John Barry Prendergast,
OBE was an
English film score composer died he was , 77. He was best known for composing 11
James Bond soundtracks and was hugely influential on the musical style of the 007 series, along with the general feeling of the films.
In a career spanning almost 50 years, Barry received numerous awards for his work, including five
Academy Awards; two for
Born Free, and one each for
The Lion in Winter (for which he also won a
BAFTA Award),
Out of Africa and
Dances with Wolves (for which he also won a
Grammy Award) and the theme of
Somewhere in Time (1980) (Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Original Score - Motion Picture).[1]
(3 November 1933 – 30 January 2011) |
Career
Barry was born John Barry Prendergast, in
York,
England and was the son of a musically talented mother and a charismatic Irish father.
[2][3] He was raised in and around cinemas in
Northern England.
[4]
His father, Jack Xavier Prendergast, from
Cork, was a
projectionist during the
silent movie era who ended up owning a chain of
movie theaters across
northern England.
[4] Often, while watching a film, Barry would note with pen and paper, what worked or what did not.
[3]
His childhood background in
movies influenced Barry's music interests.
[2]
Although originally a classical pianist, Barry also learned the trumpet and grew interested in composing and arranging music. During his
National Service in
Cyprus, he began performing as a musician. After taking a correspondence course (with
jazz composer
Bill Russo) and working as an
arranger for the
Jack Parnell and
Ted Heath’s Orchestra[5] he formed his own band in 1957,
The John Barry Seven,
[6] with whom he had some hit records, including "Hit and Miss", the theme tune he composed for the BBC's
Juke Box Jury programme, a cover of the
Ventures' "
Walk Don't Run", and a cover of the theme for the United Artists Western
The Magnificent Seven. The career breakthrough for Barry was the BBC television series
Drumbeat, when he appeared with The John Barry Seven and arranged for many of the singers, including
Adam Faith; he also composed songs (along with
Les Vandyke) and scores for films in which Faith was featured. When Faith made his first film,
Beat Girl, in 1960, Barry composed, arranged and conducted the score, his first. His music was later released as the first
soundtrack album on
LP in the UK.
[7] Barry also composed the music for another Faith film,
Never Let Go, orchestrated the score for
Mix Me a Person, and composed, arranged and conducted the score for
The Amorous Prawn.
Barry was employed by the
EMI record company from 1959 until 1962 arranging orchestral accompaniment for the company's recording artists. From 1962, Barry transferred to Ember Records where he produced albums as well as arranging them.
[8]
These achievements caught the attention of the
producers of a new film called
Dr. No who were dissatisfied with a theme for
James Bond given to them by
Monty Norman. Barry was hired and the result was one of the most famous signature tunes in film history, the "
James Bond Theme". (Credit goes to Monty Norman,
see below.) When the producers of the Bond series engaged
Lionel Bart to score the next James Bond film
From Russia with Love, they discovered that Bart could neither read nor write music. Though Bart wrote a title song for the film, the producers remembered Barry's arrangement of the James Bond Theme and his composing and arranging for several films with Adam Faith. Lionel Bart also recommended Barry to producer
Stanley Baker for his film
Zulu.
[9] Bart and Barry worked together in the film
Man in the Middle.
This was the turning point for Barry, and he went on to become one of the most celebrated film composers, winning five
Academy Awards and four
Grammy Awards, with scores for, among others,
The Lion in Winter,
Midnight Cowboy,
Born Free, and
Somewhere in Time.[1]
Barry was often cited as having had a distinct style which concentrated on lush strings and extensive use of brass. However he was also an innovator, being one of the first to employ
synthesizers in a film score (
On Her Majesty's Secret Service), and to make wide use of pop artists and songs in
Midnight Cowboy. Because Barry provided not just the main title theme but the complete
soundtrack score, his music often enhanced the critical reception of a film, notably in
Midnight Cowboy,
King Kong,
Out of Africa, and
Dances with Wolves.
