Songfacts®:

• Shirley Bassey's title track to Goldfinger was such a smash that she was invited to sing the title track to a second James Bond movie, the first artist to do so. She delivers her formidable voice as before, but the song didn't make as big an impact, and neither did the movie. Bassey also sang the title song for the Bond Moonraker, which was the fourth film starring Roger Moore as James Bond. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Mike - Santa Barbara, CA
• This was written by John Barry and Don Black, who worked on the music for many of the James Bond films.
• "A Diamond Is Forever" is the tagline used by the De Beers mining company to market diamonds, and Ian Fleming adapted it for his 1956 Bond novel Diamonds Are Forever. The title was retained, though not much of the plot was used for the 1971 movie. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Kelley - Hickory, KY
• The De Beers advertising campaign is one of the most successful and insidious ever created. In the 1940s, De Beers hired the N. W. Ayer advertising agency to make the diamond a symbol of love, and the more expensive the diamond, the more love. They used Hollywood to get momentum, giving diamonds to movie stars and arranging for them to wear them on screen and in public. Around 1950, they started using the "A Diamond Is Forever" tagline in their print advertising, and it accomplished their goal of positioning diamonds as something you buy and never get rid of - much like the romantic vision of love. The campaign convinced Americans that a diamond engagement ring was essential, and that the quality of the diamond correlated with the love the man had for his woman. Unlike precious metals, diamonds consistently rose in price and continue to increase in value as engagement rings are constantly being purchased, but are rarely resold. The tagline was so ingrained in the culture that it was used as the basis for the title for the James Bond novel and film, providing lots of additional free advertising.
• Kanye West sampled this for his 2005 song "Diamonds From Sierra Leone."
• John Barry enticed Shirley Bassey's passionate rendering of this song by suggesting that she should imagine that she was singing about a penis. Don Black recalled to the Sunday Times August 10, 2008: "But he never said that to me when I was writing it. I was writing about a diamond!"