Adele Releases New Bond Theme Song

October 5, 2012, 11:42 am

By JAMES C. MCKINLEY JR.

Early on Friday morning, Adele released “Skyfall,” the haunting theme song she co-wrote and sang for the new James Bond movie of the same name, and within hours it was in the top three on the iTunes singles chart, rivaling Taylor Swift's “Red” and PSY's K-pop hit “Gangnam Style.”

The track was released just after midnight on Friday in Britain and a version was posted on YouTube. Adele co-wrote the song with Paul Epworth, the songwriter and producer with whom she collaborated on the hit “Rolling In the Deep.” It was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London with a 77-piece orchestra. Mr. Epworth told the BBC he and Adele had tried to capture the disillusioned and heartbroken tone of “Skyfall”'s screenplay. She sings apocalyptic lyrics over a foreboding minor key motif. The first words are “This is the end.”

“We went very much with the narrative of the film,” he said. “We talk a lot about Bond's relationship to the country” and to the British intelligence service. He added: “There's a little bit of that in the lyrics, and I guess we were trying to find a way to almost make that romantic, you know?”

One reason for the interest in Adele's Bond theme song is it is the first new single Adele has released sing her last LP, “21,” which sold more than 9.8 million copies in the United States alone, spun off several hit singles and earned her six Grammy Awards.