happy birthday hal david

[bonkersforburt]

happy birthday to the incomparable hal david

[blueonblue]

Hi "Bonkers"

Very Best Wishes Hal !!!

"Blue"

[gabba]

Happy birthday Hal!!
this is for you..one of the best lyrics you've ever written..and a great music..from the great John Barry..CIAO GABBA

[blueonblue]

gabba,
John Barry has said that this is the song he's most proud of......his
all-time favourite !!!
Beautiful melody, great vocals by Louis Armstrong and superb lyrics
by Hal David !!!

"Blue"

[An Enormous BB Fan]

For those of you who are not familiar with John Barry:

[An Enormous BB Fan]

On the following link, it's written that the song being played in "John Barry's theme for James Bond". Not to take anything away from John Barry, but he did not write the most famous James Bond theme music. It was written by Monty Norman, whoever he is, and it truly is a brilliant movie that evokes the "James Bond" style like no other. But he rarely gets credit for it, not even by this musician.

[steveo_1965]

Hi,
First of all, happy birthday to my fellow ASCAP member Hal David!

Thanks for posting about the great English film composer John Barry...who started out in a beat group(John Barry Seven?) when he was a teen...
Monty Norman was born in 1928, and was a big band singer for such British bands as Cyril Stapleton, etc. and in the 1950's got into writing songs for pictures...
John Barry claims he wrote the "007 theme", and that contractually, the name Monty Norman was used....(some ghost writing by Barry)...anyway, it ended up in court, with Barry VS. Norman...
You can read about it on the Wikipedia Encyclopedia site(Monty Norman)
I'll give you the link....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Norman

Steveo

[An Enormous BB Fan]

Steveo, how fascinating!!! I never knew any of this. All I know is that the sheet music I have of the great James Bond theme has Monty Norman's name as the composer and not John Barry. I knew nothing of this claim of Mr. Barry's until this moment. I can't believe that John Barry would outright LIE about composing that piece. Yet, if Mr. Norman had written a similar piece years earlier, then that leads me to suspect that, indeed, it's Mr. Norman's composition. I happen to have seen Dr. No as a kid and I remember, to this day, how that theme was so fantastic to that movie. I didn't know that John Barry orchestrated it, however. So, perhaps, as the orchestrator, he embellished a bit here and there, and maybe changed the harmonies to a certain degree -- I don't know. So maybe Mr. Barry felt that he actually wrote it. But this is a silly supposition, too, because a musician such as he would certainly know where authorship begins. Richard Carpenter re-did "Close To You" and, of course, never claimed he wrote it. So, basically, I'm really confused about this now. I know nothing about Mr. Norman; but I'll tell you this: I can't imagine Mr. Barry lying about this either. And I would be curious to know if there are other compositions of Mr. Norman's that have such originality? But even this is no barometer as it is possible to compose one great piece and no other.

Any ideas, anyone?

[steveo_1965]

The Monty Norman/John Barry authorship on the 007 Theme will be forever shrouded in mystery I'm afraid...
although as the website says, Norman has won the case twice!

Steveo

[An Enormous BB Fan]

The Monty Norman/John Barry authorship on the 007 Theme will be forever shrouded in mystery I'm afraid...
although as the website says, Norman has won the case twice!

Steveo

But can you believe that John Barry would have flat-out lied about composing the piece?

[steveo_1965]

Enormous,
No, I don't believe John Barry flat out lied...
Norman may have had some little ditty, and Barry took it and made it what it is, and now feels that it basically is his....
(This is a guess)

Steveo

[An Enormous BB Fan]

Enormous,
No, I don't believe John Barry flat out lied...
Norman may have had some little ditty, and Barry took it and made it what it is, and now feels that it basically is his....
(This is a guess)

Steveo

Yes, I think you have it accurately here. This could be the only sane explanation. This kind of thing is repeated so many times over the years when it comes to movie script authorship.

[Daddy Dom]

First, I've always been in the Monty Norman camp.

Second, I think, with the help of you all, I am learning something about myself. This is a need to recognize the player of pivotal parts on famous recordings when the composer has already been paid their due.

And I'm using Hal's Birthday thread to expose it in!

When you next listen to the Bond theme, I ask you all to spare a thought for the man whose fingers are running up and down your spine. The guitarist's name who plays that seminal riff is the fantastically-named Mr. Vic Flick.

Third, as an aside, I must admit to getting a bigger thrill than most when listening to this music, but only when watching Dr. No. This is because my late Father was in the film and left me his working script which I read along with the opening scene ..."Trench, Sylvia Trench .... and your name?"
(cue music)
"Bond... James Bond" ...............

[hereiam]

Oops. I just discovered this thread sidetracking to John Barry.
He could really write some haunting melodies. One of his lesser known
film score which I love is for the 1973 film "Alice's Adventure in Wonderland"

I've put a few songs from this film on Youtube to share:

[grooverider]

What interesting timing! This Saturday I'll be at a karaoke party with a movie music theme and I've chosen two songs to sing, "Where There's A Heartache" from "Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid" and the title theme from "Midnight Cowboy", written by the great John Barry. I am so excited to sing two great melodies written by two living legends.

Thank you for all the info regarding John Barry. He truly is one of the
classic film composers. He writes melodies that are instantly memorable, just like Burt Bacharach.