It is one of the most recognisable, if not THE, most recognisable film themes of all time, and every time I hear it, I get a 1960s visual flashback of the song’s arranger, John Barry. Suave, well dressed and very much living the life. I refer to the classic theme of James Bond films, and  I use the word arranger advisably, because there has been a lot of conjecture and debate about who did what on it, but more of that later.

From early on in my time of writing these blogs, the name of John Barry has popped in many of the stories, be that as a pop star of the late 1950s, or as a producer of fresh teenage pop talent in the very early 1960s, to his time scoring legendary film soundtrack after legendary film soundtrack over many years, and the winning armfuls of awards into the bargain.

As if that wasn’t enough, he was also very much the ‘man about town’ in his pomp and  a bit of a ladies man and dandy socialising frequently with fellow rascals, such as Michael Caine and Terence Stamp.

Michael Caine – ‘John always wore the very latest suits, but never flashy. He was always … cool, I think, is the word for John. He was always cool, always quiet, and very, very sure of himself. I mean, he didn’t need to impress anybody. If you could write like he did, you didn’t need a red suit, you know what I mean?’

He was born John Barry Prendergast in York in November 1933, son of Doris, a classical pianist and dad Jack, who owned cinemas around the north of England. As a child, not surprisingly, John loved the ‘pictures’ and spent many hours watching film after film, once away from his studies at St Peter’s public school in the city.

‘My father had seven or eight cinemas, so I was brought up in the cinema,’ he recalled. ‘I remember my dad carrying me through the foyer of the Rialto in York and pushing the swing doors open at a matinee. I was looking at this big black-and-white mouse on the screen, and he’d taken me to see a Mickey Mouse cartoon. I had no idea that I wanted to be in show business. It was just something that amused me. I’d make notes about things that got to me, that made me laugh or cry, or just something that struck me. But the music, I discovered, was a major factor in that sense. I really started to get interested in it. Like this was something people actually did—for a living, you know.’

He was a keen musician himself, and studied composition with the organist at York Minster,  Francis Jackson. Giving up on the piano around the age of 9, he eventually  picked up a trumpet, and then played in a local jazz line up called ‘The Modernaires’ from 1951, very much keying into the Chet Baker vibe.

His National Service call up however, put an end to the band and John signed up for three years, instead of the usual two, to ensure he got placed in the military bands where he was stationed, in Cyprus and Egypt. He further developed his trumpeting skills alongside that with a correspondence course with jazz arranger Bill Russo.  Once ‘demobbed’ in 1957 then aged 23, Barry worked as an arranger for the big band orchestras of both Jack Parnell and Ted Heath.  He then formed his own line up called ‘The John Barry Seven’ (featuring a couple of his old soldier pals) and signed to EMI,  releasing singles on the Columbia label. One such hit from March 1960, was called ‘Hit and Miss’ which went on to be the TV theme for the well-loved show ‘Jukebox Jury.’

He also worked on the BBC TV programme ‘Drumbeat’, drafting in his pal, the singer Adam Faith, to also appear on the show.  They teamed up further on the feature film ‘Beat Girl’ starring Faith, to which Barry contributed his first film score.

His early work , including arranging hit singles for Faith, like ‘What Do You Want,’ caught the ear of the producers of what was to be the first James Bond film in the series , namely Dr. No in 1962. They already had the theme by Monty Norman, but felt it lacked a certain something, so Barry was brought in to work on it and eventually that classic tune I mentioned in the opening piece was born. Because Monty was already contracted for the job, Barry was paid a one-off fee of £250 for his work on it, but banked on future employment on the Bond films, with Norman legally recognised for the composition of the theme.

Barry’s instincts were to be proved right and he followed up that initial success, when in 1963, he helped another old pal Lionel Bart who had been signed to score the soundtrack for the next Bond film. However, its producers discovered that Bart couldn’t read music,  so Barry got the call to come in and help not only with the title song ‘From Russia with Love’ sung by Matt Monro, but the whole film.

John went on to compose for eleven James Bond films, including ‘Goldfinger’ (with Jimmy Page later of Led Zeppelin of course, as ‘session guitarist’ ) ‘Thunderball’ ‘You Only Live Twice’ ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ ‘Moonraker’ ‘Octopussy’ ‘A View to a Kill’ and ended his time with the franchise with ‘The Living Daylights’ – ‘because’ he said ‘all the good books have been done.’

On Goldfinger he recalled – ‘Shirley belted the hell out of it. (she) was good because she didn’t ask too many questions. She didn’t intellectualise it. I mean, you didn’t want to think about it too much.’

1964 saw him also compose and score for the film ‘Zulu’ which added to the run of hit film scores of classic 1960s films, such as ‘The L Shaped Room’ in 1962 ‘The Ipcress File’ ‘The Knack’ and ‘King Rat’ in 1965, ‘Born Free’ in 1966, ‘The Lion on Winter’ in 1968, and ‘Midnight Cowboy’ in 1969.

Of ‘Midnight Cowboy’ he said – ‘That movie is still shown at the cinema school at UCLA as the epitome of how songs should be used in the movies. We only bought in a couple of songs, ‘Everybody’s Talkin’, sung by Harry Nilsson, and a John Lennon song, and for the rest we got young songwriters to score the scenes with songs. The songs work because they were written for the movie.’

Among my favourite TV themes of his, are ‘The Human Jungle’ starring Herbert Lom from 1963  and ‘The Persuaders’ from 1971 which starred Tony Curtis and Roger Moore. The song became a hit single around Europe and its B side ‘The Girl With The Sun in her Hair’ also became very well known, as the music on the  adverts for Sunsilk Shampoo! He and long-time collaborator, lyricist Don Black, also had a hit on stage in the West End with ‘Billy’ in 1974.

Other notable film work from the pen of the great man, include both ‘Walkabout ‘ and  ‘Mary Queen of Scots’ in 1971 ‘The Cotton Club’ in 1984, ‘Out of Africa’ in 1985, ‘Dances With Wolves in 1990’ ‘Chaplin’ in 1992 and ‘Peggy Sue Got Married’ 1996. In total, he won five Oscars and four Grammy’s.

John Barry was married four times, including in 1965 to the actress Jane Birkin, and he had four children. He was made an OBE in 1999 and in 2001, the University of York conferred on him, an honorary degree. In 2002 he was named an Honorary Freeman of the City of York and he received a BAFTA fellowship award in 2005.

He had moved permanently to the US from 1975 and settled on Oyster Bay, Long Island where he died of a heart attack in 2011, aged 77.

Composer David Arnold  – ‘Meeting him was like touching the hem of God’s frock. Today, everyone is saying the same thing: he was the governor and it’s a sad and profound loss.’

Producer Mark Ronson – ‘Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, View To A Kill … & Midnight Cowboy, Out of Africa, You Only Live Twice etc … every time John Barry sat down to write a score, he wrote a modern standard.’

And this is the man himself – ‘Whether it’s a Bond movie, or an Out of Africa or Dances with Wolves, or a comedy like The Knack, I think if I like it, if it really makes me laugh or makes me cry, if I do that, I think that the audience is going to go for it, too. And I’ve worked on some movies where I’ve not been able to do that. And I’ll just say to the director, ‘You know what? I’m really not right for this.’ And I’ve never once been wrong. I’ve never turned down a movie and then it’s come out and been a huge success.

Now, I’m pleased about that.’

 

The Mumper of SE5

 

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