"He’s never satisfied with what he does. Every day he wakes up and believes that into his mind and soul is going to come some magical arrangement of notes that he’s going to ultimately either entrance you with in a concert hall or cinema. It’s because he thinks there’s still a peak to climb that he’s a great film composer." Sir Richard Attenborough eloquently explains what so many other directors feel about working with John Barry. Their success together in 1992 with Chaplin is a superb example of what his music does for a motion picture. Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of the comic legend is given a tragic soul by the score; an element “Dickie” never dreamt of. The result (nominated for an Oscar) is but one of Barry’s magical arrangement of notes.

The two had worked together at the very start of Barry’s career in film during the mid-Sixties on The L-Shaped Room. This was a decade that saw his star rise and rise, progressing from his hit band The John Barry Seven to chart success with Adam Faith (e.g. What Do You Want?) to arranging the James Bond theme for Dr. No. He’d aspired to working in film from as early as when his father’s cinema business had dazzled him as a boy – his musical interests encouraging a growing fascination with regular appearances of names such as Max Steiner, Franz Waxman, Bernard Herrmann, and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The journey to joining their ranks became assured with the likes of that first Bond picture, of course.

Then in a blur of seemingly no time at all he chalked up a CV containing some of the most memorable themes of their or any other day: Zulu, The Ipcress File, The Knack... and How to Get It, Born Free (becoming the first Brit to win an Academy Award for both Song & Score), Deadfall, The Lion in Winter (Oscar number 3), and the Grammy winning Midnight Cowboy. As if that doesn’t make him sound busy enough, there were also the best of the series that any conversation about Barry inevitably returns to.

From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, and On Her Majesty's Secret Service represent James Bond at his most sexily successful. Each title conjures a montage of daredevil stunts, gadgets, scantily clad women, and of course that theme. It’s with the Bond pictures that one of the composer’s genuine gifts shines brightest - his song writing ability. With lyrics from Don Black, Leslie Bricusse, Lionel Bart, Anthony Newley, and Hal David those songs are classics through and through. Perhaps the most successful and enduringly memorable - Goldfinger - actually knocked the Beatles' A Hard Day's Night off the album chart top spot and went on to win Barry a gold disc.

Thunderball cemented a friendship and working relationship with Don Black, and with the enormous success of Born Free that carried their collaborations into the Seventies for Diamonds Are Forever. Its saucy lyrics raised eyebrows, but nonetheless earned itself an Ivor Novello Award, a place in director Steven Spielberg’s heart, and remains part of Shirley Bassey's stage act. Then came: The Public Eye, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Dove, and naturally another Bond - The Man with the Golden Gun. Barry also worked for the small screen on many TV movies during the decade, and with Black even got a vocal track out of Sir Laurence Olivier for Love Among the Ruins. There were advertisement campaigns aplenty too. 'The Girl With The Sun In Her Hair' is a lastingly popular tune which Black’s lyrics added to enormously.

In 1974 they took their collective talents to the stage with the hit show 'Billy' (an adaptation of the Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall novel Billy Liar). Lasting 2 & ½ years at London’s Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, reviews were uniformly glowing – particularly towards Michael Crawford’s central performance, which was effectively the turning point in his career. The cast album then won a silver disc.

Barry continued to dazzle the decade with his other cinema scores: The Last Valley, Monte Walsh, Mary, Queen of Scots, They Might Be Giants, Robin and Marian, King Kong, The Deep, Hanover Street, The Black Hole, and reuniting with Bassey for Bond in Moonraker.

At the start of the Eighties, he composed the score he’s received more mail about than any other. Somewhere in Time starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour had only moderate success in cinemas, but when subsequently shown on cable television in America there was a huge demand for the reissue of a soundtrack album that then won a platinum disc. Jane Seymour (a film music fan) says that Barry’s music always makes her cry, and this piece particularly. Barry has speculated the theme’s emotional power might have had something to do with being first piece he wrote after his parents’ death. Whatever the reason, it is as if with this halfway stage of his 40-year movie career that his distinctive style truly takes over.

Becoming synonymously recognised and admired for having bottomless depths’ worth of sensuous melody, the adjective 'Barryesque' applies itself delightfully throughout the decade: Raise the Titanic, Frances, High Road to China, The Cotton Club (Grammy Award For Best Jazz Instrumental Performance), Jagged Edge, and Peggy Sue Got Married.

In 1985, his most critically acclaimed score demonstrates his melodic atmospheres better than almost any other. Despite there being only some 35 minutes of music through the 2 & ½ hours of Out of Africa, it won Barry his fourth Oscar, a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition, a Golden Globe, and a platinum disc in record sales. Director Sydney Pollack put his film together intending to let the music tell much of the story, but hadn’t imagined so subtly synchronous a result. “You can’t listen to his music without seeing movies in your head,” says Pollack. That pays Barry a compliment toward his standalone records but also to just how cinematically defined his style is.

