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Obituaries
John Barry dies
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 31 January 2011
Composer John Barry, best known for his work on the James Bond soundtracks, has died aged 77.
Brought up in Yorkshire, Barry was originally a classical pianist but early on developed an interest in composing and arranging his own music, too. He began performing live whilst doing national service, and subsequently formed his own John Barry Seven outfit, which came to public attention via the BBC TV series ‘Drumbeat’, where Barry’s own band performed, while he also composed and arranged songs for other musical guests. Most notable among those guests was Adam Faith, who Barry forged a long term professional relationship with, and as Faith moved into movies so did Barry, his first soundtrack being Faith’s first movie ‘Beat Girl’ in 1960.
His reputation as a composer and arranger was already gaining momentum by the late 1950s, resulting in a three year stint as an in-house arranger for EMI from 1959, and then a joint role as arranger and producer for Ember Records from 1962. It was around this time he came to the attention of the producers of the first Bond movie ‘Dr No’, who asked Barry to re-arrange a score already written by Monty Norman. Out of that came the iconic ‘James Bond Theme’. Norman has always been the sole composer credited for that piece of music, though Barry later said his re-arrangement was sufficient for him to claim some ownership of the track. Said allegations were the subject of two legal disputes.
Either way, Barry impressed the Bond producers and, even though musical composer Lionel Hart had composed a theme song for ‘Dr No’ sequel ‘From Russia With Love’, Barry was asked to arrange the film’s score. He subsequently became the Bond franchise’s go to guy for compositions, working on eleven of the 007 movies in total. This led to a wide ranging career in TV, movie and stage show composition, among his most famous works being the theme tune to seventies TV show ‘The Persuaders!’, the stage show ‘Billy’, and the soundtrack to the 1966 film ‘Born Free’, the latter two both projects with his frequent collaborator, lyricist Don Black, who won the BMI Icon Award last year.
Over his long career Barry won no less than five Oscars, and in 2005 he was given a BAFTA fellowship. His last film score was for 2001’s ‘Enigma’, while his last musical collaboration with Black was the stage show ‘Brighton Rock’ which opened in 2004.
