Top Ten British Soundtrack Composers
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- Music Department
- Composer
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Johnny Harris was born in Edinburgh, Scotland 1932 (of Welsh parentage) and is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music in London. He originally played trumpet with English big bands in the 50's and started freelance writing and arranging in the early 60's before he was hired by Tony Hatch for Pye Records in 1965. He became well known for his wild style of conducting which was inspired by touring with Tom Jones and he went on to win Eurovision 1969 with Lulu and 'Boom Bang-a-Bang'. Director Richard C. Sarafian had heard his 1969 space-age easy listening hit single 'Footprints On The Moon' and offered him his first British film score for the psycho-thriller 'Fragment Of Fear' because he liked 'the spiky sounds' that Johnny created on the 45. Johnny would score a number of cult British films with mates like Sarafian and Richard Harris before he left for the US in 1972 to work with Paul Anka. He continued his film/tv work in America on such legendary shows like Wonder Woman, Buck Rogers In The 25th Century and award winning specials with Lynda Carter who remained his greatest supporter in the US. Johnny died on March 20th, 2020 peacefully in his sleep.- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
John Barry was born in York, England in 1933, and was the youngest of three children. His father, Jack, owned several local cinemas and by the age of fourteen, Barry was capable of running the projection box on his own - in particular, The Rialto in York. As he was brought up in a cinematic environment, he soon began to assimilate the music which accompanied the films he saw nightly to a point when, even before he'd left St. Peters school, he had decided to become a film music composer. Helped by lessons provided locally on piano and trumpet, followed by the more exacting theory taught by tutors as diverse as Dr Francis Jackson of York Minster and William Russo, formerly arranger to Stan Kenton and His Orchestra, he soon became equipped to embark upon his chosen career, but had no knowledge of how one actually got a start in the business. A three year sojourn in the army as a bandsman combined with his evening stints with local jazz bands gave him the idea to ease this passage by forming a small band of his own. This was how The John Barry Seven came into existence, and Barry successfully launched them during 1957 via a succession of tours and TV appearances. A recording contract with EMI soon followed, and although initial releases made by them failed to chart, Barry's undoubted talent showed enough promise to influence the studio management at Abbey Road in allowing him to make his debut as an arranger and conductor for other artists on the EMI roster.
A chance meeting with a young singer named Adam Faith, whilst both were appearing on astage show version of the innovative BBC TV programme, Six-Five Special (1957), led Barry to recommend Faith for a later BBC TV series, Drumbeat (1959), which was broadcast in 1959. Faith had made two or three commercially unsuccessful records before singer/songwriter Johnny Worth, also appearing on Drumbeat, offered him a song he'd just finished entitled What Do You Want? With the assistance of the JB7 pianist, Les Reed, Barry contrived an arrangement considered suited to Faith's soft vocal delivery, and within weeks, the record was number one. Barry (and Faith) then went from strength to strength; Faith achieving a swift succession of chart hits, with Barry joining him soon afterwards when the Seven, riding high on the wave of the early sixties instrumental boom, scored with Hit & Miss, Walk Don't Run and Black Stockings.
Faith had long harboured ambitions to act even before his first hit record and was offered a part in the up and coming British movie, Wild for Kicks (1960), at that time. As Barry was by then arranging not only his recordings but also his live Drumbeat material, it came as no surprise when the film company asked him to write the score to accompany Faith's big screen debut. It should be emphasised that the film was hardly a cinematic masterpiece. However, it did give Faith a chance to demonstrate his acting potential, and Barry the chance to show just how quickly he'd mastered the technique of film music writing. Although the film and soundtrack album were both commercial successes, further film score offers failed to flood in. On those that did, such as Never Let Go (1960) and The Amorous Mr. Prawn (1962), Barry proved highly inventive, diverse and adaptable and, as a result, built up a reputation as an emerging talent. It was with this in mind that Noel Rogers, of United Artists Music, approached him in the summer of '62, with a view to involving him in the music for the forthcoming James Bond film, Dr. No (1962).
He was also assisted onto the cinematic ladder as a result of a burgeoning relationship with actor/writer turned director Bryan Forbes, who asked him to write a couple of jazz numbers for use in a club scene in Forbes' then latest film, The L-Shaped Room (1962). From this very modest beginning, the couple went on to collaborate on five subsequent films, including the highly acclaimed Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), King Rat (1965) and The Whisperers (1967). Other highlights from the sixties included five more Bond films, Zulu (1964), Born Free (1966) (a double Oscar), The Lion in Winter (1968) (another Oscar) and Midnight Cowboy (1969).
