"You Know My Name" | |||||||||||
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Single by Chris Cornell | |||||||||||
from the album Carry On | |||||||||||
Released | November 13, 2006 | ||||||||||
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Length | 4:02 | ||||||||||
Label | A&M | ||||||||||
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Chris Cornell singles chronology | |||||||||||
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"You Know My Name", performed by Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell, is the theme song to the 2006 James Bond film, Casino Royale. Cornell wrote it jointly with David Arnold, the soundtrack's composer. The film producers went after Cornell because they wanted a strong male singer. Cornell and Arnold tried to make the song a replacement theme for the character instead of the "James Bond theme" reflecting the agent's inexperience in Casino Royale, as well as an introduction to Daniel Craig's grittier and more emotional portrayal of Bond. The single sold 148,000 copies in 2006 in the UK.
The track was leaked onto the Internet on September 20, 2006, and released as a single on November 13, 2006, charting in many countries. Reviews for "You Know My Name" were positive, and the song won the Satellite Award and the World Soundtrack Award, and was nominated for a Grammy Award. While not included in the Casino Royale soundtrack, "You Know My Name" appeared on Cornell's second solo album, Carry On.
Lia Vollack, Sony Pictures's President of Music, called Chris Cornell inviting him to make a song for the new Bond movie, which would "reflect the dramatic new direction of James Bond", with a "strong male singer". Cornell thought it was a strange offer, considering that he is American, and imagined that he would perform a secondary song in the film instead of the main theme. Cornell declared he liked the Bond movies, particularly the ones with Sean Connery, but that he "wasn't really a big fan of the last several movies". But Daniel Craig's casting as James Bond intrigued the musician, and he decided to accept the job. Cornell then went to Prague to visit the film's shooting, and was much impressed with the film's emotional content after he was shown a rough cut of Casino Royale. In Prague he also met the score composer, David Arnold, who suggested writing a song "that echoed the film score".