One of Barry's best known compositions is the theme for the 1971 TV series
The Persuaders!, also known as "The Unlucky Heroes", in which
Tony Curtis and
Roger Moore were paired as rich playboys solving crimes. The score for the series was composed by
Ken Thorne. The theme went on to be a hit single in some European countries and has been re-released on collections of 1970s
disco hits. The instrumental recording features
Moog synthesizers. Barry also wrote the scores to a number of
musicals, including
Passion Flower Hotel (lyrics by
Trevor Peacock), the successful
West End show
Billy (lyrics by
Don Black) and two major
Broadway flops,
The Little Prince and the Aviator and
Lolita, My Love, the latter with
Alan Jay Lerner as lyricist.
Barry's work began to be sampled in the 1990s by artists such as
Dr. Dre and
Wu-Tang Clan, with his "
James Bond Theme" being sampled by performers as diverse as
Bonobo,
Gang Starr and
Junior Reid.
Fatboy Slim used the opening guitars from "Beat Girl (Main Title)" for "
Rockafeller Skank" from his 1998 album,
You've Come A Long Way, Baby.
The Sneaker Pimps also sampled "Golden Girl" on their 1996 single "
6 Underground". Additionally, "You Only Live Twice" was heavily sampled on "
Millennium" from
Robbie Williams' second album,
I've Been Expecting You.
[10]
In 2002, Barry was named an Honorary
Freeman of the City of York.
[11]
During 2006, Barry was the executive producer on an album entitled
Here's to the Heroes by the Australian ensemble
The Ten Tenors. The album features a number of songs Barry wrote in collaboration with his lyricist friend, Don Black. Barry and Black also composed one of the songs on
Shirley Bassey's 2009 album,
The Performance. The song entitled, "Our Time is Now", is the first written by the duo for Bassey since "
Diamonds Are Forever".
[12]
James Bond series
After the success of
Dr. No, Barry scored eleven of the next 14 James Bond films (but with
Monty Norman continually credited as the composer of the "
James Bond Theme").
[13]
In his tenure with the film series, Barry's music, variously brassy and moody, appealed to film aficionados. For
From Russia With Love he composed "007", an alternative James Bond signature theme, which is featured in four other Bond films (
Thunderball,
You Only Live Twice,
Diamonds Are Forever,
Moonraker). The theme "Stalking", for the teaser sequence of
From Russia With Love, was covered by colleague
Marvin Hamlisch for
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). (The music and lyrics for
From Russia With Love's title song were written by
Lionel Bart, whose musical theatre credits included
Oliver!). Barry also (indirectly) contributed to the soundtrack of the 1967 spoof version of
Casino Royale: his
Born Free theme appears briefly in the opening sequence.
In
Goldfinger, he perfected the "Bond sound", a heady mixture of brass, jazz and sensuous melodies. There is even an element of Barry's jazz roots in the big-band track "Into Miami", which follows the title credits and accompanies the film's iconic image of the camera lens zooming toward the Fontainebleau Hotel in
Miami Beach.
As Barry matured, the Bond scores concentrated more on lush melodies, as in
Moonraker and
Octopussy. Barry's score for
A View to a Kill was traditional, but his collaboration with
Duran Duran for the
title song was contemporary and one of the most successful Bond themes to date, reaching number one in the United States and number two in the
UK Singles Chart. Both
A View to a Kill and the
Living Daylights theme by
a-ha blended the pop music style of the artists with Barry's orchestration. In 2006, a-ha's
Pal Waaktaar complimented Barry's contributions "I loved the stuff he added to the track, I mean it gave it this really cool string arrangement. That's when for me it started to sound like a Bond thing".
[14]
Barry's last score for the Bond series was 1987's
The Living Daylights, Dalton's first film in the series with Barry making a cameo appearance as a composer in the film. Barry was intended to score
Licence to Kill but was recovering from throat surgery at the time and it was considered unsafe to fly him to London to complete the score. The score was completed by
Michael Kamen.
[15]
David Arnold, a British composer, saw the result of two years' work in 1997 with the release of
Shaken and Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project, an album of new versions of the themes from various James Bond films. Arnold thanks Barry in the sleeve notes, referring to him as "the Guvnor". Almost all of the tracks were John Barry compositions, and the revision of his work met with his approval – he contacted
Barbara Broccoli, producer of the upcoming
Tomorrow Never Dies, to recommend Arnold as the film's composer.
