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Today, from the Bond on Vinyl archives, we’re listening to music related to Tomorrow Never Dies!
I’ve mentioned before that Sheryl Crow’s title track to Tomorrow Never Dies is not my favorite Bond theme song (see Bond on Vinyl #27), but my mind is still not made up 27+ years later if Crow’s rendition was even the best option for the film. While KD Lang’s song for the film was kept for the end credits, there were as many as a dozen songs pushed aside for the film’s soundtrack.
After Eric Serra’s style from the GoldenEye score was not well received by Bond fans, a new composer was brought in, with David Arnold taking the baton to conduct the first of his five Bond scores. Arnold delivered a big, brassy score with a theme to match, which shows up in motifs throughout the film. In the end, MGM intervened to select a well-known artist for the main theme, which is how pop/country rock singer Sheryl Crow was chosen to kick off the film, while the brassy crooning of KD Lang was reserved for the end. Also, before selecting Crow, the producers had an open audition for main theme submissions. One of these is our subject for today, a rendition of Tomorrow Never Dies that really grows on you by Danish indie rock band Swan Lee. By the time you finish the Goldfinger-inspired music video, you may be thinking this should have been the theme.
Although the group was formed in 1996, they were too obscure when the TND title tune was selected, having released only a three-track EP by 1997. Unable to get a contract for a full album as a group, the band started their own record company, GoGo Records, in 2001. Their version of “Tomorrow Never Dies” was finally released on their debut album, Enter, which features floral artwork, pictured here. The album sold 40,000 copies while peaking at #27 on the Danish charts before being nominated for a half dozen Danish Music Awards, including Group of the Year, Album of the Year, and Danish Hit of the Year.
In 2006, a rendition of the song was featured in the video game Hitman: Blood Money. While not a Bond film, it is a similar aesthetic, and the game’s Danish developer (IO Interactive) is now working on Project 007, a brand-new James Bond video game. Unfortunately for Swan Lee, despite the huge commercial success of their second album in 2004, the group fell apart by 2005, leading to a 17-year hiatus before releasing a third album.
122. Swan Lee – Enter
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