"Live and Let Die" | |||||||||||||
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A-side label of the UK 7-inch single
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Single by Paul McCartney and Wings | |||||||||||||
from the album Live and Let Die | |||||||||||||
B-side | "I Lie Around" | ||||||||||||
Released |
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Format | 7" single | ||||||||||||
Recorded | October 1972 | ||||||||||||
Genre | Symphonic rock | ||||||||||||
Length | 3:12 | ||||||||||||
Label | Apple | ||||||||||||
Writer(s) | |||||||||||||
Producer(s) | George Martin | ||||||||||||
Wings chronology | |||||||||||||
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"Live and Let Die" | ||||
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U.S. commercial cassette single
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Single by Guns N' Roses | ||||
from the album Use Your Illusion I | ||||
A-side | "Live and Let Die" (LP Version) | |||
B-side |
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Released | 3 December 1991 | |||
Format |
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Genre | Hard rock | |||
Length | 3:04 | |||
Label | Geffen | |||
Producer(s) |
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Guns N' Roses singles chronology | ||||
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"Live and Let Die" is the main theme song of the 1973 James Bond film Live and Let Die, written by Paul and Linda McCartney and performed by Paul McCartney's band Wings. It was one of the group's most successful singles, and the most successful Bond theme to that point, charting at No. 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No. 9 on the UK Singles Chart.
Commissioned specifically for the movie and credited to Paul and Linda McCartney, it reunited the former Beatle with the band's producer, George Martin, who both produced the song and arranged the orchestral break. It has been covered by several bands, with Guns N' Roses' version being the most popular. Both McCartney's and Guns N' Roses' versions were nominated for Grammys. In 2012, McCartney was awarded the Million-Air Award from Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), for more than 4 million performances of the song in the US.
Even before Tom Mankiewicz had finished writing the screenplay to Live and Let Die, producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli invited Paul McCartney to write the theme song. McCartney asked to be sent a copy of Ian Fleming's novel. "I read it and thought it was pretty good. That afternoon I wrote the song and went in the next week and did it ... It was a job of work for me in a way because writing a song around a title like that's not the easiest thing going."