Licence To Kill

Initially Vic Flick, who had played lead guitar on Monty Norman’s original 007 theme, and Eric Clapton were asked to write and perform the theme song to Licence to Kill and they produced a theme to match Dalton’s gritty performance, but the producers turned it down and instead Gladys Knight’s song and performance was chosen.

The song (one of the longest to ever be used in a Bond film) was based on the “horn line” from Goldfinger, seen as an homage to the film of the same name, which required royalty payments to the original writers. The song gave Knight her first British top-ten hit since 1977. The end credits feature the Top 10 R&B hit “If You Asked Me To”, sung by Patti LaBelle.

John Barry was not available at the time due to throat surgery, so the soundtrack’s score was composed and conducted by Michael Kamen, who was known for scoring many action films at the time, such as Lethal Weapon and Die Hard. Glen said he picked Kamen, feeling he could give “the closest thing to John Barry.”