In the seventies he scored the cult film Walkabout (1971), The Last Valley (1971), Mary, Queen of Scots (1971) (Oscar nomination), wrote the theme for The Persuaders! (1971), a musical version of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland and the hit musical Billy. Then, in 1974, he made the decision to leave his Thameside penthouse apartment for the peace of a remote villa he was having built in Majorca. He had been living there for about a year, during which time he turned down all film scoring opportunities, until he received an invitation to write the score for the American TV movie, Eleanor and Franklin (1976). In order to accomplish the task, he booked into the Beverly Hills Hotel for six weeks in October 1975. However, during this period, he was also offered Robin and Marian (1976) and King Kong (1976), which caused his stay to be extended. He was eventually to live and work in the hotel for almost a year, as more assignments were offered and accepted. His stay on America's West Coast eventually lasted almost five years, during which time he met and married his wife, Laurie, who lived with him at his Beverly Hills residence. They moved to Oyster Bay, New York and have since split their time between there and a house in Cadogan Square, London.
After adopting a seemingly lower profile towards the end of the seventies, largely due to the relatively obscure nature of the commissions he accepted, the eighties saw John Barry re-emerge once more into the cinematic limelight. This was achieved, not only by continuing to experiment and diversify, but also by mixing larger budget commissions of the calibre of Body Heat (1981), Jagged Edge (1985), Out of Africa (1985) (another Oscar) and The Cotton Club (1984) with smaller ones such as the TV movies, Touched by Love (1980) and Svengali (1983). Other successes included: Somewhere in Time (1980), Frances (1982), three more Bond films, and Peggy Sue Got Married (1986).
After serious illness in the late eighties, Barry returned with yet another Oscar success with Dances with Wolves (1990) and was also nominated for Chaplin (1992). Since then he scored the controversial Indecent Proposal (1993), My Life (1993), Deception (1992), Cry, the Beloved Country (1995) and has made compilation albums for Sony (Moviola and Moviola II) and non-soundtrack albums for Decca ('The Beyondness Of Things' & 'Eternal Echoes').
In the late nineties he made a staggeringly successful return to the concert arena, playing to sell-out audiences at the Royal Albert Hall. Since then he has appeared as a guest conductor at a RAH concert celebrating the life and career of Elizabeth Taylor and made brief appearances at a couple of London concerts dedicated to his music. In 2004 he re-united with Don Black to write his fifth stage musical, Brighton Rock, which enjoyed a limited run at The Almeida Theatre in London.
He continued to appear at concerts of his own music, often making brief appearances at the podium. In November 2007, Christine Albanel, the French Minister for Culture, appointed him Commander in the National Order of Arts and Letters. The award was made at the eighth International Festival Music and Cinema, in Auxerre, France, when, in his honour, a concert of his music also took place.
In August 2008 he was working on a new album, provisionally entitled Seasons, which he has described as "a soundtrack of his life." A new biography, "John Barry: The Man with The Midas Touch", by Geoff Leonard, Pete Walker, and Gareth Bramley, was published in November 2008.
He died following a heart-attack on 30th January 2011, at his home in Oyster Bay, New York.- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Born on the 14th March, 1947, Roy Budd the musician was entirely self-taught, and was hailed as a child prodigy. At the age of four he began to play the piano, initially by ear and then by copying various melodies he heard by listening to the radio. By the age of six he had appeared in public at The London Coliseum, at eight he had mastered a Wurlitzer organ and four years later was appearing on television, and before Royalty at The London Palladium. On the latter occasion, he was apparently so nervous that his piano solo was over at least a minute before the accompanying orchestra had finished!
During his teens he developed a taste for jazz and formed The Roy Budd Trio, with bassist Pete Morgan and drummer Chris Karan. On leaving school at the age of sixteen, he embarked on a professional career as a jazz pianist and was so successful he won a UK jazz poll in the category of best pianist for five years running. At the same time he became the resident pianist at the Bull's Head, Barnes, London and met up with songwriter Jack Fishman. Fishman was so impressed with his musical ability that he secured him a three-year recording contract with MCA, and although the company used their option to drop him after only a year, Fishman bet the MD that Budd would become an internationally renowned writer of film music - a bet he was soon to win.
In 1970, Budd duly made his début in the world of film music, but this was achieved in rather unusual circumstances. Hearing that director Ralph Nelson was looking for an English composer for his controversial film, Soldier Blue (1970), he was so keen to get the assignment, he put together a tape consisting of music composed by such greats as Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, Max Steiner, Dimitri Tiomkin and Lalo Schifrin, and sent it off to Nelson, with the claim that it was all his own work! Shrewdly, he didn't pick any of these composer's main themes, in case of arousing the director's suspicion, and, not surprisingly he got the job. Soldier Blue was filmed mainly in Mexico and was based to a large degree on a battle which took place at Sand Creek in 1864, when hundreds of Cheyenne Indians were brutally killed. Ironically, despite being intended as an 'anti-violence' Western, with the action showing the futility and horror of war, the film was heavily criticised for its violence - particularly the gory opening which was exceeded in blood-shed only by the climax. Apart from the main theme, which he based on Buffy Sainte-Marie's hit song of the same title, he composed all the music required for the film, but then encountered his second major difficulty. At the recording sessions, he found himself expected to conduct the 65-piece Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - a far cry from his jazz-club experiences! However, he followed the advice offered by Fishman, which was to never look back to the control room, and his first assignment was successfully completed.
