Song · A Moon Shaped Pool era (2015–21)
Spectre
A James Bond theme that Bond turned down, given away free on Christmas Day.
2015
the commission
The Bond production team asked Radiohead to write the theme for Spectre: Sam Mendes was directing, and he and Daniel Craig were both fans. The rumour got out far enough that in July 2015 William Hill suspended betting after someone tried to put £15,000 on it at ten to one.
The band first offered “Man of War”, a 1990s song Yorke had written as a Bond pastiche in the first place. The producers liked it and then rejected it: because it had not been written for the film, it could not be nominated for Best Original Song.
So they stopped work on A Moon Shaped Pool and went into Air Studios with Godrich to write a new one.
the rejection
too dark, too late, or politics
The film used Sam Smith's “Writing's on the Wall”. Explanations differ depending on who is asked. Jonny Greenwood said theirs was judged “too dark”. Yorke: “just politics as far as I can tell.” The producer Barbara Broccoli said it simply arrived too late, by which time the title sequence had been cut to the other song. Mendes tried to place it elsewhere in the film and found the words too distracting.
An utter nightmare… We had this beautiful song and we weren't able to use it. But it's somehow cooler for Radiohead to have written a song that wasn't used.
sam mendes · sound and vision, 5 november 2017
Godrich, who lost studio time to it, called the whole thing a real waste of energy.
25 dec 2015
given away
The band kept the rights, and on Christmas Day 2015 they put it online free, their first release since 2011.
That side of it was really positive… We get to have it back and it's ours and we got to put it out. We're really, really proud of it.
jonny greenwood · bbc news
It is an orchestral ballad, sung in falsetto over strings and jerky piano, with just enough of the Bond gesture left in. Pitchfork made it Best New Music. It later appeared as the B-side of the “Burn the Witch” 7-inch and on the special edition of A Moon Shaped Pool.
2018
seven nights
They did not play it until the summer of 2018, and then only seven times, from Chicago on 7 July to Philadelphia on 1 August.
on stage
Live at Bell Centre, 2018.· noise_jamwatch on youtube →
takes(2)
explained
The chords Bond themes are built on, and how the theme the producers turned down uses them.· Listening Inwatch on youtube →
videos(2)
Live history
| Times played | 7 shows |
|---|---|
| Live debut | Saturday 7 July 2018 · Chicago |
| Last played | Wednesday 1 August 2018 · Philadelphia |
Nights played include broadcasts; opened and closed count gigs only. A cancelled night has no setlist. All setlist stats →
Heard in (1)
- SpectreCommissioned for the Bond film and turned down in favour of Sam Smith's; the band put it out free on 25 December 2015.
sources8
- “Radiohead reveal rejected theme for James Bond film Spectre”, BBC News, 25 December 2015.
- “Radiohead interview: ‘It's a very happy time’”, BBC News, 16 June 2016.
- Andy Greene, “19 things we learned hanging out with Radiohead”, Rolling Stone, 8 June 2017.
- Sam Mendes, Sound and Vision, 5 November 2017.
- The Sound of 007, Amazon Prime, October 2022.
- Andrew Trendell, NME, 3 October 2018.
- Winston Cook-Wilson, “Radiohead: ‘Spectre’”, Pitchfork, 4 January 2016.
- “Bond theme betting suspended”, The Guardian, 29 July 2015.