From Russia with Love

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang continues its mission to unpack the James Bond musical canon with 1963's From Russia with Love — the film that gave us the very first Bond theme song.

Tom and Morgan dive into Sean Connery's second outing as 007, a Cold War thriller packed with franchise firsts: the pre-title sequence, Blofeld, Desmond Llewelyn's Q, and the promise that "James Bond will return". But famously, this is a music podcast — so we're here for John Barry's first full Bond score, the debut of the percussive '007' theme, and Lionel Bart's title song, sung magnificently by "the Man with the Golden Voice" himself, Matt Monro.

Along the way: why Frank Sinatra (allegedly) turned the song down, the mystery of the lost soundtrack recordings, the astonishing link between John Barry and Linkin Park's 'Faint', and whether a beautiful love song that predates the Goldfinger template can truly rank among the great Bond themes.