The acclaim with which his score for Soldier Blue was greeted, led to many more opportunities in the genre, and during the following year he was able to score another six films. The first of these - Flight of the Doves (1971) - was, like Soldier Blue, directed by Ralph Nelson, but there was nothing controversial about this sentimental film, in which Ron Moody and Jack Wild were re-united following their huge impact together in Oliver! (1968). Next up for Budd was the score for a film which has since become something of a cult. Written and directed by Mike Hodges, Get Carter (1971) starred Michael Caine, John Osborne and Ian Hendry in a thoroughly violent story of a London based racketeer aiming to avenge his brother's death at the hands of Northern gangsters. Budd's music admirably suited the mood of the film, particularly his main theme, which incorporated the sounds of Caine's train journey to Newcastle. The film's budget reputedly allowed only 450 pounds for the score, but he overcame this restriction by using only three musicians, including Budd himself playing electric piano and harpsichord simultaneously.
Budd's innovative method of using the film's sound effects to complement his music, continued with Zeppelin (1971). Set during the First World War, this story of an attempt by the British to steal the secrets behind the infamous German airship was noted for its special effects. On this occasion, Budd took advantage of the distinctive sound of the Zeppelin's diesel-powered engine to introduce his own stirring main theme. When producer Euan Lloyd signed him to score the Western, Catlow (1971), it proved to be the start of an enduring relationship According to Lloyd, it was the film's director, former actor Sam Wanamaker who wanted Budd for the music, having been very impressed with his work on Soldier Blue. Lloyd was not familiar with his work but was able to find an Elstree cinema that were showing the film, some time after its release, and despite a poor sound system in the cinema, he heard enough to convince him that Wanamaker's judgement was sound. Catlow, the first of six films (Paper Tiger (1975), The Wild Geese (1978), The Sea Wolves (1980), The Final Option (1982) and Wild Geese II (1985) were the others) on which Budd worked with Lloyd, starred Yul Brynner in the title role, Leonard Nimoy as bounty hunter Miller, who is set on hounding Catlow to his death, and Richard Crenna as Ben Cowan - once on the opposite side to Catlow in the American Civil War, but now his friend and partner. An authorised recording of the musical soundtrack, consisting of just seven cues, was released only in Japan, but Budd's main theme was also recorded for Pye Records.
The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins (1971) was produced and directed by comedian Graham Stark. This film apparently had all the right credentials for box-office success, its writers including those with vast previous success on television, together with a cast consisting of the cream of British comedy actors. Despite all this, however, the film didn't exactly set the box-office alight, being more of a series of sketches - not all of them new - than a complete story-line. Just two cuts of Roy Budd's score, which was co-written with Jack Fishman, found their way onto record - 'Envy, Greed An' Gluttony' and 'Lust'. Something to Hide (1972) was written and directed by Alistair Reid based on the original novel by Nicholas Monsarrat, and starred Peter Finch as Harry; a civil servant who kills and buries his wife, then goes slowly to pieces. Budd once again teamed up with Jack Fishman for the music, but his magnificent 'Concerto For Harry' was entirely his own composition and was the saving grace of a rather forgettable film.
Fear Is the Key (1972) was a faithful film version of an Alistair MacLean novel, directed by Michael Tuchner, starring Suzy Kendall, Barry Newman, John Vernon, Ben Kingsley and Ray McAnally. The story-line was about a man who lays an elaborate plot to track down the killers of his wife and children, who die in a plane crash. When recording the score, Budd returned to his jazz roots by engaging the services of players of the calibre of Ronnie Scott, Tubby Hayes and Kenny Baker. In fact, it was Scott, the legendary jazz-club owner, who played solo sax for the lengthy car chase sequence which took place alongside the Mississippi River. According to director Tuchner, this sequence needed to be recorded in a continuous ten minute plus take, whilst hitting split-second action cues so as to blend perfectly with the chase sound effects. Budd and his orchestra achieved this (on "Car Chase") in just two takes!
During the remainder of the seventies, Budd continued to work on films of widely different style and nature, which gave him the opportunity to utilise his considerable gift for diversity. Outstanding amongst these were The Stone Killer (1973), The Destructors (1974) and The Black Windmill (1974) (two more Michael Caine films), Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) and the aforementioned Paper Tiger and The Wild Geese.
