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 take on an ageing franchise.Other critics were more complimentary of the film. Den of Geek's Max Williams saw it a series highlight, calling it a masterpiece only Dalton could have made. John Kenneth Muir also praised Dalton, regarding the film as a "film in which it detects the roiling, conflicted emotions driving a human being to achieve extraordinary things in the face of unbelievable adversity" and Empire journalist Chris Hewitt called Dalton the best Bond and "Licence To Kill" the best film guesting on Smershpod. Celebrating the twenty fifth anniversary of the film, Esquire's Bob Sassone urged readers to give