Background
The American new wave band Blondie wrote a song entitled "For Your Eyes Only" in the hopes of making it the upcoming James Bond film's opening-title theme. The producers preferred another song with the same title, written by Bill Conti and Mike Leeson. Blondie turned down an offer to record Conti and Leeson's song. (The band later included their "For Your Eyes Only" song on the 1982 album The Hunter.)
Conti - who was also responsible for the film's score - had originally written the song thinking about Donna Summer or Dusty Springfield, singers he thought "fit the Bond style". Studio United Artists suggested Sheena Easton, an up-and-coming singer who had recently scored a No.1 hit in America with "Morning Train". Conti heard Easton's debut album Take My Time and felt unimpressed, but decided to work with her in the song after meeting Easton in person. Leeson's lyrics originally only used "for your eyes only" as the final line, as the lyricist felt he could only use the phrase as a conclusion. After Conti met credit sequence artist Maurice Binder, who complained about having to synchronize the unveiling of the title with it being said in the theme song, he decided to meet with Leeson to make lyrics that opened with "for your eyes only".
Easton is the only artist to be seen singing the theme song to a Bond movie during its opening titles, as Maurice Binder liked Easton's appearance and decided to add her to the credits. Her seductive appearance in these clips was, according to Roger Moore, more sexy than any of the Bond girls, although Easton herself states that the filming process was very unglamorous. In particular, Binder had to attach Easton to a chair so she would be immobile during a take where the camera zooms on the singer's lips.
Easton is one of three Scots to have sung a Bond theme, the others being Lulu's singing The Man with the Golden Gun and Shirley Manson (as part of the band Garbage) for The World Is Not Enough.
This was one of the few Bond themes not to have a contribution by John Barry. The song was produced by Christopher Neil, who was her regular producer at the time.
The song was released as a single in June 1981, at the same time as the film's launch. It became a worldwide hit, reaching the top ten in the UK and top five in the US. It remains one of Easton's biggest hits and is still included on numerous compilation soundtrack albums.
The video "For Your Eyes Only" was directed by Steve Barron. The song music with different lyrics ("To Know No Boundaries") was used in a series of advertisements for Merill Lynch during the mid-1980s.
Read more about this topic: For Your Eyes Only (song)
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