[16] Arnold also went on to score the subsequent Bond films:
The World Is Not Enough,
Die Another Day,
Casino Royale and
Quantum of Solace.
Sole compositional credit for the "James Bond Theme" is attributed to
Monty Norman, who was contracted as composer for
Dr. No. Some 30 years later, in 2001, the disputed authorship of the theme was examined legally in the High Court in London after Norman sued
The Sunday Times for publishing an article in 1997 in which Barry was named as the true composer; Barry testified for the defense.
[17][18]
In court, Barry declared he had been handed a musical manuscript of a work by Norman (meant to become the theme) and that he was to arrange it musically, and that he composed additional music and arranged the "James Bond Theme". The court was also told that Norman received sole credit because of his prior contract with the producers. Barry said that a deal was struck whereby he would receive a flat fee of £250 and Norman would receive the songwriting credit.
[19] Barry said that he had accepted the deal with United Artists Head of Music Noel Rogers because it would help his career. Despite these claims the jury ruled unanimously in favour of Norman.
[19]
On 7 September 2006, John Barry publicly defended his authorship of the theme on the
Steve Wright show on
BBC Radio 2.
[20]
Personal life
Barry was educated at
St Peter's School, York, and also received composition lessons from
Francis Jackson, Organist of York Minster.
[2]
Barry moved to
California in 1970 as a
tax exile, with a British judge accusing him of emigrating to avoid paying
£134,000 due the
Inland Revenue.
[5] The matter was resolved in the late 1980s and Barry was able to return to the UK.
[5] He subsequently lived for many years in the
United States, mainly in
Oyster Bay,
New York, on
Long Island, from 1980.
[2]
Barry suffered a
rupture of the oesophagus in 1988, following a toxic reaction to a health tonic he had consumed. The incident rendered him unable to work for two years and left him vulnerable to
pneumonia.
[21]
Barry was married four times. His first three marriages, to Barbara Pickard (1959–1963);
Jane Birkin (1965–1968); and Jane Sidey (1969–1971), all ended in divorce.
[5] He was married to Laurie from 1976
[5] until his death. The couple had a son, Jonpatrick. Barry had three daughters from previous liaisons: Susie, Sian and Kate.
[2]
Barry died of a
heart attack on 30 January 2011 at his Oyster Bay home aged 77 years.
[22][23] He is survived by Laurie, his wife of 33 years, and by his four children and five grandchildren. There was a private funeral service, and a memorial service is expected to be held later in 2011 in the
United Kingdom.
[22][24]
Awards and nominations
Five
Academy Awards
Academy Award nominations
Grammy Award
- 1969 Best Instrumental Theme for Midnight Cowboy[26]
- 1985 Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Big Band for The Cotton Club[26]
- 1986 Best Instrumental Composition for Out of Africa[26]
- 1991 Best Instrumental Composition Written For A Motion Picture Or For Television for Dances with Wolves[26]
BAFTA Award
- 1968 Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music for The Lion in Winter[27]
BAFTA Fellowship Award
BAFTA nominations
- 1986 Best Score for Out of Africa[29]
- 1991 Best Original Score for Dances with Wolves[30]
Emmy Award nominations
- 1964 Outstanding Achievement in Composing Original Music for Television for Elizabeth Taylor in London (a 1963 television special)[31]
- 1977 Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition for a Special (Dramatic Underscore) for Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years[31]
Max Steiner Lifetime Achievement Award (presented by the City of Vienna)
Lifetime Achievement Award from World Soundtrack Academy (presented at the Ghent Film Festival)
Barry was inducted into the
Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1998.