Moving on to the eighties, his film work also included the scores for Mama Dracula (1980) and Field of Honor (1986), but he didn't restrict himself to this genre. Returning to his first love, he played regular jazz gigs at 'Duke's Bar' in Marylebone, London; as well as partnering veteran harmonica player Larry Adler. He also arranged for and accompanied such artists as Bob Hope, Tony Bennett, Charles Aznavour and Caterina Valente (who became his first wife) in concerts all around the world. But perhaps his most ambitious project was that completed shortly before his death. His symphonic score for the 1925 silent film classic - The Phantom of the Opera (1925)- written for an eighty-piece orchestra, was recorded and seems likely
Roy Budd died from a brain haemorrhage on the 7th August 1993 at the tragically early age of 46. Fortunately for devotees of film music, during a relatively short career he managed to cram in over fifty films, several of which found their way onto LPs and latterly CDs.- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
Roger Webb was born on 7 April 1934 in Bristol, England, UK. He was a composer and actor, known for Southland Tales (2006), Awake (2007) and Boogie Nights (1997). He was married to Margot Ley. He died on 19 December 2002 in Fulham, London, England, UK.- Music Department
- Composer
- Writer
Although many reference sources inexplicably give Barry Gray's year of birth as 1925, he was in fact born John Livesey Eccles in Blackburn on 18 July 1908. His father John Haworth Eccles was a stationery traveller by profession, but both parents were said to be musically talented, and John Junior went to study at the Royal Manchester College of Music and at Blackburn Cathedral, learning composition from Matyas Seiber. His professional music career began with London publishers B. Feldman & Co. where he arranged scores for variety theatres, and he also worked for Radio Normandy. After war service with the R.A.F. he became a freelance composer and lyricist for radio, records and film music libraries. He joined the Performing Right Society in 1947 under his real name, but later changed it by deed poll to John Livesey Barry Gray. After several years as musical assistant to Eartha Kitt, Hoagy Carmichael and Vera Lynn, in 1956 he began a long and successful association with producers Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, scoring popular marionation series such as Twizzle, Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray and Thunderbirds. He continued to compose independently, sometimes using the pseudonyms John Livesey, Gene Durant or Martin Jerbourg (a character in Bergerac). Barry Gray himself moved to the Channel Islands in 1970, settling in St Peter-in-the-Wood in Guernsey and with a music studio in St Peter Port, and occasionally guesting as pianist at island venues. He died of heart disease at Guernsey's Princess Elizabeth Hospital on 26 April 1984, age 75. His music continues to find favour with film makers, particularly the ever-popular Thunderbirds March which enjoyed a notable revival in the expensive Thunderbirds remake of 2004.- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Ron Goodwin was born on 17th February 1925 in Plymouth. He was the son of a London policeman who was detached to the harbour-town. His mother felt that piano lessons would be a good pastime, so in his fifth year, the little Ron was hoisted onto a piano-stool and his education on this instrument began. Ron himself was at that time not really convinced about that parental ambition.
In 1934 his father's detachment ended and the family moved back to London. Ron went for his elementary education to the Willesden County Grammar school, situated in the North-West of London. In the school an orchestra was set-up and Ron got slowly attracted by music. It fascinated him, that all these young people were playing different instruments but that the result was very harmonious.
When he was 11, he went to his teacher and asked for a place in the orchestra. His teacher replied: "We don't have enough trumpet players. Learn how to play the trumpet and we'll see". That's what they call "Hobson's Choice". And so he learned to play the trumpet. Ready after just a few lessons, Ron joined the school orchestra. He kept continuing with his trumpet lessons because he felt that there was more prosperity in a career as a trumpet player than as a pianist. Moreover he had more fun in playing the trumpet. Nevertheless he also continued his piano lessons. The piano has always been a very useful instrument for him, when writing music. But frankly, he never became a virtuoso pianist. He was a much better trumpet player.
The end of the '30s was the era of swing with the great big bands of Glen Miller, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey and Woody Herman. In 1939, at the age of just 14, he formed his own dance band called "The Woodchoppers". Very soon the orchestra got some engagements here and there. The signature tune for their performances was "At the Woodchoppers Ball", a swinging Woody Herman composition. That explains the name "The Woodchoppers". The band was very soon semi-professional and very regularly entered competitions for dance bands.
After he had studied harmony and counterpoint, he left school in 1942. In deference to his mother's doubts about the security status and prospects of music as a career, he took a job as junior clerk in an insurance office. He held the job for three months. After repeatedly catching him fixing gigs for "The Woodchoppers" over the office 'phone, Ron's boss advised him to forget insurance and take his chances in music. He still thinks that this is the best advice ever given to him.
He started as a copyist for the music publisher Campbell Connelly. There he got the opportunity to work with and learn from Harry G. Stafford. This was an elderly thoroughly experienced arranger, who had arranged the music of Hubert Bath for Hitchcock's first English sound film Blackmail (1929) in 1929. Stafford taught him all the methods for producing arrangements and how to lay out a score. In that period he also studied a private course on how to conduct an orchestra with Siegfried de Chabot, a teacher at the Royal Music College.
After a few months working for Campbell Connelly, he applied for a job as an arranger for Norrie Paramor and Harry Gold. They were joint-proprietors of "The Paramor-Gold Orchestral Services" and they also had a jazz orchestra called "The Pieces of Eight". He was hired, although he thinks that it was not only because of his skills as an arranger. In that jazz orchestra there used to be an excellent trumpet player called Cyril Ellis. He was drafted for the Navy and so Paramor and Gold lacked a musician. Goodwin, being a trumpet player, replaced Cyril in the orchestra and was also the arranger of the "Paramor-Gold Orchestral Services".
