Re: Departed During 2022
Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2022 7:55 pm
Monty Norman, composer of iconic James Bond theme, dies at 94
Norman most famously composed the score for “Dr. No,” the 1962 James Bond film starring Sean Connery, which would go on to become the theme for the entire franchise.
https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop ... -rcna37704
Monty Norman, the composer behind the iconic James Bond theme, has died at the age of 94.
A statement posted on his official website said, “It is with sadness we share the news that Monty Norman died on 11th July 2022 after a short illness.”
Norman most famously composed the score for “Dr. No,” the 1962 James Bond film starring Sean Connery. His theme for James Bond, as arranged by fellow Englishman John Barry, would go on to become the theme for the entire franchise.
As Norman said on his site, “We recognized we needed a fresh, contemporary sound for the main theme, and in the up-and-coming young John Barry we found a wonderful arranger, so the whole thing worked very well.”
But controversy erupted decades later when Barry claimed authorship of the theme, resulting in Norman suing the Times of London for libel over a 1997 story (“Theme Tune Wrangle Has 007 Shaken and Stirred”) disputing Norman’s contention that he was the true composer. A jury in London’s High Court ruled in Norman’s favor in 2001, awarding him 30,000 pounds plus court costs. Norman later said he felt vindicated by the decision.
Norman was a former big band singer who turned songwriter in the late 1950s. He enjoyed a West End hit in 1958 with “Irma La Douce,” adapted from an earlier successful French musical. Producer Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli, an investor in Norman’s short-lived 1961 musical “Belle,” called him to accompany the team headed to Jamaica in January 1962 to shoot “Dr. No.”
Norman wrote the songs heard on the “Dr. No” soundtrack, including “Under the Mango Tree,” which Ursula Andress sings as she emerges from the ocean to see Connery for the first time. He also wrote “Kingston Calypso” and “Jump Up” on location. The James Bond Theme would only emerge months later as Norman struggled to write the dramatic score later in London.
As he often later said, he adapted a tune he’d written for an unproduced musical based on V.S. Naipaul’s “A House for Mr. Biswas.” The song “Bad Sign, Good Sign” (which he sang on an album many years later with sitar accompaniment) contained the seeds of the Bond theme.
PP
Norman most famously composed the score for “Dr. No,” the 1962 James Bond film starring Sean Connery, which would go on to become the theme for the entire franchise.
https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop ... -rcna37704
Monty Norman, the composer behind the iconic James Bond theme, has died at the age of 94.
A statement posted on his official website said, “It is with sadness we share the news that Monty Norman died on 11th July 2022 after a short illness.”
Norman most famously composed the score for “Dr. No,” the 1962 James Bond film starring Sean Connery. His theme for James Bond, as arranged by fellow Englishman John Barry, would go on to become the theme for the entire franchise.
As Norman said on his site, “We recognized we needed a fresh, contemporary sound for the main theme, and in the up-and-coming young John Barry we found a wonderful arranger, so the whole thing worked very well.”
But controversy erupted decades later when Barry claimed authorship of the theme, resulting in Norman suing the Times of London for libel over a 1997 story (“Theme Tune Wrangle Has 007 Shaken and Stirred”) disputing Norman’s contention that he was the true composer. A jury in London’s High Court ruled in Norman’s favor in 2001, awarding him 30,000 pounds plus court costs. Norman later said he felt vindicated by the decision.
Norman was a former big band singer who turned songwriter in the late 1950s. He enjoyed a West End hit in 1958 with “Irma La Douce,” adapted from an earlier successful French musical. Producer Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli, an investor in Norman’s short-lived 1961 musical “Belle,” called him to accompany the team headed to Jamaica in January 1962 to shoot “Dr. No.”
Norman wrote the songs heard on the “Dr. No” soundtrack, including “Under the Mango Tree,” which Ursula Andress sings as she emerges from the ocean to see Connery for the first time. He also wrote “Kingston Calypso” and “Jump Up” on location. The James Bond Theme would only emerge months later as Norman struggled to write the dramatic score later in London.
As he often later said, he adapted a tune he’d written for an unproduced musical based on V.S. Naipaul’s “A House for Mr. Biswas.” The song “Bad Sign, Good Sign” (which he sang on an album many years later with sitar accompaniment) contained the seeds of the Bond theme.
PP