[13]
The
American Film Institute ranked Barry's score for
Out of Africa #15 on
their list of the greatest film scores. His scores for the following films were also nominated:
Discography
Film scores
- Beat Girl (1960)
- Never Let Go (1960)
- The Cool Mikado (1962)
- The Amorous Prawn (1962)
- The L-Shaped Room (1962)
- Man in the Middle (1963)
- A Jolly Bad Fellow (1964)
- Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)
- Zulu (1964)
- Boy and Bicycle (1965)
- Mister Moses (1965)
- Four in the Morning (1965)
- The Party's Over (1965)
- The Knack …and How to Get It (1965)
- King Rat (1965)
- The Ipcress File (1965)
- Born Free (1966) (Two Academy Awards - Best Music, Original Song (lyrics by Don Black), Best Music, Original Music Score, Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Original Song in a Motion Picture)
- The Chase (1966)
- The Wrong Box (1966)
- The Quiller Memorandum (1966)
- The Whisperers (1967)
- Dutchman (1967)
- Boom! (1968)
- Petulia (1968)
- Deadfall (1968)
- The Lion in Winter (1968) (Academy Award - Best Music, Original Score for a Motion Picture, BAFTA Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music, Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Original Score)
- The Appointment (1969)
- Midnight Cowboy (1969) (Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition)
- Monte Walsh (1970)
- The Last Valley (1970)
- They Might Be Giants (1971)
- Murphy's War (1971)
- Walkabout (1971)
- Mary, Queen of Scots (1971) (Academy Award nomination for Best Music, Original Dramatic Score, Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Original Score)
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972)
- Follow Me! (1972)
- A Doll's House (1973)
- The Tamarind Seed (1974)
- The Dove (1974) (Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Original Song)
- The Day of the Locust (1975)
- King Kong (1976)
- Robin and Marian (1976)
- The Deep (1977) (Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Original Song (lyrics by Donna Summer) - Motion Picture)
- First Love (1977)
- The White Buffalo (1977)
- Game Of Death (1978)
- The Betsy (1978)
- Starcrash (1978)
- Hanover Street (1979)
- The Black Hole (1979)
- Somewhere in Time (1980) (Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Original Score - Motion Picture)
- Touched by Love (1980)
- Inside Moves (1980)
- Night Games (1980)
- Raise the Titanic (1980)
- The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981) (Razzie Award for Worst Musical Score)
- Body Heat (1981)
- Frances (1982)
- Murder By Phone (1982)
- Hammett (1982)
- The Golden Seal (1983)
- High Road to China (1983)
- The Cotton Club (1984)
- Until September (1984)
- Mike's Murder (1984)
- Jagged Edge (1985)
- Out of Africa (1985) (Academy Award - Best Music, Original Score, BAFTA Award nomination for Best Original Film Score)
- Howard the Duck (1986)
- A Killing Affair (1986)
- Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)
- Hearts of Fire (1987)
- Masquerade (1988)
- Dances with Wolves (1990) (Academy Award - Best Music, Original Score, BAFTA Award nomination for Best Original Film Score, Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Original Score - Motion Picture)
- Chaplin (1992) (Academy Award nomination for Best Music, Original Score, Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Original Score - Motion Picture)
- Ruby Cairo (1993)
- My Life (1993)
- Indecent Proposal (1993)
- The Specialist (1994)
- Cry, The Beloved Country (1995)
- Across The Sea of Time (1995) (3D IMAX movie)
- The Scarlet Letter (1995)
- Swept from the Sea (1997)
- Mercury Rising (1998)
- Playing by Heart (1998)
- Enigma (2001)
Bond films
Barry worked on the soundtracks for the following Bond films:
Musicals
Television themes
Other works
Hit singles
(Excludes co-composed hits, e.g.
Duran Duran's
A View to a Kill)
- "Hit And Miss" as The John Barry Seven plus Four, UK#10 (first charted 1960)
- "Beat For Beatniks" as The John Barry Orchestra, UK#40 (1960)
- "Never Let Go" as The John Barry Orchestra, UK#49 (1960)
- "Blueberry Hill" as The John Barry Orchestra, UK#34 (1960)
- "Walk Don't Run" as The John Barry Seven, UK#11 (1960)
- "Black Stockings" as The John Barry Seven, UK#27 (1960)
- "The Magnificent Seven" as The John Barry Seven, UK#45 (1961)
- "Cutty Sark" as The John Barry Seven, UK#35 (1962)
- "The James Bond Theme" as The John Barry Orchestra, UK#13 (1962)
- "From Russia With Love" as The John Barry Orchestra, UK#39 (1963)
- "Theme From 'The Persuaders'" as John Barry, UK#13 (1971)
The 4 highest-charting hits all spent more than 10 weeks in the UK top 50.
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