As an arranger he was particularly working for a BBC program called "Composers Cavalcade". Every week a different well-known composer of light music, like Albert Ketelby, Noël Coward or Ivor Novello was chosen. Goodwin provided all the arrangements for these weekly broadcasts and he got a lot of experience through it. In the meantime his band, "The Woodchoppers", won several Dance Band competitions and in 1945 came fifth in the All Britain Dance Band Championship.
After the contract with Norrie Paramor ended, he started working for the music-publisher Edward Kassner. Here he arranged the music for various types of orchestras. One day a pub or dance orchestra, the other day for BBC radio orchestras. In the meantime he also did the orchestrations for well-know orchestra leaders like Stanley Black, Ted Heath, Geraldo, Peter Yorke and Ambrose.
In 1949 he started working for Polygon. In those days the record market was dominated by two giants: Decca and EMI. Polygon was the brainchild of Alan Freeman (not to be confused with the D.J. of the same name). He also continued working or the Kassner Music Company as a manager/publisher and he was determined to fulfil his greatest wish - making records. He already had some contacts in Australia who wanted pop records and he decided to have these sung by Petula Clark. Petula was born on 15 November 1932 as Sally Clark. From her seventh year she had been singing regularly and had become a popular child-star through her radio performances during World War II. In 1944, when she was 11, she signed a film contract for the Rank Organisation. Despite her popularity neither Decca nor EMI were willing to give her a contract. Alan Freeman approached Leslie Clark, Petula's father who was also her manager. Leslie Clark took up the opportunity, invested also some money and Polygon was born.
At the end of 1949 the first recording session took place. That day four titles were recorded: "You go to My Head", "Out of a Clear Blue Sky", "Music! Music! Music!" ("Put Another Nickel in...") and "Blossoms on the Bough", featuring Petula Clark and the Stargazers with accompaniment conducted by Ron Goodwin. He was then just 24 years old. The 2 records were released in Australia and became a big success there. In 1950 "Too Young" was recorded, a cover version of Nat King Cole's USA no. 1 hit, sung by the then completely unknown singer/pianist, Jimmy Young, with accompaniment conducted by Ron Goodwin. The record became a big hit and gave a huge impulse to the careers of both Jimmy Young and Ron Goodwin. After that, Ron also recorded his first two instrumental records.
Polygon was not able to handle the enormous success of Jimmy Young and by the end of 1952 he moved to Decca. Ron Goodwin already had his contract with Parlophone, but on the Decca label he conducted fifteen Jimmy Young records. Ron Goodwin was still very young and the producer Dickie Rowe called him Ronnie Goodwin on the first of those Decca records. It did not go so well with Polygon after that. The company was not able to make up for the loss of Jimmy Young. Petula proved to be their only continuing asset and in 1955 Polygon was amalgamated with (Pye) Nixa.
In the slipstream of the success of "Too Young" Ron Goodwin was from then on an established name in the British musical world, performing under the name: "Ron Goodwin and his Orchestra" or depending on the mood of the person in charge of the marketing: "Ron Goodwin and his Concert Orchestra". The orchestra he formed consisted at first of 36 persons but later it grew to 42. All of them were session musicians personally selected by him. These musicians worked for him only during the record sessions. A day later they could be working for, for instance, Mantovani or Geraldo. Indeed, the Mantovani orchestra was also comprised entirely of session musicians.
In 1951 Ron Goodwin met George Martin, who was at that time a young assistant recording manager at Parlophone. George offered him a contract of backings for 12 vocal singles and 6 singles with his own orchestra every year. His first instrumental record on Parlophone was released in 1953. In that same year he recorded his version of Charles Chaplin's "Limelight" and reached third place in the English hit parade with it.
In the following years he made numerous records with his orchestra and did the vocal backings of, amongst others: Eamonn Andrews, Joan Baxter, Christine Campbell, Petula Clark, Jim Dale, Bruce Forsyth, Nadia Gray, The Headliners, Edmund Hockridge, Dick James, Cynthia Lanagan, Zack Laurence, Lorne Lesley, Larry Marschall, Glen Mason, Spike Milligan, Morecambe & Wise, Parlophone Pops Orchestra, Rostal & Schaefer, Edna Savage, Peter Sellers, Joan Small, Ian Wallace, Alma Warren and Jimmy Young.
Nowadays, many of those names are not familiar any more to us, but in those days you could find them regularly in the hit parades. Jim Dale started as a rock-singer, but became later a comedian and a member of the cast of the "Carry on..." films. Dick James started his own publishing company and became later the publisher of all the Beatles hits. And Edmund Hockridge? He still has his own fan club.
