One of the most celebrated parts of the James Bond movies are their compelling soundtracks — with some of the biggest stars of the time all having a pop at writing a hit for the spy movies. Famous James Bond songs include Skyfall by Adele, Die Another Day by Madonna, Spectre by Radiohead, and most recently, No Time to Die by Billie Eilish.
Although the song, which Eilish wrote with her brother, ended up winning a Grammy, Oscar, and Golden Globe — it almost looked a lot different, with Ed Sheeran revealing he was in the running to write the song for No Time to Die.
“I was within a fucking gnat’s pube of doing one,” Sheeran said on an episode of That Peter Crouch Podcast. “They changed directors, and then they just changed scripts, and that was it. But we had done all the meetings. I had started writing it.” He added, “You’ve got to — eventually, as an English singer — want to do a Bond song. I’m not gonna pretend it didn’t hurt not doing it. If they come back, I’ll be like, ‘Yeah yeah, of course.'”
For UK musicians, being the face of the latest James Bond theme song is one of the highest honors — but it also comes with a lot of pressure. In an appearance on Deadline’s Crew Calls podcast, Eilish discussed the pressure that comes with getting the action movie song right:
“Daniel had to be the one to sign off on it and it’s a really big deal to him, it’s his entire last 17 years or something, and that’s a lot for him,” she said. “It was his last film, it’s something that has taken over his life for as long as he’s done it and been incredibly important… Of course this movie is going to be the most important because it’s the last one. The song needs to be good.
For more from Daniel Craig, check out our rundown on the Knives Out 2 release date. Or, read our Glass Onion review to see how the new detective movie fares on the big screen.