A week after saying he was “definitely not” providing the theme song for Spectre — the new James Bond film — Sam Smith announced that he actually is. Psych! After lots and lots of speculation about his involvement, Smith tweeted, “I am honoured to finally announce that I will be singing the next Bond theme song.”
The song is called “Writing’s on the Wall” and will be released on September 25th, a month before the film — likely to be Daniel Craig’s last as 007 — hits screens. Speaking to the BBC about how the collaboration came to fruition, Smith said:
I got called into the office with Barbara Broccoli and Sam Mendes and they gave me the script, I read the script… they said ‘have a go at the song’. It’s the quickest song I’ve ever written — it took me 20 minutes… and they loved it!
The track was recorded way back in January, and, referring to his own surreptitiousness surrounding the news, Smith said, “This has been a top secret mission of my own.” It was co-written with Smith’s Stay With Me collaborator, Jimmy Napes.
Ellie Goulding and Radiohead had previously been rumored to have recorded the Spectre theme. (Radiohead…mmm. No offense to Sam Smith or his fans, but imagine that for a second…yep, that would’ve been pretty great.) Surprisingly, Writing’s on the Wall will be the first time since Tom Jones’ 1965 Thunderball that a male British solo artist has recorded the Bond theme song.