The next piece of John Barry’s work to be showcased as part of the month of #Johnuary is Octopussy and its title track “All Time High” sung by Rita Coolidge.

Barry had not been used for scoring For Your Eyes Only, so this marked his return to the Bond world.

I never like when they don’t have the film’s title in the song, (this is one of six films that have theme songs that are not named after the movie), but I guess the name Octopussy is pretty hard to write into a vocal! The lyrics for this one were done by Tim Rice. I thought a man of his calibre would have been able to do it but sadly no.

Tim Rice has apparently described the song as “not one of the most exciting Bond songs…just a nice, dreamy ballad.”

I do like this theme. It’s a catchy, relaxing song, which has a modern twist and yet also has some very recognisable John Barry strings in there too. I just wish they had tried to incorporate ‘Octopussy’ into the lyrics!

You may also remember the song being murdered by Mark Wahlberg in the movie Ted.