JOHN BARRY PRENDERGAST, SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES

Today, The Grandma is still relaxing at home. She has decided to listen to some music, and she has chosen one of her favourite composers and conductors of film music, John Barry, who died on a day like today in 2011.

John Barry Prendergast (3 November 1933-30 January 2011) was an English composer and conductor of film music.

He composed the scores for eleven of the James Bond films between 1963 and 1987, and also arranged and performed the James Bond Theme to the first film in the series, 1962's Dr. No. He wrote the Grammy- and Academy Award-winning scores to the films Dances with Wolves and Out of Africa, as well as The Scarlet Letter, The Cotton Club, The Tamarind Seed, Mary, Queen of Scots, Game of Death, and the theme for the British television cult series The Persuaders!, in a career spanning over 50 years. In 1999, he was appointed with an OBE for services to music.

Born in York, Barry spent his early years working in cinemas owned by his father. During his national service with the British Army in Cyprus, Barry began performing as a musician after learning to play the trumpet. Upon completing his national service, he formed his own band in 1957, The John Barry Seven.

He later developed an interest in composing and arranging music, making his début for television in 1958. He came to the notice of the makers of the first James Bond film Dr. No, who were dissatisfied with a theme for James Bond given to them by Monty Norman. Noel Rogers the head of music at United Artists approached Barry. This started a successful association between Barry and Bond series that lasted for 25 years.

He received many awards for his work, including five Academy Awards; two for Born Free, and one each for The Lion in Winter for which he also won the first BAFTA Award for Best Film Music, Dances with Wolves and Out of Africa both of which also won him Grammy Awards. He also received ten Golden Globe Award nominations, winning once for Best Original Score for Out of Africa in 1986.

Barry completed his last film score, Enigma, in 2001 and recorded the successful album Eternal Echoes the same year. He then concentrated chiefly on live performances and co-wrote the music to the musical Brighton Rock in 2004 alongside Don Black.

In 2001, Barry became a Fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, and, in 2005, he was made a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Barry was married four times and had four children. He moved to the United States in 1975 and lived there until his death in 2011.

More information: The Guardian

Barry was born John Barry Prendergast, in York, England, and was the son of an English mother and an Irish father. His mother was a classical pianist. His father, John Xavier Jack Prendergast, from Cork, was a projectionist during the silent film era, who later owned a chain of cinemas across northern England. As a result of his father's work, Barry was raised in and around cinemas in northern England, and he later stated that this childhood background influenced his musical tastes and interests.

Barry was educated at St Peter's School, York, and also received composition lessons from Francis Jackson, Organist of York Minster.

Serving in the British Army, Barry spent his national service playing the trumpet, taking a correspondence course with jazz composer Bill Russo. Barry after national service worked as an arranger for the Jack Parnell and Ted Heath's Orchestra, forming his own band in 1957, the John Barry Seven. The John Barry Seven scored hit records on the EMI's Columbia label. These included Hit and Miss, the theme tune he composed for the BBC's Juke Box Jury programme, a cover of the Johnny Smith song Walk Don't Run, and a cover of the theme for the United Artists western The Magnificent Seven.

Barry also composed the music for another Faith film, Never Let Go (1960), orchestrated the score for Mix Me a Person (1962), and composed, arranged and conducted the score for The Amorous Prawn (1962).

In 1962, Barry transferred to Embr Records, where he produced and arranged albums.

These achievements caught the attention of the producers of a new film called Dr. No (1962) who were dissatisfied with a theme for James Bond given to them by Monty Norman. Barry was hired and the result was one of the most famous signature tunes in film history, the James Bond Theme.  When the producers of the Bond series engaged Lionel Bart to score the next James Bond film From Russia with Love (1963), they discovered that Bart could neither read nor write music. Though Bart wrote a title song for the film, the producers remembered Barry's arrangement of the James Bond Theme and his composing and arranging for several films with Adam Faith. Lionel Bart also recommended Barry to producer Stanley Baker for his 1964 film Zulu. That same year Bart and Barry collaborated on the film Man in the Middle; and then, in 1965, Barry worked with director Bryan Forbes in scoring the World War II prison-camp drama King Rat.

This was the turning point for Barry, and he subsequently won five Academy Awards and four Grammy Awards, with scores for, among others, Born Free (1966), The Lion in Winter (1968), Midnight Cowboy (1969) for which he did not receive an on-screen credit, and Somewhere in Time (1980).

Barry died of a heart attack on 30 January 2011 at his Oyster Bay home, aged 77.

A memorial concert took place on 20 June 2011 at the Royal Albert Hall in London where the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Shirley Bassey, Rumer, David Arnold, Wynne Evans and others performed Barry's music. Sir George Martin, Sir Michael Parkinson, Don Black, Timothy Dalton and others also contributed to the celebration of his life and work. The event was sponsored by the Royal College of Music through a grant by the Broccoli Foundation.

More information: The Guardian

Occasionally, you get a nice surprise when someone covers
your song in an extraordinary way.

John Barry