Young Bond author Charlie Higson comments on the `Quantum of Solace` song

You can’t fault Jack White and Alicia Keys for courage, reports The Times. The White Stripes frontman and the Grammy-laden R&B singer have recorded the title song for Quantum of Solace, the first duet on a Bond film soundtrack, it was announced yesterday.

The pair’s musical credibility, commercial popularity and diverse global fanbases attracted the producers and will certainly help to shield Keys and White from the inevitable ravings of the notoriously fierce 007 aficionados.

But it remains to be seen whether they will escape the curse of the Bond song. Frenzied speculation surrounds the choice of musical performer for every 007 film, providing acres of carefully orchestrated free publicity and fuelling pub debates.

Amy Winehouse, Duffy, Grace Jones and Leona Lewis were all strongly tipped this time around, and they may yet be grateful to have missed out. Very few of the artists who have recorded title songs for the longest-running series in cinema have gone on to greater success after their brush with Ian Fleming’s debonair spy.

Charlie Higson, author of the Young Bond novels and a self-confessed Bond junkie, said that the glory days of the stirring Bond tune were long gone. “There were five or six of them that were really fantastic in the early days, like Diamonds Are Forever, Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice, but I don’t think there’s been a true classic since Nobody Does It Better for The Spy Who Loved Me [in 1977].”

Of White and Keys, he said: “This pairing doesn’t sound that thrilling to me, but let’s not judge it before we’ve heard it. Think what they all said about Daniel Craig and look how good he turned out to be.”

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