Saturday, February 22, 2025

I was born with an unlucky sneeze

James Bond is a character that pretty much the entire world knows. Well, here's something that most probably don't know, unless you're really interested in James Bond Movies. (Not the books. They don't have any of the music I'm going to talk about, and they have different quirks I'll cover some other time.)

James Bond's famous theme song was originally a piece of music for a play that was written about a man who was born with an unlucky sneeze. 

A House For Mr. Biswas was an award winning novel by V. S. Naipaul, about a very unlucky person who was born with an unlucky sneeze and bad luck. It was turned into a VHS musical, but was not successful, so not much is known about it. 

I hope this made you smile. The links below have more of the story, which is apparently a bit muddled by history and whatnot, but the first has both clips of the original and the Bond Theme that is being referred to here, in case you don't know it. Have fun, and I bet you can't listen to the ending song without thinking of sneezing lyrics.  


Sources:

The City Voice- From Unlucky Sneeze to Spy Masterpiece (This has the video links to hear both versions of the song)

Digital Spy-- James Bond Theme Song

James Bond Fandom-- Theme Song

MI6HQ-- Bond Theme History

The New Criterion-- Birth of a Theme Song

NPR-- Monty Norman, creator of the James Bond Theme Song

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