A View to a Kill (soundtrack)

Theme song

The theme song "A View to a Kill", was written by John Barry and Duran Duran, and was recorded in London with a 60-piece orchestra. "A View to a Kill" is the most successful Bond theme to date. In 1986 Barry and Duran Duran were nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.

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 decent to do one of your theme songs?"

The single was released in May 1985, and on July 13 it hit number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, and as of 2014 remains the only Bond theme to do so. On May 25, it made it to number two in the UK Singles Chart, also a record for Bond themes until "Writing's on the Wall" by Sam Smith made it to number one in 2015. The b-side was an instrumental piece orchestrated by John Barry, titled "A View To A Kill (That Fatal Kiss)". The song was the last track that the original five members of Duran Duran recorded together until 2001.

The video for the single was directed by the duo Godley & Creme, with shots of the band at the Eiffel Tower intercut with scenes from the movie, so that it appears that Roger Moore and Grace Jones are participating in the same storyline. The singer ends the video with a parody of James Bond, introducing himself as "Bon. Simon Le Bon."

Other music

During the opening teaser, a cover version of the 1965 Beach Boys song "California Girls", performed by Gidea Park (a tribute band), is used during a chase in which Bond snowboards; it has been suggested that this teaser sequence helped initiate interest in snowboarding.

The film features Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, which is performed during the reception that 007 attends undercover at Zorin's stud in France.

In the remastered CD edition, the 3rd track is incorrectly labeled "May Day Jumpers" on the back of the case.

Leitmotifs

Composer John Barry utilizes four leitmotifs on the soundtrack, that recurs in two or more of the tracks listed. One is pinned to the theme songs by Duran Duran, one is pinned to henchwoman May Day, one is pinned to the action set-pieces and one appears more generally throughout the film. Barry often called the secondary themes he composed as "action themes" that underscored the action on the screen with hints of the film's theme song, the Bond theme itself, or simply another theme used only in that particular film. Such themes were occasionally reused, such as his "007" theme, originally composed for "From Russia With Love" but brought back for four subsequent Bond pictures. The action theme composed for this film is easily a memorable as those secondary themes he used in "You Only Live Twice" (the "Space March"), "Diamonds Are Forever" (A similar space-themed piece, and the "Bond Meets Bambi & Thumper" theme which echoed both the Bond theme and the title song) among others.

A View To A Kill Theme

“Set-piece Theme”

May Day Motif

Pegasus’ Theme

Track listing

1. "A View to a Kill (Main Title)" – Duran Duran
2. "Snow Job"
3. "May Day Jumps"
4. "Bond Meets Stacey (A View to a Kill)"
5. "Pegasus' Stable"
6. "Tibbett Gets Washed Out"
7. "Airship to Silicon Valley"
8. "He's Dangerous"
9. "Bond Underwater"
10. "Wine with Stacey (A View to a Kill)"
11. "Bond Escapes Roller"
12. "Destroy Silicon Valley"
13. "May Day Bombs Out"
14. "Golden Gate Fight"
15. "A View to a Kill (End Title)" – Duran Duran