“A Golden Girl Knows”

John Barry composed what would go on to become the most influential Bond-song of them all, “Goldfinger,” in 1963. “Goldfinger” was the first Bond-song to feature Shirley Bassey, and it put her singing voice at the center of the franchise. The song drew inspiration from an unlikely source: “Mack the Knife,” an anti-capitalist ballad composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertold Brecht. This unexpected strand never entirely left the Bond-song’s DNA. Nevertheless, this chapter shows, subsequent Bond-songs (especially the two ballads commissioned for Thunderball) struggled mightily to repress...

John Barry composed what would go on to become the most influential Bond-song of them all, “Goldfinger,” in 1963. “Goldfinger” was the first Bond-song to feature Shirley Bassey, and it put her singing voice at the center of the franchise. The song drew inspiration from an unlikely source: “Mack the Knife,” an anti-capitalist ballad composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertold Brecht. This unexpected strand never entirely left the Bond-song’s DNA. Nevertheless, this chapter shows, subsequent Bond-songs (especially the two ballads commissioned for Thunderball) struggled mightily to repress their Brechtian ancestry. They insisted they could tell good capitalism from bad, James Bond from his antagonists—but a sense of insecurity about those distinctions endured.