Saturday morning tunes: The kiss of death

Anthony Newley co-wrote the lyrics for theme from “Goldfinger” and Bond theme composer John Barry did the music--which is why that little snippet of the Bond theme keeps slipping in.

Shirley Bassey so completely owned the song from the soundtrack recording that it's difficult to remember anyone else ever covered it. (I've already paid tribute to this version; someday I'll get around to the Blondie cover).

But Newley himself recorded a slimmed-down and deliciously evil version that I first heard on NPR about fifteen years ago. Looked for it for several years, then finally gave up. But I happened to mention that story to a friend in a coffee shop last week, and about ten seconds later he was holding a video of it in front of my face on his iPhone. Go figure.

Anyway, here it is. Bassey's performance is the stuff of legend, but when Newley talks about spiders, you can feel them landing on the back of your neck.

If your browser won't display the embedded version, click here. 

I have no idea why the YouTube poster chose that picture for the thumbnail.