The James Bond theme songs are justly famous. They’re as iconic as the films, performed by the top artists of the day. Their sweeping, brassy, melodramatic style, developed by longtime Bond composer John Barry, virtually created their own genre.

Many pop songs since have been written in admiring imitation of them, and there’s always fierce competition among artists to record the latest one. At the same time, the old ones get ranked in endless articles and reissued on new compilation albums whenever there’s a new film. That said, most of the films have multiple songs, which often get forgotten. There are some amazing hidden gems buried in there, as well as some fascinating oddities.

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Dr. No

While the first Bond film is known for the iconic James Bond Theme, which plays over the first half of the opening credits, the second half of the credits is actually accompanied by, of all things, a calypso rendition of “Three Blind Mice,” titled “Kingston Calypso” on the soundtrack album. It’s hardly a musical high point in the Bond series, but it effectively sets the tone for the Jamaican setting.

From Russia with Love

The theme song for the second Bond film, written by Lionel Bart, actually plays over the end titles. The opening titles have a funky instrumental version of the tune, orchestrated by John Barry to feature an organ, of all things, before segueing back into the James Bond Theme.

Thunderball

John Barry wrote his score for this film around a sexy, sinuous main theme, which was recorded as a theme song by Dionne Warwick, titled “Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” after the nickname Japanese fans had given James Bond. In what would become a running conflict in the Bond series, the producers demanded a new song at the last minute. In this case, they wanted one with the film’s title. Barry scrambled and wrote a replacement, performed by Tom Jones. The DVD and Blu-ray feature the opening credits with the original Warwick song as a bonus feature, though they’re slightly out of sync; the big crash at 0:34 was intended to play just as the harpoon gun is fired onscreen a couple of seconds earlier.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

Arguably the greatest of the Bond films also has among the most additional songs. The opening titles of the film feature an instrumental version of the main theme performed by an orchestra and a Moog synthesizer. Later, a gorgeous love ballad written by Barry, with lyrics by Hal David, appears during a romantic montage. “We Have All the Time in the World” is performed by the inimitable Louis Armstrong and has become virtually a second theme song for the film.

Barry and David also wrote two songs for the film that were performed by Danish singer Nina van Pallandt. The first, “Do You Know How Christmas Trees are Grown?,” plays within the Christmas-set film in several scenes. It has become one of the most loathed songs in the entire Bond catalog, unjustly, since it serves its purpose perfectly and is a lovely song. It is also brilliantly used by Barry as musical counterpoint during a key chase sequence halfway through the film. At that point, there have been multiple chases scored with tense music, so the extreme contrast of this cheerful, innocent song with the deadly business on screen is highly effective.

Nina also recorded a second Barry/David song for the film. “The More Things Change” was not used in the final cut but was instead relegated to the B-side of the 45 single of “Do You Know How Christmas Trees are Grown?” It’s a shame, since it’s a haunting ballad with a beautiful Barry melody.

Diamonds Are Forever

John Barry, like many composers, routinely wrote most of the source music for the Bond films. Source music is anything that isn’t score; typically, it’s music that has an on screen source. It can be pop music playing on a radio, tunes for advertising jingles within the world of the film, or, in this case, a piece of faux classical music played at a funeral home. This cue, “Slumber, Inc.,” shows Barry at his playful best.

What starts as simple organ music becomes gradually bigger as a chorus is introduced and then goes gloriously over the top as the full orchestra enters. Barry is in full The Lion in Winter/The Last Valley mode here, and it’s one of the hidden highlights of the Bond scores. The cue functions as score for a tense scene, but it’s clearly written as music that actually exists in the world of the film.

Moonraker

The lush, romantic title song, performed by Shirley Bassey, is one of the most beautiful in the entire series. Over the end credits, however, it gets reimagined as a deliciously tacky disco remix.

For Your Eyes Only

In addition to the title song, composer Bill Conti wrote a playfully sleazy pop song called “Make it Last all Night” for a scene in which a bunch of scantily clad women lounge around a pool. Its jaw-droppingly explicit lyrics, courtesy of his wife Shelby Conti, make the innuendo of “Diamonds are Forever” sound positively tame.

