We Have All the Time in the World

Barry chose the jazz trumpeter and vocalist Louis Armstrong, then aged 68 and in poor health, to perform the song because he felt he could "deliver the title line with irony".^[3]

The recording took place in October 1969. Armstrong had not recorded since July 1968.^[4] He is rumoured to have recorded his vocal in a single take.^[5] There are rumours that Armstrong was too ill to play trumpet,^[6] but later that day he played a trumpet solo on Pretty Little Missy.^[7] At least one photo taken at the time of the session remains.^[8]

Armstrong photographer Jack Bradley^[9] later wrote "After over a year's lay-off, Louis made his first professional engagement on October 23. The occasion was a record date to do the theme song of a new James Bond movie. Accompanying Louis was a large string section including five basses (among them Milt Hinton, Jack Lesberg and Ron Carter). Derek Smith was on piano and John Barry was the arranger and musical director. The title tune was All The Time In The World, a love ballad which will appear on the movie soundtrack. Pops also made a second side, a slow version of his and Billy Kyle's Pretty Little Missy (arranged by Torrie Zito) on which he not only sang but blew his horn gloriously! It was thrilling to see his chops in such great shape. These two titles will be issued on an United States single."^[10]

Armstrong died of a heart attack less than 2 years later. This was reputed to have been his last studio recording.^[11]

In On Her Majesty's Secret Service the song is used during the Bond–Tracy courtship montage, bridging Draco's birthday party in Portugal and Bond's burglary of the Gebrüder Gumbold law office in Bern, Switzerland, and at the end of the film. For the title sequence at the start of the film, an instrumental composition is used.^[12]

The song was reused in the 2021 Bond film No Time to Die for the closing credits.^[13]

"We Have All the Time in the World" was released as a single in the US and the UK (under the title "All the Time in the World" in the UK^[14]) to coincide with the release of On Her Majesty's Secret Service in December 1969, but did not chart in either market.

In 1994, "We Have All the Time in the World" was rereleased in the UK after it was used in a Guinness commercial (Chain), after My Bloody Valentine covered it for charity for the 1993 compilation Peace Together. Armstrong's version was released on vinyl and CD and reached No. 3 on the UK singles chart and No. 4 on the Irish Singles Chart.^[15] In 2005, a BBC survey found it to be the third most popular love song played at weddings.^[16]

• Outline of James Bond