James Bond Theme Songs Trivia
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46 free James Bond Theme Songs trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
This James Bond theme songs trivia quiz covers the music of every Eon film from Dr. No to No Time to Die. It asks who wrote and sang each theme — Shirley Bassey's three, Nancy Sinatra, Wings, Carly Simon, Sheena Easton, Duran Duran, a-ha, Gladys Knight, Tina Turner, Garbage, Madonna, Chris Cornell, Adele, Sam Smith and Billie Eilish — plus the composers behind them, from Monty Norman's disputed riff and John Barry's eleven scores to David Arnold and Hans Zimmer. It also collects the stories: the producer who hated 'Goldfinger', the abandoned 'Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang', the k.d. lang song demoted to the end credits, Blondie's and Radiohead's rejected submissions, the only duet, the youngest singer and which songs finally won Oscars and topped the charts. Roughly a third of the questions are easy for casual fans; the rest reward serious Bond obsessives. Note that we ask about the songs, not their words — no lyrics are quoted. Our main James Bond page covers the films themselves. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia's articles on the songs and their sources, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
30 of 46 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01John Barry arranged the James Bond Theme, but which composer sued a newspaper for saying he didn't write it?
Monty Norman
Monty Norman won £30,000 libel damages in 2001; Barry had taken a flat £250 fee, leaving Norman the songwriting credit.
Q 02Which singer is the only person to have performed more than one Bond theme?
Shirley Bassey
Shirley Bassey sang Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker, and she held Goldfinger's final note so long that she nearly passed out.
Q 03Which was the first Bond theme to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song?
Skyfall
Skyfall won Adele the Oscar in 2013, a first for a Bond theme, though she had at first been hesitant to take on a Bond song.
Q 04Which Bond theme was the first US Billboard Hot 100 number one?
A View to a Kill by Duran Duran
A View to a Kill by Duran Duran came about, as the band tells it, after bassist John Taylor drunkenly asked producer Cubby Broccoli at a party about doing a theme.
Q 05Which was the first Bond theme to reach number one on the UK singles chart?
Writing's on the Wall
Writing's on the Wall split opinion on release, yet in October 2015 it became the first Bond theme to reach number one in the UK.
Q 06Which band sang the title song for the 1999 Bond film The World Is Not Enough?
Garbage
Garbage were on a world tour while the song was being made, so the band worked on it with the film's composer over the phone.
Q 07Who sang the vocal version of 'From Russia with Love' heard at the film's end?
Matt Monro
Matt Monro's vocal version of Lionel Bart's 'From Russia with Love' plays over the end titles; the opening used John Barry's instrumental arrangement.
Q 08Which lyricists wrote 'Goldfinger'?
Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse
Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse wrote the words to John Barry's tune, and Newley himself sang on Barry's first demo of Goldfinger.
Q 09Which Bond producer objected that the lyric of Diamonds Are Forever was too sexually suggestive?
Harry Saltzman
Harry Saltzman found the lyric distasteful and wanted it rewritten, but his partner Albert R. Broccoli approved the song and it stayed in the film.
Q 10Director Guy Hamilton played John Barry which song as a gritty model for Goldfinger?
Mack the Knife
Mack the Knife was Hamilton's guide to the feel he wanted, and the lyricists then wrote Goldfinger's words without reading the script.
Q 11Who sang the last-minute Thunderball title song after 'Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' was dropped?
Tom Jones
Tom Jones stepped in once the film's title had to be in the song, and he reportedly fainted after holding its long final note.
Q 12Who sang 'If You Asked Me To' over the end credits of the 1989 Bond film Licence to Kill?
Patti LaBelle
Patti LaBelle's version stalled at No. 79 on the US Hot 100, but Celine Dion's 1992 cover of the song climbed all the way to No. 4.
Q 13Who performed 'You Only Live Twice' (1967)?
Nancy Sinatra
Nancy Sinatra got the job even though John Barry had wanted Aretha Franklin and producer Cubby Broccoli had wanted her father, Frank.
