British composer Monty Norman, who composed the theme song for the James Bond films, died on Monday (7/11) at the age of 94, “after a brief illness,” according to a statement on his official website.
Born Monty Noserovitch on April 4, 1928 in London’s East End, Norman obtained his first guitar, a Gibson, at the age of 16. His early career was as a member of variety show groups. But he soon became a composer of stage musicals such as “Irma La Douce,” which ran for five years in the West End and 18 months on Broadway before becoming a 1963 Billy Wilder film – which used his own songs.
He turned to the cinema just as songs from his plays hit the screens, from the 1959 adaptation of “Expresso Bongo” with rocker Cliff Richards. Shortly thereafter, the horror studio Hammer convinced him to make his own. first soundtrack, for “The Two-Faced Monster” (1960), an update on the story of “The Medium and the Beast” directed by Terence Fisher.
Norman also composed the score for the science fiction “The Day the Earth Burned Down” (1961) before being approached by producer Cubby Broccoli, with whom he had previously worked on the stage, in the musical “Belle”. Investing in film, the producer had just acquired the rights to the film adaptation of Ian Fleming’s books and asked the composer to create the soundtrack for the first release, “007 Against Satanic Dr. No”, from 1962.
The deal was struck when the producers invited Norman and his then wife, actress and singer Diana Coupland, on a paid trip to Jamaica, where the film was shot. “Well that was the deciding factor for me!” Norman said in an article posted on his website. “I thought even if ‘Dr. No’ was a bomb, at least we would have sun, sea and sand to enjoy it!”
Seeing the theme as a side effect of the holidays, the musician based one of his previous compositions, “Bad Sign Good Sign”, from a stage production of “A House for Mr. Biswas”, which never took off. All he did was change the main riff, originally intended for a sitar, to electric guitar chords.
However, Broccoli felt that something was missing to complete the song and invited conductor John Barry to finish the arrangement. The result was used in all 25 James Bond films.
For tampering with the theme, Barry was even considered the actual author of the song, but Norman sued The Sunday Times newspaper, which made this claim in 1997, and won the libel suit.
In addition to the theme, Barry worked on two other tracks for the “007 Against Satanic Dr. No” soundtrack: “Underneath the Mango Tree”, which he taught Sean Connery and Ursula Andress, and an arrangement for “Three Blind Mice “. in the opening scene with the three blind killers.
It is noteworthy that the success of the music of the films “007” did not direct Norman in Hollywood. He created just one more soundtrack, for the comedy “Rififi on Safari”, starring Bob Hope and also produced by Broccoli in 1963.
Costa who was disgusted by the lack of recognition and the economic result of his agreement with Broccoli, and preferred to continue to devote himself to theatrical productions. In the early 1980s, he was nominated for a Tony (Theater Oscar) for his work in the musical “Songbook”, which also won Ivor Novello (the British Tony).
Source: Terra
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