It’s enjoyable mostly for its kitsch value and must surely be the musical nadir of the Bond series. It sounds like nothing so much as a porno version of “Lapti Nek,” the song in Jabba’s palace in Return of the Jedi.

The Living Daylights

Barry’s score for this film is one of his best, overflowing with gorgeous melodies. As a result, three of them were turned into songs for the film. The title song is based on the main theme, but Barry collaborated with The Pretenders on two additional songs. “Where Has Everybody Gone” is based on the main action theme and is heard in the film on a Walkman that one of the villains wears during a key action sequence. It’s a huge, intense, brassy number that’s unlike anything else in the Bond movies.

Barry took his stunning love theme and turned it into another song for The Pretenders, a lush ballad called “If There Was a Man.” With this, Barry started what has become a tradition in the Bond series: a separate song over the end titles. The song’s emotional depth was aided by the fact that this was the first Bond film since On Her Majesty’s Secret Service where Bond truly seemed to have an emotional connection with the “Bond Girl,” who was written as capable and intelligent and multidimensional. The resulting song is one of the musical highlights of the entire Bond series.

License to Kill

Unfortunately, Barry was unavailable to score this film, and composer Michael Kamen was not given control of the opening and closing songs. As a result, they are not based on melodies from his score. This would also become a running conflict in the Bond series. The songs didn’t lack for star power, however. The main title song was performed by Gladys Knight, and the end title song, “If You Asked Me To” was performed by Patti Labelle. The song failed to make much impact when it was released in 1989, but three years later it was re-recorded by a young Quebecois singer who would be propelled to international stardom by it: Celine Dion.

Goldeneye

Composer Eric Serra’s song “The Experience of Love” plays over the end credits of this film, but it isn’t based on any melodies from his score. Instead, oddly enough, it’s based on one of the main themes from his 1994 score for Leon: The Professional. The song was rejected from that film in place of an existing Sting song and found a new home here. Serra performs the song himself, and his singing voice sounds strangely like Sting’s.

Tomorrow Never Dies

John Barry entered into negotiations to return for this film, but they broke down partly over his requirement that he control the writing of the theme song. Rising young composer David Arnold, a lifelong Barry fan, was hired and was at first allowed to record a title song based on the main theme from his stunning score. He brought in longtime John Barry lyricist Don Black and singer k.d. lang, who belted out one of the all-time great Bond performances, rivaling Shirley Bassey.

However, at the last minute, it was decided that a bigger name was needed, and Arnold’s amazing song was relegated to the end credits, replaced by a Sheryl Crow song he had nothing to do with. This fan-made video restores lang’s song to its rightful place, though it’s unclear if these credits were created for her song or Crow’s.

The World Is Not Enough

Arnold’s score for Tomorrow Never Dies was rapturously received, especially after the chirping crickets that greeted Serra’s score. Having inherited John Barry’s mantle as the James Bond court composer, Arnold brought back Don Black and together they wrote both the opening title song, performed brilliantly by Garbage, and “Only Myself to Blame,” a lovely, jazzy end credits song, performed by Scott Walker.

Arnold’s demo was released on the recent La-La Land Records expanded edition of the score, giving fans a chance to hear his beautiful singing voice, too.

Quantum of Solace

David Arnold intended to write a main title song based on the main melody of his score, one that would be performed by Amy Winehouse, but she died before the song was completed. The title song the film ended up with, by Jack White and Alicia Keys, could battle with the Conti disco-porn atrocity as the worst song of the Bond series.

It’s especially heartbreaking because, a few years later, Arnold re-teamed with Don Black to complete the unfinished song and recorded it with Shirley Bassey on a concept album. This fan-made video places the glorious Arnold/Black/Bassey song over the film’s actual opening titles.

Spectre

This isn’t really an alternate song as much as an alternate recording. Sam Smith’s theme song, “Writing’s on the Wall” won the Oscar and the Golden Globe, and I’m sure it has its fans, but it always seemed bewildering that he wrote a song for himself that is well beyond his own vocal range. The song itself is great, but he adopts a grating falsetto to deal with the high portions. This recording was made by Sofia Karlberg, a young Swedish singer who went viral with covers of various pop songs.