Licence to Kill (soundtrack) version based on the James Bond Theme. The guitar riff heard in the original recording of the theme was played by Flick. The prospect, however, fell apart and Gladys Knight's song and performance was chosen, later becoming a Top 10 hit in the United Kingdom. The song was composed by Narada Michael Walden, Jeffrey Cohen and Walter Afanasieff, based on the "horn line" from "Goldfinger", which required royalty payments to the original writers. At 5 minutes 13 seconds it is the longest Bond theme, though 45 single releases featured a shorter edit, running 4 minutes 11 seconds. The music video
Licence to Kill Dalton thought that the more lucrative Daniel Craig films were influenced by "Licence To Kill"; ""A lot of people have said Licence To Kill was a forerunner of Bond today and in a sense that is what Cubby and I were trying to do. The Bond movies were becoming pastiches of themselves but they were still successful and people were not ready to embrace a new formula. There was a lot of innate resistance to change." The "Licence to Kill" screenplay was novelised by the then-novelist of the Bond series John Gardner. It was the first Bond novelisation since "Moonraker"