Another remarkable example is his sultry jazz score for Lawrence Kasdan’s Body Heat. One scene in particular is textbook stuff, with William Hurt smashing his way into Kathleen Turner’s home for the two to succumb to their animalistic passion. Barry’s music carries the scene entirely, with the unforgettable saxophone theme blowing the only cool air within the whole movie. The movie made the careers of its stars, and Turner gratefully acknowledges that the music enhanced her character immeasurably.

The decade then saw Barry’s involvement with Bond come to an end. After Octopussy and A View to a Kill, The Living Daylights (featuring an on-screen cameo) was to be his 12th and last in the series, although thematically and in spirit his style has been kept very much alive by David Arnold in his scores for Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, and in his solo album of Bond song covers 'Shaken and Stirred'.

A life-threatening illness necessitated a two-year sabbatical for Barry during the late Eighties. But happily returning in 1990 to prove you can indeed live twice to score Dances with Wolves he earned himself a whole new generation of fans, his fifth Oscar, a Grammy for Best Instrumental, and yet another platinum disc for album sales. What a comeback! The same year he received the BMI's Richard Kirk Award for career achievement and BASCA's Jimmy Kennedy Award for lifetime achievement. Always quick to quip that such things seem handed out early, the decade went on to prove him correct with memorable scores for: the aforementioned Chaplin, Indecent Proposal, My Life, The Specialist, The Scarlet Letter, Cry, the Beloved Country, Mercury Rising, and Swept from the Sea.

The last of those began an ongoing series of albums from the Decca label as a result of a contract signed in 1997. Intended to give the composer the opportunity of developing a variety of projects, it did so immediately with the release of 'The Beyondness Of Things'. Barry describes the album as "personal thoughts put into a dramatic context." While each piece stems from that description, such as 'The Day The Earth Fell Silent' being a response to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the album can’t help but conjure cinematic images in the mind – just as Sydney Pollack promises it will.

Then came Playing by Heart, a tribute to many of the composer’s jazz idols from the fifties such as Stan Kenton, Gerry Mulligan, Bud Shank and Chet Baker. Both these Decca releases were given virtuoso performances by Barry and the English Chamber Orchestra to sell-out audiences at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 1998 and 1999.

The decade kept the awards and honours rolling in with a lifetime achievement award at the Gstaad International Music & Film Festival in 1996, then being inducted into the National Academy of Popular Music Songwriter's Hall Of Fame in 1998. And then in 1999 he received the Frederick Loewe Award at The Palm Springs International Film Festival, a Music Industry Trust Award, and an O.B.E. from Her Majesty The Queen for services to music. There were also two biographies published detailing his career – 'A Sixties Theme' by Eddi Fiegel, and the sumptuously put together "John Barry - A Life in Music" by Geoff Leonard, Pete Walker, and Gareth Bramley.

Even if the likes of Fatboy Slim, Jennifer Lopez and Robbie Williams need to sample his earlier works to progress their own careers, it's unfortunate that as of 2006 Barry appears to have retired from the business. His last film score was for Enigma and although his stage musical, "Brighton Rock", had a short run in London in 2004, he shows no sign of re-emerging into the world of film music.


Has scored 11 of the James Bond films and his influence was very much heard in the first, Dr. No (1962), via his work on The James Bond Theme. On Friday June 28, 2002, at The James Bond Celebrity Golf Classic and Gala Dinner, held at the prestigious Stoke Poges, Stoke Park Club, Barry received the prestigious GoldenEye award, for his contribution to the music of James Bond. The award was courtesy of The Ian Fleming Foundation. Children: Susan (with Barbara Pickard), Sian (with Ulla), Kate Barry (with Jane Birkin) and JonPatrick (with Laurie Barry). His "We Have All the Time in the World," sung by Louis Armstrong, from the soundtrack of the Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) -- in which 007 weds -- was found in 2005 to be the third most popular choice for UK just-married couples' first dance (after Bryan Adams and The Carpenters). Japanese film and television composer Shirô Sagisu has acknowledged Barry's work as an influence; in fact, one of Shirô's compositions for "Shin seiki evangerion" (1995) is a blatant homage to a theme called "007" which appears in almost every James Bond film scored by Barry. Counts Goldfinger (1964) as his personal favorite of all his 007 scores. When Barry won Oscars for "Best Music, Original Music Score" and "Best Music, Original Song" from Born Free (1966), not only was it his first Oscar victory, it was also the first time an Englishman had won both those particular categories. Barry first heard of his wins from friend (and future "Phantom of the Opera" star) Michael Crawford who'd seen the ceremonies on TV in New York and called him in the UK with the news. The BBC frequently uses his film themes and cues during documentaries or factual programmes such as Top Gear, Countryfile etc. Early in his career the composer owned an E-Type Jaguar car. Met his fourth wife Laurie through 007 producer Barbara Broccoli.