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John Barry (composer)

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File:JohnBarry1.jpg
John Barry.

John Barry, OBE (born John Barry Prendergast on November 3, 1933 in York, England) is a renowned British film composer.

His family was in the cinema business, but it was during his National Service that he began performing as a musician. After taking a correspondence course (with jazz composer Bill Russo) and arranging for some of the bands of the day, he formed the 'John Barry Seven'. Barry then met Adam Faith, and composed songs and film scores on the singer's behalf.

It was this notoriety that caught the attention of the producers of a new movie called Dr. No who were dissatisfied with the score given to them by Monty Norman. Barry and the JB7 were hired and the result would arguably be the most famous signature tune in film history, the 'James Bond Theme'. (Credit goes to Monty Norman, see below.)

This would be the turning point for Barry, as he would go on to become one of the most celebrated film composers of modern times, winning five Academy Awards and four Grammys, with such memorable scores as The Lion in Winter, Midnight Cowboy, Out of Africa, and Dances with Wolves.

Barry is often cited as having a distinct style which concentrates on lush strings and extensive use of brass. However he is 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. (Note that while The Graduate came a few years before, those songs had all been previously released.)

Living in his native England until the mid 70s, Barry spent some time in Spain (for tax reasons) but has since spent his life in the United States, mainly in Oyster Bay outside of New York.

Film scores

James Bond series

File:007FRWLsoundtrack.jpg
From Russia with Love was Barry's first James Bond original score

After his success with Dr. No, Barry would go on to score 11 of the next 14 Bond films, starting with his first as lead composer, From Russia with Love in 1963.

During his tenure with the 007 series, Barry's sound, variously brassy and moody, clicked both with fans of the films and their soundtrack albums. For Russia, he created an alternate Bond signature theme, the punchy "007," which figured in several later Bond films and the opening themes of various US news programs in the 1960s and 70s. Barry's track for the pre-credit sequence of Russia, "Stalking," is one of the most suspenseful in the James Bond series and was replicated by colleague Marvin Hamlisch for the 1977 Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. (The lyrics for Russia's title song were written by Lionel Bart, who went on to write Oliver!) To this day, both the Russia film and its soundtrack are considered among the best of the 007 series.

In Goldfinger he would perfect the "Bond sound", a heady mixture of brass, jazz and sensuous melodies. There's 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. However Barry showed a strong return to form in his final (so far) 007 film, 1987's The Living Daylights, which many aficionados cite as his best 007 score since 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Interestingly, the only Bond score ever to elicit the attention of the Academy Awards was Marvin Hamlisch's The Spy Who Loved Me, (1977) which was nominated for Best Original Score, but did not win.

David Arnold, a young 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. Almost all of the tracks were John Barry compositions and the revision of his work obviously met with his approval - he contacted Barbara Broccoli, producer of the upcoming Tomorrow Never Dies, to recommend Arnold as the film's composer. Arnold also went on to score the subsequent Bond films; The World Is Not Enough, Die Another Day and has been confirmed as the composer for Casino Royale. It has been suggested that Barry is no longer associated with the Bond films due to salary disputes with MGM, although it is equally possible that he would rather concentrate on new projects.

Authorship of the "James Bond Theme."

Credit for this is given solely to composer Monty Norman (who had been contracted to compose the score for Dr. No). However Barry, while not publicly denying this, has at times implied otherwise. Matters came to a head over 30 years after the original composition, when Monty Norman sued The Sunday Times for a 1997 article which named Barry as the true author. For this lawsuit, Barry himself attended in 2001 and testified for the defence. See: [1].

Barry told the court he had been given a music manuscript of a work by Norman (intended to become the theme) and that Barry was to make a musical arrangement. Barry told the court he composed additional material, and arranged the theme. The court was also told that Norman received sole credit due to his prior contractual agreement with the film producers. Monty Norman won the suit and was awarded damages.

Other major film scores

Television themes

Other works

  • The Americans
  • The Beyondness of Things
  • Eternal Echoes

John Barry was inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame in 1998.

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