Shaken, Not Stirred

On this date in 1908, Ian Fleming was born. There is much to say about him, but the thing that for which he is most famous is his creation of James Bond, the protagonist of a series of Spy novels. Although the novels were very popular, it was their adaptation to the cinema that made them into pop culture icons.

There is so much that I can write about this topic. In my youth, I was crazy about Spy stories, developed out of my enthusiasm for the James Bond movies and novels. Yeah, there are better, more cohesive novels then Fleming's, but I give him a pass for being a primary inspiration of the genre.

Likewise, the movies can be a bit silly from time to time. But that's part of the Bond charm. ;-)


Live and Let Die


In regards to the movies, one of the things that I enjoy the most is the theme music.

Again, I could go on at great length pontificating on what I feel is the best style to capture a proper Bondian mood. But I'm short on time today, so let me give examples of two of my favorites:

Shirley Bassey sets the gold standard for Bond songs. However, I think this piece by Nancy Sinatra is pretty good too:

In both cases, there is a classy "torch song" quality to the music. That's what I like most in the Bond theme songs.

Here's a link to Ian Fleming's Wikipedia page.

And here's a link to the James Bond Wikipedia page.

Enjoy!!!