Tomorrow Never Dies (soundtrack): History and Key Facts

Tomorrow Never Dies: Music from the MGM Motion Picture is the soundtrack of the 18th James Bond film of the same name.

David Arnold composed the score of Tomorrow Never Dies, his first full Bond soundtrack. Arnold came to the producers' attention due to his successful cover interpretations in his 1997 album Shaken and Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project—which featured major artists performing classic James Bond title songs.

The theme tune was chosen through a competitive process. There were approximately twelve submissions; including songs from Swan Lee, Pulp, Saint Etienne, Marc Almond, Sheryl Crow and Duran Duran , the latter of which had previous co-written and performed the title song for a previous 007 film A View to a Kill (1985) . According to Nina Persson of Swedish pop group The Cardigans, they were also asked to submit a theme song candidate, but rejected the request due to exhaustion that would be exacerbated by the potential added workload; Persson has called her decision to turn down the offer "one of my biggest mistakes."

Crow's theme was eventually picked by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In the meantime, a bold, brassy number in the classic John Barry/Shirley Bassey vein that Arnold himself wrote with David McAlmont and lyricist Don Black with the intent of being a theme, was relegated to the end credits with the title "Surrender". While McAlmont recorded the demo, "Surrender" was eventually recorded by k.d. lang after an extensive selective process.

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