The Times gives ten rules for the perfect Bond theme

Do it better: ten rules for the perfect Bond theme - by The Times.

DO trust John Barry. He knows this game best. AHa described working with him as “the old meeting the new”. The timeless meeting the fleeting would have been more accurate

DON’T cram a long film title into the lyric. The Man With the Golden Gun didn’t work; On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was never going to make for a great title song

DO use crashing, Third World War tympani whenever the title is sung (think Thunderball, Licence to Kill) and not weedy, squelchy Euro-synths (think Die Another Day)

DON’T think that you’re bigger than Bond and write something with no sense of history. Madge, I’m talking to you!

DO use mysterious instrumentation. A Fender Strat lacks the international intrigue of the cimbalom, balalaika or zither

DON’T include a limp reggae middle eight, as the McCartneys did on Live and Let Die. We know Haiti is next door to Jamaica, but there is no room for UB40 in the Bond canon

DO build up to an avalanche-launching climax. This is Hollywood!

DON’T get soppy: All Time High from Octopussy is maybe the least-remembered Bond theme

DO get all catlike and Eartha Kitt-like wherever possible, as on the mightily mellifluous Diamonds Are Forever and Nobody Does It Better. It’s sexy

DON’T dance into the fire. It’s dangerous

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