Duran Duran: 'A View to a kill' - Songbook Performance (2009)

'A View to a Kill' was the 13th single by Duran Duran, released in May 1985.

It was a stand-alone single, created for the James Bond movie A View to a Kill, and it remains the only James Bond theme song to have reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100; it also made it to number 2 for three weeks on the UK Singles Chart. In 1986, John Barry and Duran Duran were nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for A View to a Kill.

The song was the last track that the original five members of Duran Duran recorded together until their reunion sixteen years later, in 2001. It was played at their final 1985 performance together before splitting for the very first time, at Live Aid in Philadelphia. The single was at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 at the time they performed it on that historic event.

The song was written by Duran Duran and John Barry, and recorded at Maison Rouge Studio and CTS Studio in London with a 60-piece orchestra.

Duran Duran were chosen to do the song after bassist John Taylor (a lifelong Bond fan) approached producer Cubby Broccoli at a party, and somewhat drunkenly asked "When are you going to get someone decent to do one of your theme songs?" This inauspicious beginning led to some serious talks, and the band was introduced to Bond composer John Barry, and also Jonathan Elias (whom Duran Duran members would later work with many times). An early writing meeting at Taylor's flat in Knightsbridge led to everyone getting drunk instead of composing.

Singer Simon Le Bon said of Barry: "He didn't really come up with any of the basic musical ideas. He heard what we came up with and he put them into an order. And that's why it happened so quickly because he was able to separate the good ideas from the bad ones, and he arranged them. He has a great way of working brilliant chord arrangements. He was working with us as virtually a sixth member of the group, but not really getting on our backs at all.

The song was finally completed in April 1985, and was released in May 1985, and on July 13 it hit number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, and still currently remains the only Bond theme to do so.