Lia Vollack,
Sony Pictures's President of Music, called Chris Cornell inviting him to make a song for the new Bond movie
Casino Royale, which would "reflect the dramatic new direction of
James Bond", with a "strong male singer". Cornell thought it was a strange offer, considering that he was American, and assumed he would perform a secondary song instead of the main theme. Cornell declared he liked the Bond movies, particularly the ones with
Sean Connery, In Prague he also met the film's composer,
David Arnold, who suggested writing a song "that echoed the film score". Cornell said, "It is difficult, I think, to write lyrics for a character, so really I just kind of wandered around for about a month not thinking about it too much, until I sort of formulated some idea of a way that I could approach it, where I'm kind of relating to what's in the character in the movie. And because this particular Bond is very edgy, but also has a lot of emotional depth, it's a lot easier." Later the two musicians met to share their ideas, and according to Arnold "it was almost like we wrote two parts of the same song." Speaking to the film music fan site Maintitles, Arnold said he wanted "You Know My Name" to be a substitute for the "James Bond Theme", to represent Bond's immaturity. The song's motif is heard throughout the film, and the classic theme plays only during the end credits to signal the end of his character arc. Arnold felt the song should tie closer to the score, and have the "DNA of the
James Bond music". with Cornell describing it as "more up-tempo and a little more aggressive than any other Bond theme has been, maybe since
Paul McCartney's '
Live and Let Die'." Cornell stated that the biggest two influences on "You Know My Name" were
Tom Jones, who performed the theme for
Thunderball, and Paul McCartney, who composed and performed the theme for
Live and Let Die with his band
Wings. "I decided that I was going to sing it like Tom Jones, in that crooning style. I wanted people to hear my voice," Cornell said. "And 'Live and Let Die' is a fantastic song. Paul McCartney wouldn't have written it if not for that movie. I [also] wanted to write a song in its own universe. I knew I'd never have it again — a big orchestra — so I wanted to have fun with it." Cornell did not put the film's title in the lyrics, because he "couldn't imagine it fitting into a song lyric that would come out of my mouth". And he jokingly stated "
Casino Royale didn't make a good rock title, but I would write a song named
Octopussy just for fun". Before producers
Michael G. Wilson and
Barbara Broccoli announced on July 26, 2006 that Cornell was performing the theme for
Casino Royale, various names were reported in the media, including some reports that other performers claimed they were working on the song. Some names mentioned were
Tina Turner, who previously sang "
GoldenEye" for the 1995 Bond film
of the same name, and
Tony Christie. The lyrics try to illustrate Bond's psyche in
Casino Royale, described by Cornell as a conflicted and tough spy with more emotional depth, not the "superconfident, seemingly invincible, winking kinda ladies' man superspy" of the previous incarnations. ==Release==