Composed by John Barry and with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, the song was performed by Shirley Bassey for the film's opening and closing title sequences, as well as the soundtrack album release.

Bricusse and Newley were not shown any film footage or script excerpts, but were advised of the fatal gilding suffered by the Jill Masterson character, played by Shirley Eaton.

Vic Flick, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones (musician) and Big Jim Sullivan are all said to have been at the sessions.

The recording of "Goldfinger" lasted all night because Barry demanded repeated takes, not due to any shortcomings in Bassey's vocal, but musical or technical glitches.

Initially, Bassey had problems with the climactic final note, which necessitated her slipping behind a studio partition between takes to remove her bra.

The iconic two-note phrase which is the basis for the song's introduction was not in the original orchestration, but occurred to Barry during a tea-break, following an hour and a half of rehearsal.

The single was released in mono, with the album stereo version (on the film soundtrack, Golden Hits Of Shirley Bassey and subsequent releases) using an alternate mix, in which the instrumentals are the same, but Bassey's vocal is different, being a shade less intense and having a shorter final note.

Bassey's title theme was almost taken out of the film because producer Harry Saltzman hated it, saying, "That's the worst *** song I've ever heard in my *** life".

In 2002 poll in which BBC Radio 2 solicited listeners' favourite piece of popular music from the last fifty years performed by a British act, "Goldfinger" by Shirley Bassey ranked at No.

[18] The Simpsons episode You Only Move Twice features a Bond-like villain in Hank Scorpio, with an ending credits song about him in the style of Goldfinger.

A season-3 episode of the animated show ReBoot also featured a Bassey style intro song and credits entitled "Firewall".