Thunderball

The original main title theme to Thunderball was entitled “Mr. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang”, which was written by John Barry and Leslie Bricusse. Barry had thought he couldn’t write a song about a vague “Thunderball” term or the story of the film, so his song was a description of the character of James Bond. The song was removed from the title credits after United Artists requested that the theme song contain the title of the film in its lyrics. John Barry teamed up with lyricist Don Black and wrote “Thunderball” in a rush. Tom Jones, who sang the new theme song, fainted in the recording booth after singing the song’s final, high note.

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Tom Jones performs "Thunderball"

Country musician Johnny Cash also submitted a song to Eon productions titled “Thunderball” but it wasn’t used. The lyrics of Cash’s “Thunderball” describe the story of the film.

German cover version by Alan Corb.

Italian cover version by Adriano Celentano.

1992 Shirley Bassey recorded a full CD of James Bond songs back in 1992, and this is one of the tracks. It's unfortunate, but the synthesized musical arrangements were of poor quality, and Bassey decided to pull some musical muscle after only a few CDs were sold and she was able to stop the producers from selling any more of this CD.

Agnaldo Timóteo - Furacão ("Thunderball"). Brazilian cover.

Mr. Bungle - "Thunderball". Live Cover.