“Living Daylights” by a-ha

"The Living Daylights" put a-ha inside the Bond machine: it's the theme to the 1987 James Bond film of the same name, written by guitarist Pål Waaktaar, though John Barry shares the writing credit and produced it, and the take on the film's soundtrack album is Barry's version. It's the Norwegians at their most widescreen, synth-pop tailored to a tuxedo.

Getting there was a tug of war. Barry said on a late-night show in 1987 that working with the band wore him out, because they kept insisting on releasing their own version, and the band came away with a bad taste of their own. They had the last word, though, reworking the song in 1988 for their third album, Stay on These Roads.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.