ·
Singles Box Set 1981-1985 ·
Singles Box Set 1986-1995 ·
The Essential Collection
"Planet Earth" ·
"Careless
Memories" ·
"Girls on
Film" ·
"My Own Way" ·
"Hungry Like the
Wolf" ·
"Save a
Prayer" ·
"Rio" ·
"Is There Something I Should
Know?" ·
"Union of the
Snake" ·
"New Moon on
Monday" ·
"The Reflex" ·
"Tiger Tiger" ·
"The Wild
Boys" ·
"
A View to a Kill
" ·
"Notorious" ·
"Skin Trade" ·
"Meet El
Presidente" ·
"I Don't Want Your
Love" ·
"All She Wants
Is" ·
"Do You Believe in
Shame?" ·
"Burning the
Ground" ·
"Violence of Summer (Love's
Taking Over)" ·
"Serious" ·
"Ordinary
World" ·
"Come Undone" ·
"Too Much
Information" ·
"Drowning Man
" ·
"None Of The
Above" ·
"Breath After
Breath" ·
"Femme Fatale" ·
"Perfect Day" ·
"White Lines" ·
"Lay Lady Lay" ·
"Out of My
Mind" ·
"Electric
Barbarella" ·
"Someone Else Not
Me" ·
"Playing With
Uranium" ·
"Last Day On
Earth" ·
"(Reach Up for The)
Sunrise" ·
"What Happens
Tomorrow" ·
"Nice" ·
"Falling Down"
"Anyone Out
There" ·
"Sound of
Thunder" ·
"Shadows on Your
Side" ·
"Come Up and See Me (Make Me
Smile)" ·
"Planet Earth"
(Live) ·
"Is There Something I Should
Know?" (Live)" ·
"Big Thing" ·
"Too Late
Marlene" ·
"The Krush Brothers: LSD
Edit" ·
"Decadence" ·
"Cry Baby Cry" ·
"Skin Divers"
Duran Duran Video 45 ·
Duran Duran ·
Dancing on the Valentine ·
Sing Blue Silver ·
Arena (An Absurd Notion) ·
The Making of Arena ·
Three to Get Ready ·
Working for the Skin Trade ·
6ix by 3hree ·
Decade: Greatest Hits ·
Extraordinary World ·
Greatest ·
Live from London
Arcadia ·
Power Station ·
Neurotic
Outsiders ·
The Devils
Discography ·
TV Mania ·
Tours[[1]]