Background
"All Time High" marked the return of regular James Bond theme composer John Barry after his absence from the For Your Eyes Only soundtrack. The lyrics were written by Tim Rice and recording and mixing of the track is credited to Stephen Short.
Prior to Rita Coolidge being assigned the Octopussy theme a contender was Mari Wilson, a British singer whose retro-image evoked the mid-'60s when the Bond series originated, but Wilson's lack of a US-profile led to a negative decision.
The producers of Octopussy were known to have been in negotiations with Laura Branigan, then a top-ranking hitmaker in the US and Europe.
The ultimate choice of Coolidge – whose career peak had occurred some six years previously – was a surprising one. Coolidge recalls that Barbara Broccoli, the assistant director of Octopussy, was a fan of Coolidge and made a point of playing Coolidge records around her father, Cubby Broccoli, producer of the films, until "one day, "Who is that? That's the voice I want for the movie.'...in the studio was still finishing the song. We were waiting for the lyrics as the track had already been done."
Rice made no effort to incorporate the film's title but the lyric: "We're two of a kind" is a line spoken by the title character (played by Maud Adams) to James Bond (Roger Moore). The song's title "All Time High" parallels Coolidge's #2 hit "(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher" whose lyric "When you wrap your loving arms around me I can stand up and face the world again" is echoed by the "All Time High" lyric "We'll take on the world and win".
The music video shows Coolidge in soft focus in what purports to be an Indian palace (it is in fact the Royal Pavilion at Brighton, England)
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