James Bond’s Greatest Hits…And His First No. 1?

53 years of memorable music from the James Bond film series have, remarkably, never produced a No. 1 UK single. But as the sales week develops, that could all change on Friday, when the Official Charts Company unveils the new singles countdown.

Sam Smith’s ‘Writing’s On The Wall,’ the theme song from the upcoming 007 movie Spectre, is currently on course to top the chart, outdoing the previous best showing for a Bond theme of No. 2, for Adele’s ‘Skyfall’ in 2012 and Duran Duran’s ‘A View To A Kill’ in 1985. By Sunday night, the track had double the combined chart sales (from downloads and equivalent streams) of its nearest rival, Justin Bieber’s current No. 1 ‘What Do You Mean?’.

Meanwhile, the OCC has issued two lists detailing the current download and streaming history of all 23 previous Bond themes. Perhaps it’s predictable that the Adele track, as the most recent in the series, is the most popular download, with a total of 808,000 — nearly four times as many as its closest challenger, Alicia Keys and Jack White’s ‘Another Way To Die,’ which has 208,000 downloads. Chris Cornell’s ‘You Know My Name,’ from 2006’s Casino Royale, lands at an impressive No. 3.

The biggest shock comes in the streaming top ten, which does not feature ‘Skyfall’ at all, and shows Paul McCartney and Wings’ title song from the 1973 Roger Moore entry Live and Let Die at No. 1, followed by the Duran Duran single and the Cornell track again performing strongly at No. 3. View the full data here.

Pre-order the new ‘Best Of Bond’ compilation, to be released on October 23, by clicking the button below