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She’s got the Midas touch: Shirley Bassey songs – ranked!
As a new compilation with unheard material is released, we assess the Cardiff legend’s diamonds and deep cuts
Written by James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire of Manic Street Preachers, The Girl from Tiger Bay is a particularly majestic song, worth it just to hear her confidently essay a lyric about situationism as if that were the most normal thing in the world. More so than any of her Bond themes, This Is My Life is the archetypical Bassey belter: lavishly orchestrated musical melodrama, with a lyric so filled with defiance – “and I don’t give a damn for lost emotions!” – it requires a voice that communicates believable passion without slipping into histrionics. By 1971, the shine was starting to tarnish on the Bond franchise, and employing Bassey for the theme song was a deliberate attempt to hark back to its heyday – but Diamonds Are Forever caught John Barry and Don Black at the peak of their powers.
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