Oasis Songwriter Makes a Strong Case for the Next James Bond Song
Forget the question of who will play the next James Bond. The bigger question should be: Who will perform the next James Bond theme song? Since 1962, with the debut of Dr. No, the music from Bond films has often loomed larger and made an impact on pop culture well beyond the context of the films themselves. "Live and Let Die," the Paul McCartney song (later covered by Guns N' Roses), is much more well-known than the 1973 film for which it was created. Arguably, the same is true of the 1967 Bond tune "You Only Live Twice," sung by Nancy Sinatra, and composed by Leslie Bricusse and John Barry, but given a different life thanks to its use in Mad Men in 2012. Even the Monty Norman-composed (and Barry-arranged) "James Bond Theme" carries significance outside of the films. Hell, did you know that The Incredibles even used the music from On Her Majesty's Secret Service in early trailers?
The point is this: Bond songs are special, and immortal in ways that even the films sometimes are not. From Shirley Bassey's "Goldfinger" and "Diamonds Are Forever," to Tina Turner's "GoldenEye," Adele's "Skyfall," and Billie Eilish's "No Time To Die," these songs have an epic significance that feeds off the James Bond ethos, but also creates its own special category. Because while Bond fans might associate Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better" with The Spy Who Loved Me, for countless others, it's just a really great Carly Simon song.
So, who should do the next James Bond theme song? Now that we're entering a world in which the next 007 movie is actually, really, in preproduction, this kind of thing might be confirmed within the next year or sooner. And among the seemingly limitless candidates, one stands apart as basically perfect: The newly reformed Oasis.
"It’d be an absolute honour," Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher said, according to The Guardian, on January 6, during the TalkSport podcast. He also noted that he would do the next Bond song in "a heartbeat," and mentioned his preference for the songs being "done by Brits, not Yanks.” This references the idea that Bond is a U.K. institution, and prior to Nancy Sinatra's "You Only Live Twice," all the singers of Bond songs were either British or, in the case of Shirley Bassey and Tom Jones ("Thunderball"), Welsh.
Both Noel and Liam Gallagher are from Manchester, with family roots in Ireland, making them very deeply of the U.K. Though that alone isn't why the iconic Britpop band would be a great choice for the theme song. The truth is, a lot of Oasis songs (and post-Oasis songs from Noel and Liam, respectively) already sound like James Bond songs. "Champagne Supernova" is perhaps the easiest example of the epic nature of this kind of thing, but 1997's "D'you Know What I Mean?" comes close. (Anyone else play GoldenEye on N64 in 1997 with Be Here Now blasting?)
Again, if you look at Noel's or Liam's solo catalogue, you'll also find shockingly good examples of faux-Bond theme songs. Noel's 2017 song "The Man Who Built the Moon" has a driving melody and hook that sounds very Bond-esque from the Pierce Brosnan or Timothy Dalton eras, while Liam's single from the same year, "Wall of Glass," feels like it could have been from one of the Daniel Craig films.
In a sense, Oasis missed their chance at doing a Bond song. In the 1990s, especially for Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) or The World Is Not Enough (1999), Oasis would have been a great choice, at least musically. Noel Gallagher even toured with Garbage as recently as 2023, the band that did "The World Is Not Enough." The elder Gallagher was also friends with Daniel Craig when he became Bond in 2006, which, again, in theory, meant Oasis would have been a great choice for Quantum of Solace in 2008.
But, in truth, Oasis weren't as big post-1997 as they were in 1994, 1996 and 1996. And, by 2009, they infamously split up. From Skyfall through No Time To Die, the Gallagher brothers were doing their solo projects. Also, oddly, post-1995 and GoldenEye, Oasis' popularity in the U.S. wasn't nearly as big as it was in the U.K. And, in the early aughts, the band wasn't nearly as popular as they are today, meaning, picking Oasis for a Bond song in, say 1999 just before the release of Standing on the Shoulder of Giants might have seemed random. (Not as random as Sam Smith's "Writing On the Wall" for Spectre 2015, but I digress.)
The truth is, if you saw Oasis in America in, say, 2005 or 2009, versus seeing Oasis in 2025, the truth is somewhat obvious: The absence of the band from the world stage, combined with nostalgia for the 1990s, has made them much more popular today than they were the last time they were around to do Bond music.
If producers Amy Pascal and David Heyman are thinking in terms of nostalgia that also feels modern, they really couldn't go wrong with an Oasis Bond song. Both Gallaghers have put out great music in the gap between 2009 and 2025. Even if we never got a new Oasis album, having the band write just one Bond song would not only be good for the Bond brand, but it could permanently solidify the Oasis legacy.