In 1954 Ron Goodwin recorded his first album in his own right: "Film Favourites". After that followed many more LPs, also 2 oriental: "Music for an Arabian Night" and "Holiday in Beirut". Long before he recorded "Sergeant Pepper ....." with The Beatles, George Martin was the producer of many concept-albums. A perfect example is the Goodwin album "Out of this World". On this LP the galaxy is traversed in an orchestral way (without the use of synthesisers!). Released in 1958, a few months after the first satellite "Sputnik" was put into orbit. Photos of launched rockets were not available yet, so the rocket on the front cover is a drawn one.
In 1958 the skiffle-rhythm was a rage and Goodwin wrote "Skiffling Strings". The song entered the hit parade and the American label "Capitol" was interested to release it in the USA. But the Americans were wondering what "Skiffling" really meant. In America the skiffle-rage was completely unknown. So, the song was re-titled "Swingin' Sweethearts". Ron Goodwin and George Martin went to the States to promote the single in several television-broadcasts. Within 14 days the song entered the American hit parades and was later followed by "Lingering Lovers". Quite a number of his albums were released after that in the USA. In that year he received the Ivor Novello Award" for "Lingering Lovers" as the year's best English song.
Peter Sellers was already a well-known actor in Britain, especially because of his performances in the BBC broadcasting series "The Goon Show". In 1958, 1959 and 1960 he recorded three LPs. These albums are still considered as the standard for British comedy. The production of those albums was again in the hands of George Martin. Ron Goodwin did all the conducting of the accompanying music. The third album in the series was called: "Peter and Sophia". In 1960, Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren had just finished the shooting of the film The Millionairess (1960). In this film Sellers played an Indian doctor, who was waylaid by an enamoured Sophia Loren. The co-operation of both led to this album, on which they both did the song "Goodness Gracious Me!". The song became a massive hit and remained in the top 5 for weeks. For the recording of the album Sophia Loren was flown to London with her husband Carlo Ponti, where he met Ron Goodwin. In 1965 they renewed their acquaintance when Carlo Ponti produced the film Operation Crossbow (1965) and Ron Goodwin wrote the music.
Back in 1955, Ron Goodwin was involved for the first time in composing film music. Malcolm Arnold (of "Bridge on the River Kwai" fame) had written the score for the film The Night My Number Came Up (1955). The producer wanted several sequences with dance music in night club style. Arnold refused to write this music and so Ron Goodwin was asked to write these sequences. In the following years he wrote the music for several documentaries. 1956: "The Corrington Achievement" and in 1957 "Atlantic Line". They appear to be the exercises for the larger jobs.
In 1958 he met Lawrence P. Bachmann, at that time manager for Columbia Pictures in London. Bachmann had written a book and this was going to be filmed with the title Whirlpool (1959). He commissioned Ron Goodwin to write the music for this film. That was Goodwin's first contact with a feature film. A year later Bachmann became head of production of MGM-Europe. He liked the music Goodwin wrote for his film "Whirlpool" very much and he asked him to write the music for 4 or 5 films every year. The first of those was Village of the Damned (1960), still one of the best British science fiction films. This was followed by the very successful Miss Marple film-series featuring Margaret Rutherford.
Because he was so busy writing film music, there was no more time left for vocal backings and his contract as musical-director for Parlophone was not prolonged. For the time being, the last album he recorded was "Serenade", which contained his well-known version of "Elizabethan Serenade".
Films he scored in the early sixties included: Invasion Quartet (1961), Postman's Knock (1962) (with a hilarious vocal from Spike Milligan), The Day of the Triffids (1963), Kill or Cure (1962), Follow the Boys (1963) (featuring Connie Francis) and Sword of Lancelot (1963). These were followed in 1964 by the United Artists/Mirisch Corporation film 633 Squadron (1964). This score established Ron Goodwin on the international stage as a composer of film music. The main theme became one of his most well-known and for the past several years has been used as a sort of signature tune at the start of the Rotterdam Marathon to accompany and encourage the athletes. After that film there followed even more film scores of which the most well-known are: Of Human Bondage (1964), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes (1965), Operation Crossbow (1965), The Trap (1966) (the theme from which was adopted by the BBC for their coverage of The London Marathon), Where Eagles Dare (1968), Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies (1969), Battle of Britain (1969), Frenzy (1972) - when he replaced a score by Henry Mancini - and Force 10 from Navarone (1978).
In 1969, a very awkward situation existed with Battle of Britain (1969). Originally Sir William Walton wrote the music for this film. The producers were not really satisfied with the music and they gave the assignment to Goodwin. Sir William Walton is a kind of an institution and there was a lot of commotion about it. But Ron Goodwin was not to blame that he was signed to do the score. That Goodwin's score was apparently better, is simply proved by the fact that it was accepted by the producers. Apart, that is, from the fact that they liked Walton's "Battle in the Air" sequence more than Goodwin's and this is used in the film. These things can happen if one can choose. And so, nobody was happy with the situation, not Walton and not Goodwin.
