It’s a song that’s the personal property of just one performer.  Or at least, I thought it was. But the cover version of “Goldfinger” by soul queen Shirley Jones — taken from the new Scorsese film, “The Wolf of Wall Street” — has a hip quality all of its own.  The late  John Barry would have approved, I reckon. As one of the YouTube commenters says, how about giving Jones the chance to sing a Bond theme one of these days? I wasn’t aware until recently that Jones has been struggling with cancer.  Just the other day, in fact, she tweeted that she’d finished her last bout of chemo. The Village Voice has more on her treatment, her new look (“I’m not going to do the wig thing”)  and her newly acquired passion for opera. As for Goldfinger, it’s always been my favourite Bond score. I bought an 8-track copy as a Christmas present for my eldest brother when I was about 15 and ended playing it to death.  “Into Miami” tips its hat to Barry’s jazz past and “Oddjob’s Pressing Engagement”  makes scrap metal seem positively cool.

Is “The Wolf” any good? I’m looking forward to seeing it, although I can’t help noticing that cinephile Arun With A View puts it in a special category in his end-of-year awards: Most Bloated Unoriginal Morally Degenerate Movie By Martin Scorsese. I think that counts as a thumbs-down.