deceased singer Amy Winehouse once came close to providing music for the James Bond film series, but as a producer Barbara Broccoli details in a new interview with Weekly entertainment, it wasn’t meant to be. Before her passing in 2011, Winehouse was at one point ready to shoot the Bong theme for the 2008 film Quantum of Solace. This is explored in the new documentary The sound of 007 which debuts on Prime Video on October 5, the 60th anniversary of the original Bond film, dr. no.
Speak with EWBroccoli has provided some additional details about what happened to Winehouse and Quantum of Solace. Broccoli recalls meeting Winehouse about plans for the song, and while the legendary singer’s brilliance and talent were apparent, it was also clear that she was struggling at the time. As Broccoli says, it was “very, very sad” for her to see.
“Well, that was a very disturbing encounter, she was not at her best and my heart really went out to her. She was very vulnerable emotionally and, you know, you understood how she could create such moving material because she has a great depth of feeling and it was very tragic. What an incredible talent, what an incredible voice, what an incredible person she was and it was very, very sad.”
Jack White and Alicia Keys Replace Amy Winehouse
With her personal issues affecting her work, Winehouse eventually left Quantum of Solace, requiring one or two more musicians to provide the theme. This would later go to Jack White and Alicia Keys, who would collaborate on a duet in the form of the divisive song “Another Way to Die”. Over the summer, White explained about the Conan O’Brien needs a friend podcast what it was like to join the project at the last minute when Winehouse left, as well as the thoughts people had about his duet with Keys.
“To this day it is right across the board. People always say you either love it or you hate it. That song is… there are people who hate it so much, and there are people who love it so much. Nowhere in the middle. It’s so strange… I came in because Amy Winehouse didn’t show up to the sessions or deliver the song they asked her to do. So it was, ‘We’re running out of time, we need someone else…’ And I thought, ‘Oh, this was great, because now I’m going to get away with murder. I’m going to put things in this song, they would never approve of this.’ And that’s what happened… The music director wasn’t doing anything. He tried to convince me to make it a ballad or something like that.”
More will be discovered in The sound of 007 that fans can stream when it comes out on Prime Video on October 5. That same day, all 25 James Bond films will also be available to stream for a limited time to commemorate the film franchise’s 60th anniversary.