Monty Norman

Monty Norman (born April 4, 1928 in London ) is a singer , lyricist and composer of musicals and film scores . He became internationally known for the composition of the title Bad Sign, Good Sign , which John Barry rearranged as an instrumental title for the James Bond film music from James Bond chases Dr. No was. The James Bond theme became the acoustic trademark of this film series.

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Norman was born in the East End of London to Jewish parents. Norman's father was an immigrant from Latvia . He was evacuated from London during World War II and later served as a youth helper in the National Service of the Royal Air Force , where he took an interest in singing.

At the beginning of the 1950s and 1960s, Norman was a singer in the big bands of Cyril Stapleton, Stanley Black and Ted Heath and performed alongside well-known actors such as Benny Hill , Harry Secombe , Peter Sellers , Spike Milligan , Harry Worth and Tommy Cooper , Jimmy James, Tony Hancock , Jimmy Edwards and Max Miller , also in various variety shows. One of his songs, False Hearted Lover , even achieved international fame.

In the late 1950s, Norman shifted more and more to composing. He also created songs for the artists Cliff Richard , Tommy Steele , Count Basie and Bob Hope , as well as texts for theater productions, such as for the musical Make Me An Offer (the English version of the musical " Irma La Douce ") or Expresso Bongo (the later referred to as the first rock 'n' roll musical) and later also for films, which also included the science fiction classic “ The Day the Earth Caught Fire , 1961 ), the horror film "Beat 12 in London" ( The Two Faces of Doctor Jeckyll , 1960) and the comedy film "Bob on Safari" ( Call Me Bwana , 1963) with Bob Hope.

The best-known single title by Monty Norman is likely to be the "James Bond theme" from the first film in the series. There have already been two trials of authorship in which Norman was granted authorship. In the DVD documentation Inside Dr. No , Norman sings the first verses of a song that he had written years earlier for a stage production and that already has echoes of the James Bond theme in various passages (see chapter Completing The Circle).

Since 2004, Norman has been working on an autobiography entitled A Walking Stick Full of Bagels , as well as setting the novel Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis and a new edition of his musical Quick Quick Slow from 1970.

Completing The Circle

In the fall of 2005, Norman released a double CD with his older and newly written songs under the title Completing The Circle . Of particular interest are the five pieces on the second CD, all musically related to Norman's work for Dr. No stand. Norman first published the original version of the James Bond theme here , the song Bad Sign, Good Sign , which, as mentioned above, served him as a template for the famous theme. On the album, the piece sounds like he wrote it for the never realized musical A House For Mr. Biswas . The commercial success of Completing The Circle remained modest, as the producer of the album Gerry Bron announced on request.

Additional information

literature

• Christian Wiedmer: “You know, people tend to forget that.” For Monty Norman's 80th birthday. In: D-007, Issue 9 II. (2008). Pp. 28-31.

Web links

• Monty Norman in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• official homepage

James Bond

• Monty Norman v. The Sunday Times: The "James Bond Theme" Lawsuit (English, detailed description of the trial of Monty Norman against the Sunday Times in 2001)
• John Barry On The Bond Theme. September 9, 2006(English, article on James Bond ).