Something I didn't know about Thunderball

I saw this on Mark Evanier's blog:


On YouTube, the poster opines: "The (far superior) song that John Barry originally recorded for the main title of THUNDERBALL (1965), "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang." Sung by Dionne Warwick (Barry wanted Shirley Bassey again but she was replaced by Warwick). Main title by Maurice Binder."

I have to say that while this is a cool song (and it was used as an instrumental in the soundtrack), I've always thought the Tom Jones theme song was one of the best because it's just so wacky.

Evanier explains further:

I'm not sure I have this story 100% right but here goes: When they made the James Bond film Thunderball in 1965, the opening song was originally going to be a tune called "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" that was written by John Barry and Leslie Bricusse, and sung by Dionne Warwick. Its title was a popular nickname for Mr. Bond, especially in the foreign press.

The main titles were filmed and edited to that track and then the producers, Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, got to worrying that it was the wrong song. Reportedly, they felt that a vital part of their films' promotion involved having a hit song out there that endlessly repeated the name of the movie...and of course, "Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" didn't reference the title, didn't yell at people to go out and see Thunderball. So Mr. Barry got together with lyricist Don Black and they came up with a song called "Thunderball," which was recorded for them by Tom Jones and it was substituted for the Warwick track. (Also reportedly, Johnny Cash took a crack at writing and recording a song called "Thunderball" but his submission wasn't used, either. It was probably all about 007 riding trains, drinking coffee and being in prison.)

This clip consists of the opening titles of Thunderball with the original track reinstated. I don't think it's a better song but I think it fits better with the visuals. I guess that's only to be expected since they were calibrated to this tune instead of the one recorded by Mr. Jones.