Video Classics: ‘Live and Let Die’ – Paul McCartney and Wings

Sir Paul in 2010 (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images)

“Live and Let Die” by Paul McCartney and Wings was the theme song for the first Roger Moore James Bond film of the same name in 1973.

As Wikipedia explains…

After George Martin was hired to score the new James Bond film, the producers of the film asked Paul McCartney if he would be willing to compose the theme song. However, the producers were interested in having another artist perform it. McCartney said that he would be interested, but only if Wings were able to perform the song in the opening credits themselves, and the producers agreed …

Wings recorded “Live and Let Die” during the sessions for the Red Rose Speedway album. The single reached #2 in the U.S. and #7 in the U.K. However, the song made its first album appearance on the soundtrack album, which otherwise featured George Martin instrumentals.

“Live and Let Die” was the first James Bond theme song to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song (which gave Paul his second Academy Award nomination and Linda her first), but it lost to the theme song from The Way We Were.

Make sure to watch the very cool video from the James Paul McCartney show in 1973 after the jump…

http://www.youtube.com/v/nR46gQLyxuE&hl=en

The Archivist (along with plenty of you grammarians out there) cringed at the lyric ‘But in this every-changing world in which we live in’, but it’s still an OK song.  Straight from an artist from which lots of OK songs come from, one might say, if one were to be as liberal with prepositions as Sir Paul.

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