Duran Duran “A View To A Kill” 1985. 45 rpm. B-Side “A View To A Kill (That Fatal Kiss)” which is a slow instrumental version of the title track to the James Bond movie. This song has been on my mind since yesterday’s 30th anniversary of Live Aid, at which Duran Duran performed and Simon LeBon infamously belted out that fatal note during their feedback riddled performance of  “A View To A Kill.”

I saw the Bond film soon after its release in May ‘85, the movie a wonderful synthesis of my loves of Duran Duran and Bond flicks and, in my opinion, Duran Duran’s theme song remains to this day one of the best. The movie itself is average Roger Moore-era Bond at best, though having its co-stars as Christopher Walken and Grace Jones bumps it higher than the overall movie might otherwise merit.

One other side-note from the movie and the song: I was so obsessed with anything with even a tangential connection to Duran Duran during the summer of ‘85 that I succumbed to shameless marketing ploys – Whoppers was running a promotion where if you bought two milk-carton size containers of their candy and sent in the UPC codes, they would send you an “official” View To A Kill movie poster. Of course I gleefully ate my way through both cartons and got my not-true-to-official-size poster in the mail 6 to 8 weeks later. And Duran Duran wasn’t even on the poster :(

(just googled the promo poster and it’s selling used on eBay for $20, shoulda held onto it)