Q 21Which band had a title song rejected for For Your Eyes Only in favour of Bill Conti's?
Blondie
Blondie's own 'For Your Eyes Only' was turned down when the producers preferred Bill Conti's song; Blondie released theirs on the 1982 album The Hunter.
Q 22Rita Coolidge's Octopussy theme, with lyrics by Tim Rice, was titled what?
All Time High
All Time High went to Rita Coolidge because, as she tells it, producer Cubby Broccoli's daughter Barbara, a big fan, steered her father to her.
Q 23Which singer says she wrote her song '24' for the 2015 Bond film, only for the producers to reject it?
Lana Del Rey
Lana Del Rey's rejected song ended up on her 2015 album Honeymoon, and in 2026 she finally sang a Bond theme, for the game 007 First Light.
Q 14Which Bond film has an instrumental title theme, with Louis Armstrong singing elsewhere in it?
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
On Her Majesty's Secret Service opens with a John Barry instrumental, and Louis Armstrong's love song from it became a hit in 1994 after a Guinness advert.
Q 15Who wrote the lyrics for 'Diamonds Are Forever' and later 'The World Is Not Enough'?
Don Black
Don Black's first Bond lyric was Thunderball, written in a rush after the original theme was dropped, and he went on to write five Bond songs.
Q 16'Live and Let Die' reunited Paul McCartney with which producer, who won a Grammy for its arrangement?
George Martin
George Martin long told how the producers wanted a woman to sing it, but contracts show Wings were always booked for the opening titles.
Q 17Which singer performed 'The Man with the Golden Gun', the 1974 Bond theme?
Lulu
Lulu sang it, yet its composer, John Barry, later admitted it was the Bond theme he hated most.
Q 18Who composed the music for Carly Simon's theme to The Spy Who Loved Me?
Marvin Hamlisch
Marvin Hamlisch wrote it with Carole Bayer Sager, and their real-life romance loosely inspired the Broadway musical They're Playing Our Song.
Q 19Which Bond theme did Radiohead cover live on their mid-1990s tours?
Nobody Does It Better
Nobody Does It Better was a favourite in Radiohead's sets, and Thom Yorke told one 1995 crowd it was the sexiest song ever written.
Q 20Which Scottish singer performed 'For Your Eyes Only' and appeared on screen in the titles?
Sheena Easton
Title designer Maurice Binder liked Sheena Easton's look so much that he put her on screen, singing, in the opening titles.
Q 24Which act recorded the 1987 Bond theme with John Barry?
a-ha
a-ha clashed with John Barry, who reportedly compared them to the Hitler Youth.
Q 25Who sang 'Licence to Kill' in 1989?
Gladys Knight
Gladys Knight's Licence to Kill borrowed so heavily from Goldfinger that the older song's writers had to share in its credit.
Q 26'GoldenEye', sung by Tina Turner, was written by which pair?
Bono and the Edge
Bono and the Edge wrote GoldenEye especially for Tina Turner, after they learned she had been offered the Bond theme.
Q 27Which k.d. lang song was moved from Tomorrow Never Dies' title sequence to its end credits?
Surrender
k.d. lang's 'Surrender' was moved to the end credits when Sheryl Crow's song took Tomorrow Never Dies' titles; the film's score weaves its melody throughout.
Q 28Which singer's end-credits song 'Only Myself to Blame' was dropped from The World Is Not Enough?
Scott Walker
Scott Walker's 'Only Myself to Blame' was cut from The World Is Not Enough's end credits but survived on the soundtrack album, its melody standing for Elektra King in the score.
Q 29Die Another Day, the 2002 Bond theme, was co-written and co-produced with which French producer?
Mirwais Ahmadzaï
Mirwais Ahmadzaï had first produced its singer on the 2000 album Music, and Die Another Day became a US top-ten hit despite plenty of criticism.
Q 30Which grunge frontman performed the Casino Royale (2006) theme?
Chris Cornell
Chris Cornell of Soundgarden and Audioslave sang 'You Know My Name'; it was left off the soundtrack album and appeared on his 2007 solo record Carry On.