In "Battle of Britain" it was very important that the audience could constantly identify the combatants. Ron Goodwin therefore wrote a march for the German Luftwaffe which he called, yes indeed, "Luftwaffe March". A few years later, one of the Bands of the Royal Airforce was going to record an album with marches, including "Luftwaffe March". A march with that name, recorded by an RAF Band already existed, therefore the march was re-titled "Aces High". The first editions of the soundtrack album mention the title "Luftwaffe march". On the later re-issues the new title "Aces High" was used.
In 1966 he resumed recording again for EMI, of both his own compositions and those of others. Now in the famous "Studio 2" stereo series, first came "Adventure", followed by "Gypsy Fire", "Christmas Wonderland", "Legend of the Glass Mountain", "Excitement", "Spellbound" and many others. By 1975, over a million of these albums with "Ron Goodwin and his (Concert) orchestra" had been sold and he received a gold record from EMI.
In 1979 Goodwin recorded "The Beatles Concerto". For collectors of Beatles and related records this is a very interesting LP. It was not the umpteenth album with a medley of tunes by Lennon-McCartney-Harrison, but contains a number of Beatle songs, arranged in a classical form and performed by England's most talented concert-pianists: Peter Rostal and Paul Schaefer. These were accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The record was produced by Beatles producer George Martin. Anyone who loves the great piano concertos of Rachmaninov or Tchaikovsky will be impressed by "The Beatles Concerto". The sleeve with a fantastic full-colour inner sleeve with photos of the recording sessions is a gem. There were over 100,000 copies of the album sold. And still is there a demand for it.
The last film he scored, was the Danish animated feature Valhalla (1986). The soundtrack album was only released in Scandinavia and that is really a pity. The released soundtracks of Goodwin's animation-scores were more or less fairytale records for children: narration with background music and songs. But that is not the case with "Valhalla". This is a fantastic symphonic score, without the many songs which seems to be obligatory in all animation films. This music would perfectly fit a live-motion film, it is full of fresh and new elements. Maybe this is also a result of synergy, because he wrote this score in collaboration with the Dane, Bent Hesselmann.
In 1979 the City Fathers of his native town Plymouth invited him to compose a Suite for the commemoration of the 400th Anniversary of Sir Francis Drake's circumnavigation of the Globe. The vicinity of the Atlantic and the atmosphere of a harbour-town in his childhood years, probably had their influence on this Suite.
The influence of his lengthy stay in hit parade environments and his accompaniments of various pop artistes are audible in several scores. For instance That Riviera Touch (1966) and Kill or Cure (1962) are really swinging numbers. A problem for Goodwin was that his best scores were made in a period when film producers were not particularly interested in releasing a soundtrack, so many of them failed to get a release.
In 1970 Ron Goodwin was invited by the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to conduct a programme of his film music. To ease the tension between items, he improvised and told the audience some remarks and anecdotes about the performed pieces. They started to laugh. It turned out to be the turning point in his career. The idea was born to bring in concert a mixture of film and light music and the items melt together with a touch of humour. Within a few months a tour was organized and he toured constantly with different well-known Symphony orchestras all over the world, always playing to a full house. The orchestras he toured with included: The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, The Odense Symphony Orchestra, The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, The Denver Symphony Orchestra and The Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
Ron Goodwin has scored approximately 70 films, there are between 70 and 80 albums released of his music and he recorded and accompanied on 250-350 singles. Films of the type like "Where Eagles Dare", "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines" and "Monte Carlo or Bust", to which the music of Ron Goodwin makes a great contribution, are not being made anymore. And that is unfortunate in two ways: firstly, because we will not see those kind of films anymore and secondly, because we will not hear that kind of music anymore!- Actor
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- Music Department
Dudley Moore, the gifted comedian who had at least three distinct career phases that brought him great acclaim and success, actually started out as a musical prodigy as a child. Moore -- born in Dagenham, Essex, England to working class parents in 1935 -- won a music scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford, to study the organ. At university, he also studied composition and became a classically trained pianist, though his forte on the piano for public performance was jazz. After graduating from Magdalen College in 1958, Moore was offered a position as organist at King's College, Cambridge, but turned it down in order to go to London and pursue a music and acting career. Fellow Oxonian Alan Bennett (Exter Colelge, B.A., Medieval History, 1957) had already recommended him to John Bassett, who was putting together a satirical comedy revue called "Beyond the Fringe". "Beyond the Fringe" was to be Moore's first brush with fame, along with co-stars Bennett, future theatrical director Jonathan Miller (now Sir Jonathan, who studied Medicine at Cambridge and was a physician), and Peter Cook, who was destined to become Moore's comic partner during the 1960s and '70s.
