Monty Norman

Some Lesser Known Facts About Monty Norman

• Monty Norman was a British film composer and singer who was known for composing the James Bond Theme for the movie Dr No (1962), the first movie of the James Bond series. He died on 11 July 2022 due to illness.

• Monty’s parents were Jewish. His father along with Monty’s grandmother went to England from Latvia when he was a kid.

• Monty was young when World War II happened, due to which he had to leave London. He came back to London in the 1940s and joined RAF to provide national service.

• He was six years old when his mother bought him his first guitar whose cost had dropped from £17 (Rs. 1352) to £15 (Rs. 1193). In an interview, he said that he never threw his first guitar. He further said,
  

  I’ve still got that guitar – a 1930s Gibson. I never use it, but I keep it as a talisman. My mother and father never understood the profession I went on to choose but, bless ’em, they were wonderful and just let me get on with it.”

  

• In an interview, he said that when he had to leave London because of the second world war, he started gaining interest in music because the children of the landlady would play popular songs in their house.

• Later, he took guitar lessons from the popular guitarist Bert Weedon.

• Before starting to sing professionally, Monty used to do radio broadcasts. In the 1950s, he accompanied big celebrities including Cyril Stapleton, Stanley Black, Ted Heath, and Nat Temple. He also performed with comedian Benny Hill.

  

• In the mid-1950s, he decided to write songs. He wrote his first song titled ‘False Hearted Lover’ which gained a lot of fame. In an interview, he talked about the change and said,
  

  I had started to write songs and when one of them, False Hearted Lover, became reasonably successful I decided I would like to continue in that direction. My parents had misgivings but I was certain that was what I wanted to do.”

  

• Later, he shifted from writing to composing songs. He composed songs for famous artists like Cliff Richard, Tommy Steele, Count Basie, and Bob Hope. He composed music for stage shows including Make Me an Offer, Expresso Bongo, Songbook and Poppy.

  

• In an interview, he said that in 1962 he was performing on stage, producer Albert Cubby Broccoli was present in the show, and he liked his performance so much that he offered him to compose a theme for Dr No, a James Bond film starring Sean Connery. Monty further said that he was about to reject the offer because he was busy with other works, but Broccoli and his partner Harry Saltzman offered Monty a trip to Jamaica with his wife at the expense of the producers. In an interview, Monty talked about this and said,
  

  Well, that was the clincher for me! I thought, even if Dr No turns out to be a stinker at least we’d have sun, sea and sand to show for it!”

  

• In another interview, Monty said that the James bond theme was a recreation of the musical theme Monty had made for the novel ‘A House for Mr Biswas.’ On his official website, Monty talked about the success of the theme and said,
  

  We recognized we needed a fresh, contemporary sound for the main theme, and in the up-and-coming young John Barry we found a wonderful arranger, so the whole thing worked very well.”

  

• He provided music for various movies including The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll (1960), The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961), Call Me Bwana (1963), and the TV miniseries Dickens of London (1976).

  

• On 11 July 2022, Monty died due to illness. His official website expressed grief on his death and wrote,
  

  It is with sadness we share the news that Monty Norman died on 11th July 2022 after a short illness.”

• He followed Judaism and worshipped at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, London.

• He was often spotted drinking alcohol on various occasions.