Album:  

Writers:

John Barry & Don Black

Length:

3:34

Notes:

Katie sings an actual James Bond theme. Who'd have thunk it? I mean, anyone that has heard the original (has anyone not?) will know that Shirley Bassey absolutely wrestles the song to the ground and kicks seven shades of sherbet out of it, leaving it on its knees begging for mercy. Which was about right for a Bond theme, but it is hardly the vocal style of Ms Melua is it? If she was ever going to tackle one I'd have thought it might have been something like "We Have All The Time In The World". Yet, here we are. And though I would never have bet on Katie covering this, one thing I also would never bet against is her reinventing any song and making it her own. And guess what? Oops, she did it again! (And if she ever covers that I'll start to question whether my whole life is just a dream.) This is a beautiful reworking of the song. I think Katie has said she performed it at a friend's funeral a few years ago. I saw her perform it on a TV special about James Bond music with lyricist Don Black a few years ago—which may be how Katie met Don and got talking about the collaboration for In Winter.

YouTube:

Is there a video for this? You may wonder. Oh boy, you bet your sweet sister's sweaty socks there is and it is quite unreasonably wonderful: Diamonds Are Forever (live)

Lyrics:

Diamonds Are Forever