It was Miller who had recommended Cook for "Beyond the Fringe", in much the same way that Bennett had bird-dogged Moore. Cook, who had studied modern languages at Cambridge, had been part of the famous Cambridge theatrical, the Footlights revue in 1959, had subsequently gone to London to star in a West End revue for Kenneth Williams, "Pieces of Eight". This old-fashioned review was such a success there was a sequel, "One Over the Eight". He was advised by his agent not to star in the Fringe with the three others as he was a professional, whereas they were amateurs. Ironically, the great success of "Beyond the Fringe", which was a new kind of satirical comedy, would doom the very old-fashioned reviews that Cook had just tasted success in. "Beyond the Fringe" not only won great acclaim in the UK, but it was a hit in the U.S.. The four won a special Tony Award in 1963 for their Broadway production of "Beyond the Fringe" and there was a television program made of the revue in 1964.
Moore and Cook were offered the TV show Not Only... But Also (1965) by the BBC in 1965. Peter Cook was on as a guest. Their pairing was so successful, it enjoyed a second season in 1966 and a third in 1970. They were particularly funny as the working-class characters "Pete" and "Dud". The duo then broke into the movies, including The Wrong Box (1966) and Bedazzled (1967). In 1974, the duo won their second Tony Award for their show "Good Night", which was the stage version of their TV series "Not Only... But Also".
In the mid- to late 1970s, they issued three comic albums in the guise of the characters "Derek" and "Clive" (Moore and Cook, respectively), two lavatory attendants that many viewed as reincarnations of their earlier TV characters "Pete" and "Dud". The albums, ad-libbed in a recording studio while the two drank vast quantities of alcohol, were noted at the time for their obscenity. Their typical routine was a stream-of-consciousness fugue by Cook, interspersed with interjections by Moore. With their obscenity-laden, free-formed riffs, Derke and Clive presaged the more free-wheeling shock comedy of the 1980s and '90s.
They subsequently split up as Moore could no longer tolerate Cook's alcoholism. Under the influence, Cook would become abusive towards Moore, whose acting career was undergoing a renaissance in the late '70s while his career has stalled. Ironically, it was playing an alcoholic that brought Moore to the summit of his success as an actor.
After marrying American actress Tuesday Weld in 1975, Moore moved to the U.S. and began a second career as a solo screen comedian, stealing the show from Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn as the horny conductor in the movie comedy, Foul Play (1978). When George Segal dropped out of the movie 10 (1979), director Blake Edwards cast Moore in the lead role as the composer undergoing a mid-life crisis. It was a huge hit, but was surpassed by his Oscar-nominated turn as the dipsomaniac billionaire in Arthur (1981). In the early 1980s, Moore was a top box office attraction. In 1983, the National Alliance of Theater Owners named him the Top Box Office Star-Male of the Year.
His career began petering out after he turned down the lead in Splash (1983), a role that helped establish Tom Hanks as a top movie comedian and position him for his transition into movie drama and super-stardom. As Hanks star waxed, Moore's star waned, and by 1985 he was reduced to playing an elf in Santa Claus (1985), one of the all time turkeys. Even a second turn as "Arthur" in Arthur 2: On the Rocks (1988) couldn't revive his box office, the dependent clause of the title all too well describing his career. His TV series Dudley (1993) was a bust, and the 1990s proved a wasteland for the once-honored and prosperous comedian.
Moore was deeply affected by the January 1995 death of Peter Cook by a gastrointestinal hemorrhage at the age of 57. Moore organized a two-day memorial to Cook in Los Angeles that was held in November 1995. Less than four years later, in September 1999, Moore announced that he was afflicted with progressive supra-nuclear palsy, a disease for which there is no treatment.
Dudley Moore was invested as a Commander of the Order of The British Empire (one step below knighthood) in June 2001. Moore personally attended the ceremony at Buckingham Palace to accept his CBE from Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales (later King Charles III), despite being unable to speak and being wheelchair-bound. He died in Watchung, New Jersey on March 27, 2002, a month shy of his 67th birthday, from the pneumonia related to progressive supra-nuclear palsy.
Dudley Moore was married four times, to actresses Suzy Kendall, Tuesday Weld, Brogan Lane and Nicole Rothschild, and had two sons, one with Tuesday Weld and one with Nicole Rothschild.- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Stanley Myers was born on 6 October 1930 in Birmingham, England, UK. He was a composer, known for The Witches (1990), The Deer Hunter (1978) and Prick Up Your Ears (1987). He was married to Brigitta Stroeh and Eleanor Fazan. He died on 9 November 1993 in London, England, UK.- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Johnny Pearson was born on 18 June 1925 in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England, UK. He was a composer, known for All Creatures Great and Small (1978), Children of Men (2006) and Nightcrawler (2014). He was married to Alex Thorpe. He died on 20 March 2011 in the UK.- Music Department
- Composer
- Sound Department
Delia Derbyshire was born on 5 May 1937 in Coventry, West Midlands, England, UK. She was a composer, known for The Legend of Hell House (1973), The Sweeney (1975) and Doctor Who (2005). She died on 3 July 2001 in Northampton, Northamptonshire, England, UK.