Paul McCartney left the Beatles to begin life as a solo artist, and in his new band, Wings. The band included his wife, Linda Eastman, as well as session drummer Denny Seiwell and former Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine in the original line up. The line-up changed a great deal over the time the band was together – but they were part of one of the most popular James Bond theme tunes ever.
Live and Let Die was one of the most famous James Bond themes, and really wowed fans.
It is, to this day, one of the most iconic Bond themes, and is incredibly different from many of the big band favourites that ca,e before.
Live and Let Die was recorded near the end of the band’s Red Rose Speedway sessions in October 1972, and reunited McCartney and George Martin, the Beatles producer and arranger who worked with them on a huge number of their albums.
Speaking to Mojo magazine in 2010, McCartney recalled the experience of creating the Bond theme tune.
He said: “I got the book [Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming] 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.
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“I just thought, ‘When you were younger you used to say that, but now you say this.'”
So, to answer the question on who wrote the theme song, it seems Paul McCartney was pretty much the main brain behind it.
This assertion is backed up by one of his former bandmates, Denny Seiwell.
In book Nobody Does It Better, a Bond history by Mark Altman and Edward Gross, Seiwell said: “Everybody thought it was cool that we were doing something for James Bond.
“I remember what Paul told us – he said a couple weeks before we did the actual recording, he said they wanted him to write the theme to the next James Bond movie, and they sent him the book to read.
“And 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 single was released in 1973 and received acclaim from fans and critics.
The song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song but lost to Barbra Streisand’s The Way We Were, but George Martin won a Grammy for his work on the song.
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