Not Another Music Series - "The World is Not Enough"

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Not that people are greedy or anything, but for some, “The World is Not Enough.” That also just happens to be today’s song: “The World is Not Enough” by Garbage. I’ve used this before years ago when I wrote about Bond themes, but it fits here as well. “The World is Not Enough” is the theme song from the 1999 James Bond film of the same title. The song did well, reaching the Top 40 in 16 countries (#1 in Iceland, where they know a good Bond theme, apparently. Or they just like Garbage.) There was an interesting little turn of corporate Bond-ish behavior behind this one, it turns out. Frank P. Fogarty and Nathan Crow are two songwriters who had submitted a tune to MGM (the Bond franchise’s parent company) for their film The Thomas Crowne Affair. The pair alleged that a four-note sequence in “The World is Not Enough” was stolen from that song. One of the writers apparently fancied himself a bit of a Bond, and went undercover, posing as an employee of composer James Horner, interviewing and recording “The World is Not Enough” writer Don Black, in an attempt to try to trick him into admitting stealing those four notes. I can’t find anything on whether the undercover writer was wearing a tuxedo and conducting the interview at a baccarat table. (“I really liked those four particular notes you wrote. When did you write them? Banco.”) The writer also contacted Garbage vocalist Shirley Manson in a similar attempt to prove his case. The courts found that “The World is Not Enough” was written prior and not altered, and here we are. Welcome to the cutthroat world of music. Link is to the official video: